U.S. Supreme Court. / Credit: PT Hamilton/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 2, 2025 / 18:16 pm (CNA).

The United States Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments for a lawsuit that will determine whether South Carolina and other states can deny Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood for non-abortive medical services.

All three justices appointed by Democrats appeared to empathize with Planned Parenthood in the case, but the six Republican-appointed justices were more nuanced with their questions for the lawyers representing both parties.

Federal Medicaid funds cannot be used to cover elective abortions, but federal law does not restrict abortion clinics, such as Planned Parenthood facilities, from receiving Medicaid funds for other services they offer.

However, in 2016, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed an executive order to block abortion clinics from receiving Medicaid reimbursements for any services, arguing that tax money should not support institutions that perform abortions. This spurred a lawsuit from Planned Parenthood and a patient named Julie Edwards who was receiving non-abortive services at a Planned Parenthood facility through Medicaid.

The bulk of the legal arguments focus on one line in federal law that regulates the way in which state governments must structure their Medicaid reimbursement policies.

Under the federal law, “any individual eligible for medical assistance … may obtain such assistance from any [doctor or health care provider] qualified to perform the service or services required.”

Interpretation of federal law

John Bursch, a lawyer with Alliance Defending Freedom representing South Carolina, and Nicole Saharsky, a lawyer representing Planned Parenthood, disputed the meaning of the federal law and whether patients can file lawsuits about the matter.

Bursch told the justices that states have the authority to set their own eligibility requirements and argued that the federal law does not establish an absolute “right” to receive services from any medical provider and patients should not be able to seek recourse through the courts. 

“[There’s] a difference between a benefit and a right,” he said and alleged that to assert an absolute right, there would need to be “rights-creating language with … an unmistakable focus on the benefited class.”

Bursch argued that South Carolina has many other alternative health care providers that can provide the services covered by Medicaid and acknowledged that one of the primary reasons the state denied funding to Planned Parenthood was because “they’re the nation’s largest abortion provider.”

Saharsky disputed those claims, arguing that the federal law uses “individual-centric rights-creating language that imposes a mandatory obligation” on South Carolina and all other states.

She said the federal law ensures that a patient “may obtain [these services] from any qualified and willing provider,” which she said prevents health care providers from “being excluded from Medicaid arbitrarily.” She argued that this language has the same effect as it would if Congress had used the word “right” or the language that no person “shall be denied.”

Saharsky referred to South Carolina’s rules as imposing a “magic word test” by asserting that there is no established “right” based on the word choice used. 

Justices weigh the arguments

Justices appointed by Democrats landed heavily on the side of Planned Parenthood during the oral arguments.

“What this language does is the same as the rights language does,” Justice Elena Kagan said. 

While questioning Bursch, Kagan asserted: “It’s impossible to even say the thing without using the word ‘right,’” adding: “The right is the right to choose your doctor.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Congress was motivated to pass the law because “states were limiting the choices people had.” She added: “It seems hard to understand that states didn’t understand that they had to give individuals the right to choose a provider.”

“You’re not quite calling it a ‘magic word,’ but you’re coming pretty close,” she added.

Alternatively, Republican-appointed justices assumed a more nuanced approach when addressing the lawyers. 

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, for example, said he’s “not opposed to magic words” if it could provide clarity on “the words that are rights-creating.”

“One of my goals coming out of this will be to provide that clarity,” Kavanaugh said.

Polonia Castellanos, founder of the Spanish Association of Christian Lawyers. / Credit: Women World Platform, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Puebla, Mexico, Apr 2, 2025 / 17:46 pm (CNA).

Attacks against Christians, especially Catholics, are on the rise in both Europe and Latin America, according to various reports from specialized organizations.

Vice President JD Vance speaks at a film-screening event April 1, 2025, at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Erin Granzow/Courtesy of the Heritage Foundation

National Catholic Register, Apr 2, 2025 / 17:03 pm (CNA).

Vice President JD Vance hailed the accomplishments of the Trump administration in ushering in a return to democratic and faith-based values Tuesday evening at the screening of a documentary film series that warns a regime of “soft totalitarianism” threatens the United States and the West.

In his remarks, Vance returned to the theme he raised in his February speech at the Munich Security Conference in which he criticized European Union leaders for undermining free speech and democracy.

“The ruling elite of the societies have become actively hostile to some of the very ideas that those countries were founded on in the first place,” Vance said before an audience of about 100 people at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. In addition to Vance’s speech, the by-invitation-only event featured a screening and discussion of the first episode of the film series “Live Not by Lies” released April 1 by Angel Studios.

