Federal Reserve Bank of New York. / Credit: Velkiira, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Jul 3, 2025 / 11:48 am (CNA).

A federal appeals court has revived a Catholic worker’s lawsuit against the Federal Reserve Bank of New York over the bank’s having fired her for refusing to take a COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in its Wednesday ruling partially reversed the findings of a district court, which had dismissed former Federal Reserve executive assistant Jeanette Diaz’s lawsuit against the bank over her 2022 dismissal. 

Diaz had argued that the bank’s policy requiring vaccination against COVID-19 would violate her Catholic faith, citing her opposition to vaccines “created using human cell lines derived from abortion.” 

The worker had asked her pastor in the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, to sign a letter on her behalf affirming her refusal on religious grounds, though her pastor “refused” to do so, citing Church teaching. The Vatican in 2020 said that it is “morally acceptable” to receive COVID-19 vaccines produced using cell lines from aborted fetuses when no alternative is available.

Diaz nevertheless sought an exemption as a Catholic on grounds of an objection of conscience. Yet the district court ruled against her, claiming that she had failed to show her objection “was based in sincerely held religious beliefs” and pointing to alleged evidence that her opposition was motivated by secular and not religious concerns.

The court had also held that Diaz at times acted inconsistently in her religious belief, such as in taking medication in other cases without first affirming that it was made without using aborted fetal cells.

In reversing the lower court’s order, the appeals court said a jury could infer that Diaz “has both secular and religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccines.” Such distinctions should be made by a jury and not a court, the appeals ruling said.

Regarding Diaz’s alleged inconsistency, the appeals court cited precedent holding that “a sincere religious believer doesn’t forfeit his religious rights merely because he is not scrupulous in his observance.” The court again stipulated that a jury should be allowed to determine the plaintiff’s motivations.

The evidence the lower court relied on “at best” calls into question Diaz’s credibility without ultimately determining it, the appeals court said.

The ruling vacated the lower court’s order regarding Diaz and remanded it for further proceedings.

Though the appeals court found in Diaz’s favor, it upheld another ruling against former Federal Reserve employee Lori Gardner-Alfred.

Gardener-Alfred had cited her decades-long membership in the Temple of the Healing Spirit. But she “could give almost no details” about her participation in that temple, the appeals court noted, and much of the information she gave was “often contradicted” by other elements of her testimony.

The “evidence of Gardner-Alfred’s religious beliefs is so wholly contradictory, incomplete, and incredible that no reasonable jury could accept her professed beliefs as sincerely held,” the appeals court held.

Though it ruled in Diaz’s favor, the appeals court ruling upheld the lower court’s order imposing sanctions on both women for “discovery misconduct.”

The plaintiffs “acted intentionally and in bad faith when they repeatedly flouted the district court’s orders, neglected their discovery obligations under the federal rules, and withheld relevant documents that were potentially damaging to their case,” the appeals court noted.

In November 2024 a jury awarded a Catholic Michigan woman $12.7 million after Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan refused to give her a religious exemption from the company’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate and fired her.

The Vatican repeatedly affirmed its support for the COVID vaccines amid the height of the COVID-19 crisis. In 2024 Pope Francis named biochemist Katalin Karikó to the Pontifical Academy for Life; the scientist helped develop the mRNA technology used to create the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.

Professor Michael McConnell speaks after winning the Notre Dame Prize for Religious Liberty on June 25, 2025. / Credit: Casey Patrick/Notre Dame Law School

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 3, 2025 / 09:45 am (CNA).

During its recently concluded fifth annual Religious Liberty Summit, Notre Dame Law School recognized two scholars for their contributions to the promotion and protection of religious liberty around the world.

The Notre Dame Prize for Religious Liberty, which is awarded to one person each year for his or her achievements in preserving religious liberty, was presented at last week’s summit to former federal judge and constitutional scholar Professor Michael McConnell of Stanford Law School. 