The vice president praised the 2020 book the film is based upon, “Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents,” written by Rod Dreher, who he said is a “dear friend.”

The book’s title comes from a 1974 essay Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote in which he urged his countrymen to stand up for truth and resist the communist regime’s pervasive ideology. It features the accounts of survivors of Soviet persecution and argues that life in the West today is a sort of “soft totalitarianism” that bears a resemblance to life behind the Iron Curtain.

Vance called the work the author’s “most prophetic” book, pointing to its diagnosis that the problem afflicting the West is a spiritual one, created by the abandonment of the West’s Christian heritage. Dreher is the author of the bestselling 2017 book “The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation.”

“It’s the most prophetic about where Western civilization has gone; and, in particular, some of the very founding ideas of the West, the Christian faith on which all Western nations were in some important respect really based on in their original charter,” Vance said.

“Those very ideas have not just fallen out of favor, and they’re not just less popular than they were 200 years ago or 300 years ago; of course, in the case of our friends in Europe, a thousand years ago. What we’ve seen is that those ideas have become disfavored,” Vance said.

“You see, in Europe, people arrested for praying, and you have the police asking them, ‘Well, what are you praying about?’ — as if it was any of the police’s business. Yes, you see people who are thrown in prison or have their jobs destroyed because they don’t believe the right things or they don’t say the right things, according to the liberal intelligentsia that rules some of these societies,” Vance said.

The vice president credited President Donald Trump for “making progress” toward a return to these faith-based values, as evidenced by the administration’s protection of free speech.

“I think if you just look in the past two months in this administration, we’ve gone from a country where we would harass and threaten and investigate and even arrest pro-life protesters to one where we’re encouraging pro-life activists to do what they can to persuade their fellow Americans,” he said.

“A couple of months ago, we had social-media censorship run amok. We were threatening people’s right of free expression for not saying the things that Silicon Valley technology companies told them to say. Now, I believe that we have more free speech on the internet today than we’ve probably had in 10 or 15 years. So we’re making progress,” Vance continued.  

Following the vice president’s remarks, Dreher concurred with Vance’s assessment of the Trump administration’s efforts to reverse the trends he documented in his book but warned against complacency.

“We are living in a time of hope,” he said. “But we can’t lose our vigilance because the conditions that allow for totalitarianism to rise are still with us.”

“These evil lies do not conquer our institutions overnight, and they won’t be gotten rid of overnight,” he said.

Dreher referred to the work of philosopher Hannah Arendt whose 1951 work “The Origins of Totalitarianism” pointed to certain conditions that made Germans and Russians incapable of resisting the state’s “lies,” even to the point of turning against their fellow citizens and reporting their transgressions to authorities.  

Arendt, he said, saw that “mass atomization and loneliness, a complete lack of confidence in institutions, a desire for transgression for the sake of transgression” paved the way for totalitarianism then, adding that those conditions remain with us today.

“I’m very grateful that we have a president and a vice president who are pushing back hard against this stuff,” he said.

He said he hopes the book and the film “Live Not by Lies” are shared with young people, many of whom know little about the consequences of communism and even profess themselves enamored of it.

“Let’s remember that if we forget the past, we are condemned to repeat it. This film and the book, they’re acts of memory. And do not forget what you see here. And be sure to tell, especially young people, that it’s important to know what communism was,” he said, noting that there are dozens of films on Nazism on Netflix but little focus on communism from the streaming service.

Dreher emphasized: “This is why I believe we have a whole generation, a post-Cold War generation, of young people who are all into socialism and communism. That’s all on us. We can now turn it around. But you’ve got to share these stories with young people and let them know what happened and why it matters to them.”

Watch

“Live Not by Lies” is produced and distributed by Angel Studios, which previously produced the popular series “The Chosen” about the life of Jesus as well as the film “Sound of Freedom.” The first episode of the four-part documentary film is now available to stream on the Angel Studios app for members of the Angel Guild, a paid subscription service that allows the studio’s faith-based content to be crowdfunded. To join the Angel Guild, visit Angel Studios’ website. Subsequent episodes will be available to watch each week. Watch the trailer here.

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

Asylum seekers wait for their CBP One appointments with U.S. authorities before crossing through El Chaparral port in Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico, on Jan. 20, 2025. / Credit: GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 2, 2025 / 16:31 pm (CNA).

Catholic and evangelical leaders are urging Christians to consider the “sobering” effects of mass deportation efforts by the government, arguing that ongoing aggressive immigration enforcement will be felt beyond those who are being deported. 

Church leaders with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals, World Relief, and the Center for the Study of Global Christianity in their report “One Part of the Body” highlight the potential impacts of mass deportations on Christian families in the U.S.

“In the United States,” the leaders write in the report, “immigrants from various countries form integral parts of the body of Christ. Most, of course, are lawfully present, whether as naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, resettled refugees, or others with permanent legal status.”

“But,” the report argues, “a significant share of the immigrants who are a part of our body are vulnerable to deportation, whether because they have no legal status or their legal protections could be withdrawn.”

“That has long been true, but it is of increased urgency given President Trump’s repeated pledge to carry out ‘the largest deportation in U.S. history,’” they write.

The report includes what the leaders call “sobering” statistics that reveal how broadly this situation may affect Christians. 

Currently, 80% of all individuals at risk of deportation are Christians, according to the report. The majority of this group is Catholic at 61%, greatly surpassing the 13% of evangelicals and 7% of other Christian denominations.

About 1 in 12 Christians are vulnerable to deportation or live with someone who is, specifically immigrants in the U.S. who entered “unlawfully” or “on a temporary nonimmigrant visa,” the report says. 

The report specifies that of these Christians, 1 in 5 are Catholic.

The leaders state that people in the U.S. who have been granted temporary protected status could have their status “withdrawn by the executive branch, without the need for congressional approval.” More than half of those individuals are Catholics.

Those who hold temporary status “are physically present in the U.S. as of a particular date when the conditions in their country of origin make it unsafe for them to return for reasons such as war, conflict, a natural disaster, or a public health epidemic,” according to the report.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients are also primarily Catholic, making up 73% of the group. The DACA program was originally created to allow deferred deportation for young adults who were brought to the U.S. as children, but the report argues that this program is at risk along with its Christian recipients.

Individuals who have been granted DACA status will be at risk “if the Trump administration (or any subsequent presidential administration) would follow the appropriate processes to terminate DACA or if the U.S. Supreme Court would agree with the lower courts that the program was created illegally and, as a result, invalidate the policy.”

Lastly, the statistics reveal that 58% of immigrants who came to the U.S. as asylum seekers are Catholic. These individuals “could be at risk of deportation after the final disposition of their immigration court proceedings, if they are not granted asylum or other relief by an immigration judge.”

The report states that “nearly 7 million Christians who are U.S. citizens live in households with someone at risk of deportation,” arguing that this issue does not affect only immigrants but also their families and other Christians.

“Our prayer is that the president and his administration as well as the Congress will take these stark realities into consideration as they pursue immigration policies,” the religious leaders say.

“Just as importantly,” they continue, “we pray that the whole of the American church, including the 11 out of 12 Christian households not at risk of losing a family member to deportation, will recognize that this suffering that is likely to affect many parts of the body of Christ actually impacts them as well.”

Cardinal Vincent Nichols of the Archdiocese of Westminster. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 2, 2025 / 14:02 pm (CNA).

Cardinal Vincent Nichols appealed in an April 1 pastoral letter to U.K. Catholics to contact their representatives and express their opposition to an assisted suicide bill.

Reconstruction of the face of St. Teresa of Ávila as she would have appeared at approximately age 50. / Credit: Courtesy of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, Iberian Province

Madrid, Spain, Apr 2, 2025 / 12:23 pm (CNA).

A scientific reconstruction of what would have been the face of St. Teresa of Avila at age 50 was presented in the town in Spain where the Carmelite nun died and is buried. 

The Basilica of the Holy Trinity at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fátima in Portugal. / Credit: Vitor Oliveira from Torres Vedras, PORTUGAL, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Rome Newsroom, Apr 2, 2025 / 10:52 am (CNA).

The Fátima shrine in Portugal will not be taking down its Rupnik mosaic installation but has stopped using the image in any distributed materials.

The documentation of Mary’s case was submitted to the Solanus Casey Center. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Diocese of Lansing

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 2, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Many Catholics credit prayers of intercession to Blessed Solanus Casey for curing and helping people who suffer from illnesses. Mary Bartold of DeWitt, Michigan, is now among the many who do so after her two tumors vanished with no medical intervention but after continuous prayers to Casey, whose ministry was built upon healing and compassion.

Mary’s unexpected health issues began almost a year ago in late April 2024, the Detroit Free Press reported. Mary was a sophomore at Lansing Catholic High School in Michigan when she began to experience severe abdominal pain while at school. Mary and her family could not pinpoint what the problem was.