Meanwhile, professor and author Dr. Russell Hittinger of The Catholic University of America (CUA) received the Religious Liberty Scholarship Award, which is given annually to an individual for accomplishments in advancing the understanding of how law protects freedom of religion. 

Hittinger is executive director of CUA’s Institute for Human Ecology and a research professor in the School of Philosophy. He has also taught at Princeton, Fordham, and the University of Chicago and has been a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas.

McConnell sees welcome course correction

“When I look back, things are so much better now… in constitutional law, freedom of religion, we’re doing a whole lot better today than we were before,” McConnell said at the event.

McConnell is director of the Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School and teaches courses on constitutional law, constitutional history, the First Amendment, and interpretive theory. 

From 2002 to 2009, he served as a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. As an author, his most recent work, co-authored with Nathan Chapman, is “Agreeing to Disagree: How the Establishment Clause Protects Religious Diversity and Freedom of Conscience.”

For his part, Hittinger has published more than 100 articles and books, including “Political Pluralism and Religious Liberty: The Teaching of Dignitatis Humanae” and his 2024 book “On the Dignity of Society: Catholic Social Teaching and Natural Law.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Catholic priests will now be able to celebrate Mass "for the care of creation" after the Vatican announced that a new formulary of prayers and biblical readings for the Mass will be added to the Roman Missal -- the liturgical book that contains the texts for celebrating Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church.

The new formulary, or specific set of texts and prayers for Mass, will be added among the "civil needs" section of the "Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Occasions" listed in the Roman Missal. The current missal, approved by St. John Paul II in 2000, lists 17 "civil needs" to offer Masses and prayers for, including "for the nation or state," "after the harvest," "for refugees and exiles" and "in time of earthquake." The missal lists another 20 particular needs for the church and 12 for other circumstances.

Pope Leo XIV will use the new formulary for a private Mass July 9 with the staff of Borgo Laudato Si' ecology project -- a space for education and training in integral ecology hosted in the gardens of the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo, the traditional summer residence for the popes.

The formulary for the Mass began development during Pope Francis' pontificate in response to "requests for a liturgical way of celebrating the meaning and the message of 'Laudato si','" said Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, who presented the new formulary at a news conference July 3.

"The true authors of this text are Scripture, the (church) fathers and 'Laudato si','" said Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, secretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

The new formulary, Archbishop Viola said, "receives some of the principal themes contained in Laudato Si' and expresses them in the form of prayer within the theological framework that the encyclical revives."

He described the set of prayers as "a good antidote against a certain reading of 'Laudato si'' that risks reducing the depth of its content to a 'superficial or ostensible ecology'" that is "far from that integral ecology widely described and explained in the encyclical."

The Mass formulary begins with the entrance antiphon from Psalm 19: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims works of his hands." The Collect prayer, which gathers the prayer intentions of the faithful to close the introductory rites of the Mass, asks God "that docile to the life-giving breath of your Spirit, we may lovingly care for the work of your hands."

The prayer after Communion asks for increased communion with God "so that, as we await the new heavens and the new earth, we may learn to live in harmony with all creatures."

The proposed biblical readings include Wisdom 13:1-9, Colossians 1:15-20, and selections from the Gospel of Matthew that recount Jesus calming the storm and calling people to trust in divine providence through the lilies of the field and the birds of the air.

In the decree dated June 8 issuing the new formulary, Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, wrote, "At this time it is evident that the work of creation is seriously threatened because of the irresponsible use and abuse of the goods God has endowed to our care."

"This is why it is considered appropriate to add a Mass formulary" on the care of creation, he wrote.

However, "this Mass is a reason for joy," said Cardinal Czerny during the July 3 news conference. "It increases our gratitude, strengthens our faith and invites us to respond with care and love in an ever-growing sense of wonder, reverence and responsibility."

The new formulary "calls us to be faithful stewards of what God has entrusted to us, not only in daily choices and public policies, but also in our prayer, our worship and our way of living in the world," he added.