Mary’s parents, Susan and Rick Bartold, took her for a CT scan and ultrasound of her abdomen. The images revealed two masses on each of her ovaries: one was 7.3 centimeters large and the other was 1.5 centimeters. At just 16 years old, Mary began to worry about losing the potential to have children and all the implications the tumors could have on her health.

The Bartolds subsequently took their daughter to University of Michigan Health to work with Catholic physicians and determine a course of treatment. Susan said they chose Catholic practitioners specifically to ensure that they “understood what was happening” and “were making moral decisions that weren’t led by secular belief.”

The doctors determined the masses were tumors, both teratomas that needed to be surgically removed. The doctors scheduled the surgery for Aug. 2.

As the date approached, Susan and Rick decided to go on a pilgrimage to Blessed Solanus Casey’s tomb in Detroit to pray for their daughter. Susan even put together a novena, a nine-day period of prayers, in Blessed Solanus Casey’s name that her family, friends, and church community participated in.

Susan said she had longed prayed to Casey. She felt a sense of familiarity with him since he also resided in Michigan, where he became a Capuchin friar and worked as a porter at St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit.

He also helped start the Capuchin Soup Kitchen in Detroit to help those in need. Susan and Rick shared that they often wonder if Casey ever directly helped their own fathers who lived just down the street from the kitchen during a time they were both facing poverty. 

Susan told the Diocese of Lansing that Casey’s life “is an inspiration” to her, which led her to also ask others to pray to him for her daughter’s healing. 

After weeks of prayer and anticipation, Mary went to the doctor on July 30 for a pre-surgery MRI scan to get updated images. The date coincidentally happened to be Casey’s feast day. 

On the drive there, Susan prayed: “Solanus, this is your feast day. I am doing this for you. I know you have big news.”

The day after the scan, Mary and her parents received a call from her doctors that the surgery could be canceled. It was determined there was no sign of the tumors after multiple radiologists and doctors looked over the images. They were completely gone.

Mary said her first thought was that “it was a mistake,” but six months later, follow-up scans continued to reveal no evidence of any masses or tumors. 

“We forget about the power of prayer,” Susan said, “and this is just a testimony to the power of prayer.”

On the day Mary’s surgery was supposed to take place, she and her parents traveled back to Casey’s tomb, this time to give thanks for their answered prayers. 

While the family was there, they submitted documentation of Mary’s case to the Solanus Casey Center so it can be considered as a miracle to help further Casey’s path to sainthood.

Pope Francis acknowledged a previous miracle by Casey in 2017. A woman with a genetic skin condition prayed at Casey’s tomb in Detroit and was miraculously healed. If another miracle is recognized by the Vatican, it would further propel Casey to canonization. 

Mary’s family strongly advocates that he receives that standing. Mary told the Diocese of Lansing that she would be “honored” if her story was what led Casey to become a saint. “He deserves to be canonized,” she said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- During his long and fruitful pontificate, St. John Paul II embraced the entire world, which stands yet again in need of his blessing, Cardinal Pietro Parolin said.

"Bless us, Holy Father John Paul II. Bless the Lord's church on its journey, that it may be a pilgrim of hope. Bless this lacerated and disoriented humanity, that it may find the way back to its dignity and its highest vocation, that it may know the riches of God's mercy and love," the cardinal said during a memorial Mass in St. Peter's Basilica April 2, the 20th anniversary of the late Polish pope's death. 

Hundreds of faithful attended the Mass, including Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a small government delegation representing Poland as well as cardinals and bishops living in Rome and diplomats accredited to the Vatican.

Retired Polish Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who served as St. John Paul's personal secretary from 1966 until the pope's death in 2005, greeted and thanked all those who were present.

"Our hearts go out to the Holy Father Francis," who could not attend as he continues to recover in his residence, the Polish cardinal said. "We know that right now, he is spiritually united with us." 

"We pray for his health, that the Lord will give him the strength he needs to lead the pilgrim church in this Jubilee Year, under the banner of hope in these difficult times for the church and also for the world," the cardinal said.

Pope Francis had sent Cardinal Dziwisz a letter before his hospitalization Feb. 14, expressing his wishes for a peaceful Holy Year lived in a spirit of hope and offering his blessings to all those taking part in events April 2.

Cardinal Parolin, who began serving in the Vatican Secretariat of State under the late pope starting in 1986, gave the homily, which recalled the legacy and spirituality of the Polish pope, whose pontificate of more than 26 years was the third longest in history.