WASHINGTON – Reacting to the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act by the U.S. Congress, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, lamented the great harm the bill will cause to many of the most vulnerable in society, making steeper cuts to Medicaid and clean energy tax credits, and adding more to the deficit. While the bishops had commended the positive aspects of an earlier version of the bill, the restriction on federal funds to abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood was reduced to one year, the parental choice in education provision was greatly weakened, and the restriction on federally funding “gender transition” procedures was removed. 

Archbishop Broglio said: 

“My brother bishops and I have repeatedly and consistently urged lawmakers to use the budget reconciliation process to help families in need and to change course on aspects of the bill that fail the poor and vulnerable. The final version of the bill includes unconscionable cuts to healthcare and food assistance, tax cuts that increase inequality, immigration provisions that harm families and children, and cuts to programs that protect God’s creation. The bill, as passed, will cause the greatest harm to those who are especially vulnerable in our society. As its provisions go into effect, people will lose access to healthcare and struggle to buy groceries, family members will be separated, and vulnerable communities will be less prepared to cope with environmental impacts of pollution and extreme weather. More must be done to prevent these devastating effects. 

“The Catholic Church’s teaching to uphold human dignity and the common good compels us to redouble our efforts and offer concrete help to those who will be in greater need and continue to advocate for legislative efforts that will provide better possibilities in the future for those in need.”

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The Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Farragutful, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 2, 2025 / 18:37 pm (CNA).

An organization encouraging the presence of “the Catholic intellectual tradition” in universities across the globe has a new leader.

Dominican Father Ambrose Little has been appointed the new director of the Thomistic Institute (TI), a position held for the past seven years by Father Dominic Legge, OP, who has now been named president of the Pontifical Faculty at the Dominican House of Studies.

“The Thomistic Institute is one of the most dynamic apostolates in the Church, and we are immensely proud that it is an institute of our Pontifical Faculty,” Legge said in a statement.

“It is very dear to my heart! Serving as the TI director has been one of the greatest privileges of my life. I am therefore delighted to announce that, as my first official act as president, I have appointed Father Ambrose Little, OP, as the new director of the Thomistic Institute,” Legge said. 

The Thomistic Institute was founded in 2009 “to promote Catholic truth in our contemporary world by strengthening the intellectual formation of Christians at universities, in the Church, and in the wider public square,” according to the institute’s website. 

The institute pursues initiatives “focused on St. Thomas Aquinas’ thought, including academic lectures, student chapters, and online resources.”

An academic institute of the Pontifical Faculty of the Dominican House of Studies located in Washington, D.C., students have also founded campus chapters of the institute at more than 80 universities across the globe. 

The academic chapters organize lectures with Catholic scholars on philosophy and theology as well as hold reading groups, debates, and conferences to “expose students to the riches of the Catholic intellectual tradition and help them explore it further.”

Little is a Dominican friar of the Province of St. Joseph. He entered the Order of Preachers in 2007 after graduating from The Catholic University of America (CUA) with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. Ordained a priest in 2013, he returned to CUA to complete a licentiate in philosophy and wrote a dissertation titled “Aristotelian Change and the Scala Naturae.” He taught for two years at Providence College in Rhode Island and was a visiting scholar at Boston College.

In 2014, Little began studying for a doctorate in philosophy at the University of Virginia and graduated in 2021. Afterward, he was appointed a lecturer in philosophy at the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception.

“Father Ambrose is a superb teacher and scholar, an excellent leader, and a great brother and friend,” Legge said. “For the past three years, he has served as assistant director of the TI, and I’ve been deeply impressed by what I’ve seen.”

“Because the TI is an institute of our faculty … I will not be going far away,” Legge said, “I’m just down the hall.” He vowed to continue supporting the organization “as this vibrant outreach continues to grow and bear fruit.”

The childhood home of Pope Leo XIV in Dolton, Illinois. / Credit: “EWTN News in Depth”/Screenshot

CNA Staff, Jul 2, 2025 / 17:17 pm (CNA).

In a unanimous vote at a special board meeting held on July 1, the village council of Dolton, Illinois, voted to purchase the childhood home of the first U.S.-born pope, Robert Francis Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV.

Newly-elected Dolton Mayor Jason House called for the vote, which was unanimous, after hearing from the trustees and allowing for comment from members of the public, several of whom opposed the home purchase by the cash-strapped village.

Amid the pushback from Dolton residents who complained about the dilapidated state of local roads and the village’s high debt, House said the purchase would eventually “pay for itself,” calling it a “historical opportunity.”

In Dolton, the per capita income is $29,776 and 20% of the residents live in poverty, according to census data.

Trustee Edward Steave referred to the “busloads of people” in and out of the village to see the house since the pope’s election, emphasizing the economic benefits visitors to the historic site would bring to the community.

Also acknowledging residents’ concerns, Trustee Kiana Belcher asked them to “stand with us as we make this decision because we know it will help all of us as a village.”

Trustee Stanley Brown said that while he is not a Catholic himself, he is a Christian who would like to “help out the Catholics.”

“I just believe in this opportunity that’s been given us, and I believe in waiting on the Lord,” Brown continued. “He’s here to strengthen our town, so don’t let this opportunity get away from us!”

“We have been put on the back row … and now we have the opportunity to get on the front row, and we don’t want to let this opportunity get away from us,” he said.

Dolton City Attorney Burt Odelson agreed, telling CNA that a “world of opportunity” has opened for the small suburb, which is like “no other place in the world.”

“Things are just going to get better and better for the people of Dolton,” he said. 

On the Village of Dolton’s Facebook page on July 1, the village posted photos of the house getting a new roof, paid for by a donor, according to Odelson.

“The pope’s house continues to draw in people, bringing new energy and attention to our village. This increased traffic represents a new day in Dolton — full of potential, progress, and promise,” the village wrote on its Facebook page.

Speaking to the press after the meeting, House said he hopes to close the deal on the house purchase within two weeks and hopes the house can be “converted into its ultimate form” within 30-60 days.

House said the village will have the help of a “number of partnerships,” possibly referring to the Archdiocese of Chicago.

As it considers next steps, Odelson said the village has done research on how former popes’ homes are preserved around the world. Last month, he told CNA that he was speaking with someone “high up” in the archdiocese who was helping “guide” the village in its goal to preserve the historic home.

The Archdiocese of Chicago did not respond to CNA’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Odelson told CNA in June that once the house has been purchased, the village will set up a nonprofit charity to help fundraise for the preservation of the house and the revitalization of the neighborhood.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to preserve what many people believe is a sacred” place, Odelson told CNA about the pope’s former home. “We need to do it right and we don’t have the funds to do it right. We have to lean on others.”

People from “all over the U.S. have already offered to help preserve the house,” Odelson said, “and the charity will enable them to do so.”

On the heels of the pope’s election in May, Odelson and House said at the time that the city intended to purchase the modest three-bedroom, 1,050-square-foot brick home, which had been listed for sale since January.

Realtor Steve Budzik told CNA in May that as soon as the owner, house renovator Pawel Radzik, found out the house he had updated and listed for sale once belonged to the newly elected pope, he removed it from the market to “reassess” the situation.

Radzik relisted it for sale by auction through Paramount Realty auction house. The auction was originally set to close on June 17 but was extended “to finalize negotiations with the village of Dolton,” Odelson told CNA in June.

Odelson told CNA that he hopes to close on the property in the coming week. While he did not disclose the final sale price, he said it was much lower than the $1 million Budzik had said he thought the house might sell for at auction.

An aerial view of Oxford, England, taken on Oct. 14, 2016. / Credit: Chensiyuan via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 2, 2025 / 16:17 pm (CNA).

Anscombe Bioethics Centre, a prominent Catholic bioethics center in Oxford, England, has shut down after nearly 50 years due to financial constraints.

An exemption to the restrictions on the Traditional Latin Mass has been granted to a parish in the Archdiocese of San Angelo, Texas. / Credit: James Bradley, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jul 2, 2025 / 14:51 pm (CNA).