Pope John Paul exclaimed "with impressive force from the very first unforgettable homily at the inauguration of his pontificate, 'Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ,'" who knows what humanity is meant to be and points the way to eternal life, the cardinal said. 

Because of that conviction, the late pope "could address with authority and firmness not only the Catholic faithful, but also peoples and government leaders," urging them to "be aware of their responsibility to defend justice, the dignity of human persons and peace," he said.

"We remember with gratitude and admiration his tireless service of peace, his passionate warnings, his diplomatic initiatives trying to avert wars" even when he was experiencing difficult moments in his life and "the fragility of physical strength was already evident," Cardinal Parolin said.

St. John Paul never gave up, he said, even while "many of his appeals remained unfortunately unheeded, as happens even to great prophets."

Another unforgettable hallmark of Pope John Paul's legacy, he said, was the great Holy Year of 2000 and his ushering the church and the world into the third millennium. 

The pope invited the church to confidently set out to sea and cast wide its nets with the new evangelization, he said.

"His words continue to inspire us and are echoed today by his successor, Francis, in this new jubilee," which also sees the church's faithful as setting out into "troubled waters, but still pilgrims of hope," he said, "guided by Peter's successor and assisted by the Holy Spirit."

Like the "countless pilgrims who continually come to this basilica and ask for his intercession at the altar where his body rests," Cardinal Parolin prayed the saint would continue to bless all the faithful, the church and humanity so that everyone would know God's mercy and love.

After the Mass, dignitaries processed to St. John Paul's tomb to pray. Cardinal Dzivisz placed a lit white candle on the altar and four representatives of Poland set a large bouquet of red and white roses, the colors of the Polish flag, next to the tomb, which was adorned with many flowers. 

Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the papal vicar of Rome, read a prayer, asking for the saint to bless the world's young people and the faithful so they would be "tireless missionaries of the Gospel today."

"Bless every family," he said, underlining how the pope warned against "Satan's assault against this precious spark of heaven that God has lit on earth. Make us strong and courageous in defending the family."

"Pray for the whole world, scarred by so many injustices and lacerated by absurd wars, which turn the world into a bloody battlefield, deliver us from war, which is always a defeat for everyone," Cardinal Reina said.

Livia Tossici-Bolt is awaiting a verdict in her case in which she was charged with violating a “buffer zone” that restricts pro-life speech near abortion clinics. / Credit: Photo courtesy of ADF International

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 1, 2025 / 17:56 pm (CNA).

A bureau of the United States Department of State announced it is “monitoring” an arrest of a pro-life advocate in the United Kingdom who was charged with violating a “buffer zone” that restricts pro-life speech near abortion clinics.

In a post on X, the State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor confirmed that Senior Adviser Sam Samson met with Livia Tossici-Bolt, a pro-life advocate charged with breaching a buffer zone by standing near an abortion clinic and holding a sign that read, “Here to talk, if you want.”

The verdict for Tossici-Bolt, who was charged with breaching a public spaces protection order, is expected to be handed down on Friday by District Judge Orla Austin — the same judge who delivered a guilty verdict to pro-life advocate Adam Smith-Connor for silently praying outside an abortion clinic in October 2024.

“We are monitoring her case,” the bureau’s post on X read. “It is important that the U.K. respect and protect freedom of expression.”

The post referenced comments made by U.S. Vice President JD Vance in Munich earlier this year in which he chastised the deterioration of free speech and religious freedom within Europe. Vance specifically criticized the British enforcement of “buffer zone” laws and the conviction of Smith-Connor.

“U.S.-U.K. relations share a mutual respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms,” the post read. “However, as Vice President Vance has said, we are concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom.”

Tossici-Bolt said in a statement that she is “grateful” the State Department is interested in her case, adding that “Great Britain is supposed to be a free country, yet I’ve been dragged through court merely for offering consensual conversation.”

Her statement was sent out by Alliance Defending Freedom International, which is representing her in court.

“Peaceful expression is a fundamental right — no one should be criminalized for harmless offers to converse,” she added. “It is tragic to see that the increase of censorship in this country has made the U.S. feel it has to remind us of our shared values and basic civil liberties.”

Tossici-Bolt expressed gratitude to President Donald Trump’s administration “for prioritizing the preservation and promotion of freedom of expression and for engaging in robust diplomacy to that end.”

“It deeply saddens me that the U.K. is seen as an international embarrassment when it comes to free speech,” she continued. “My case, involving only a mere invitation to speak, is but one example of the extreme and undeniable state of censorship in Great Britain today. It is important that the government actually does respect freedom of expression, as it claims to.”