The Vatican has granted a parish in Texas an exemption from restrictions to the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) imposed by Pope Francis’ decree Traditionis Custodes. 

The exemption, requested by Bishop Michael Sis on Feb. 6, was granted to St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in the Diocese of San Angelo, Texas.

No other such exemption by Pope Leo XIV has been reported since the start of his pontificate. 

“The Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments informed me in a decree of May 28, 2025, that my request has been granted for a further two years for a dispensation from article 3§2 of the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, so that Mass according to the ‘Missale Romanum’ of 1962 may be celebrated in the parish church of St. Margaret of Scotland in San Angelo,” Sis, who previously served as a member of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine, said in a statement he shared with CNA. 

“Just as before,” he added, “the granting of this dispensation is based upon an ongoing effort to promote the full appreciation and acceptance of the liturgical books renewed by decree of the Second Vatican Council and promulgated by popes St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II.”

Sis noted further that when he submitted his request for the extension to the Vatican, he did so “with a spirit of total openness to whatever is the will of God.” 

He continued: “I trust the judgment of our Holy Father Pope Leo and those who assist him in his ministry of unity through the various dicasteries of the Holy See.”

The exemption was originally announced in a June 27 social media post by the diocese’s director of vocations, Father Ryan Rojo.

“I’m grateful to @Pontifex and to the Dicastery for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments for allowing the TLM to continue to exist in our parish church, extending permission for another two years,” Rojo wrote in the June 27 post. 

St. Margaret’s pastor, Father Freddy Perez, told CNA: “Now that we have the permission, the attitude is one of relief; I saw a lot of relief this past weekend.” Although the Vatican’s approval was dated May 28, Perez said he did not receive notification of the approval from his bishop until last week. 

Perez revealed that the letter from the Vatican praised St. Margaret’s for the steps it took to follow the Holy Father’s motu proprio. The Vatican “commended our efforts and our ‘pastoral concern to instill a clear appreciation for the Church as unique, lex orandi,’” Perez told CNA, adding: “That’s a direct quote from the letter we were sent.” 

Though the pastor noted some negativity from parishioners about having to ask permission to celebrate the TLM, his approach is to explain that “this is where the Church is right now, and is where we have to be obedient.” 

Beyond the two-year extension, Perez said, “my hopes are just to continue to bring a positive experience of the liturgy to all of my people, to try to bring them into the Gospel, into the teachings of the Church, as we’re taught, and to try to teach them that the Mass gets us ready for heaven.” 

Though the parish experienced uncertainty over whether it would be allowed to continue celebrating the TLM, Perez said the advice of Auxiliary Bishop Mario Avilés helped guide him. “The advice he gave me was very simple,” the pastor recalled. “He said: ‘Just be obedient, son.” 

“And I think just putting my eyes on the Lord has satisfied everything that I wouldn’t be able to do through my own spirit of protest or my spirit of just being angry about not getting my way, by conforming my will to the will of Our Lord,” Perez reflected. “We’re in this world temporarily, and at the end of the day, we are asked to be faithful to Our Lord Jesus Christ and his holy mother Church.” 

According to Perez, St. Margaret’s has been offering the TLM for just over five years, currently on Sunday afternoons and Thursday mornings. 

The TLM community, he said, consists mostly of young families as well as curious people who are interested in experiencing the liturgy. The small parish consists of about 200 families, he said, noting that attendance at the TLM is usually on the larger side for the parish, with about 140 to 200 people each week.

News of St. Margaret’s exemption comes after the Archdiocese of Detroit announced earlier this month that non-parish churches in the archdiocese will be allowed to continue celebrating the TLM despite an earlier statement saying that most of the TLM celebrated in the area would be suspended.

The archdiocese reported that permissions given to parish church priests to carry out the TLM would expire and they could not be renewed, but Detroit Archbishop Edward Weisenburger said he would recognize at least four non-parish locations in the archdiocese where the TLM could still be celebrated.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, a champion of the traditional liturgy, has said he asked Pope Leo to remove measures restricting the celebration of TLM, stating at a conference in London recently: “It is my hope that he will, as soon as is reasonably possible, take up the study of this question.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to the decree Traditionis Custodes as an encyclical. It is a motu proprio, a type of papal decree. (Published July 3, 2025)

Bishop Daniel E. Garcia. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Austin

Vatican City, Jul 2, 2025 / 13:49 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Daniel Garcia of Monterey, California, as the sixth bishop of Austin, Texas.

After leading the Diocese of Monterey for more than six years since 2018, Garcia, 64, has returned to his home state of Texas to serve the Austin Diocese as its leader.

At a July 2 press conference held by the Diocese of Austin, Garcia gave thanks to God for the local Church, which he described as “diverse in ethnicity, race, language, and way of life.”

“I was ordained a priest for this local Church in May of 1988,” he said on Wednesday. “It is filled with people of so many great gifts and talents and it is my hope to reacquaint myself with all of you whom I have known and get to know you whom I have not yet met.”

During his address given in English and in Spanish, the bishop emphasized that the Church and civil society cannot forget the “poor, the weak, and those who live on the margins” in its policies and practices.

The bishop, who is also a board member of Catholic Relief Services, quoted St. Vincent de Paul during his speech, saying: “It will be the poor who will be our entrance into heaven.”

Garcia, who celebrated the 10th anniversary of his episcopal consecration in January, was previously made auxiliary bishop of Austin and titular bishop of Capso by Pope Francis in 2015 before heading to Monterey.

Before becoming an auxiliary bishop for Austin, Garcia was parish vicar of St. Catherine of Siena there from 1988 to 1990, Cristo Rey from 1990 to 1991, St. Louis from 1991 to 1992, and St. Mary Magdalene from 1992 to 1995. Between 1995 and 2014, he was a parish priest at St. Vincent de Paul.

He is currently part of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ subcommittee on divine worship in Spanish.

While attending St. Mary’s Seminary in the 1980s, Garcia obtained a liberal arts degree and a master’s degree in divinity from the University of St. Thomas in Houston. He was awarded a master’s degree in liturgy from St. John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, in 2007.

null / Credit: Minerva Studio/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jul 2, 2025 / 11:17 am (CNA).

The Diocese of Fresno in California filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 1, seeking to address more than 150 abuse claims filed there in what Bishop Joseph Brennan said was part of a “journey of conversion through contrition.”

Brennan announced the filing via a video message on Tuesday. The bishop’s message comes more than a year after he announced, in May 2024, that the diocese would seek the bankruptcy filing.

The prelate said the filing was “the only path that will allow us to handle claims of sexual abuse with compassion that is fair and equitable while simultaneously ensuring the continuation of ministry within our diocese.”

As with other dioceses in California and the U.S., the Fresno Diocese is facing a large number of allegations of clergy abuse. Brennan said last year that plaintiffs had lodged 154 sex abuse complaints against the Church there.

Those filings were made under a California law that temporarily relaxed the statute of limitations on sex abuse claims, allowing alleged victims a three-year window from 2019 to 2022 to file the complaints.

Brennan said the Fresno bankruptcy process will include allocating diocesan assets to “satisfy the claims against the diocese.” He added that a fund will also be established to pay abuse claims.

“Our Church must address the suffering that victims of clergy sexual abuse have endured,” he said.

“We know the sin. It will always be before us,” he continued. “Now that we have entered a journey of conversion through contrition and acknowledgement of the victims’ suffering, we must enter a path of reconciliation, which includes resolving the victims’ claims.”

The bishop urged the faithful to pray for abuse victims during the bankruptcy process.

In the bankruptcy petition, filed in U.S. bankruptcy court for the eastern district of California, Brennan authorized diocesan Chief Financial Officer Cynthia Martin and Vicar General Father Salvador Gonzalez to represent the diocese in the proceedings.

The bishop listed the diocese’s assets as between $50 million and $100 million, with between 1,000 and 5,000 creditors.