Lebanon faces ‘catastrophic’ situation, Catholic humanitarian leader says
About 1 million people have been displaced over the past 10 days in Lebanon, where the situation continues to deteriorate, according to Marwan Sehnaoui, president of the Sovereign Order of Malta’s Lebanon chapter.
“The situation in Lebanon, in Beirut, and all over Lebanon is a catastrophic situation,” Sehnaoui told “EWTN News Nightly” host Veronica Dudo on March 18. “We are a peaceful country, and here we are with shelling all over.”
Sehnaoui leads the Order of Malta’s Lebanon Association, which, he said, “is all over the Lebanese territory,” with about 600 employees charged with operating more than 60 projects related to health, social, and agricultural humanitarian aid. The Order of Malta also operates 12 mobile medical centers, he said.
“Around 20% of our population had to run away,” he said, noting that “where to put them” has become “a very complicated situation.” He further cited about 1,000 casualties in the region, noting the deaths of 60 people “just today.”
“To see this is very painful, as you can imagine, when there is shelling, destruction, and death,” he said, “but we will survive.”
Sehnaoui emphasized the war’s impact on the Christian community, warning that if the war continues, increased pressure on Christians in the region may force them to leave their homes.
“We don’t want immigration; we want people to stay on their lands,” he said. “And this is why the order has opened a lot of projects on agriculture, so they can be there and cultivate the land and have food.”
“What is important for [the Lebanese Christian community] and others is to have their dignity,” he said. “And the order is a factor in giving back dignity and being an instrument of coexistence … not through weapons but through love and presence at the side of the suffering.”
Sehnaoui expressed gratitude to Pope Leo XIV for visiting Lebanon last year, which he said “was very important for all Lebanese.”
Pope Leo calls bishops to Rome to discuss families, ‘Amoris laetitia’ in October
VATICAN CITY — Ten years after Pope Francis issued a controversial document on families, Pope Leo XIV will meet with bishops from around the world to discuss the text’s application for today.
Amoris laetitia, Francis’ apostolic exhortation on marriage and the family, followed two contentious synods at the Vatican dominated by debate over divorce.
Pope Leo on Thursday announced that he is calling the presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences to Rome in October for “synodal discernment” on how “to proclaim the Gospel to families today, in light of Amoris laetitia.”
The meeting is not part of the Synod on Synodality, which will conclude a three-year implementation phase with an assembly in October 2028.
Francis published Amoris laetitia in 2016 following separate synods on the family in 2014 and 2015. The two month-long assemblies prominently featured debates over divorce, and Francis’ post-synodal document sparked controversy with a footnote that said “in certain cases,” divorced-and-civilly remarried Catholics could receive Communion.
Previous popes had said such Catholics could not receive Communion unless they lived as brother and sister.
In his March 19 message, Pope Leo said societal changes make pastoral attention to families even more necessary than 10 years ago.
Amoris laetitia is “a luminous message of hope regarding conjugal love and family life,” and “we ask God for the courage to persevere on this path, always welcoming the Gospel anew in the joy of being able to proclaim it to all,” he said.
Leo recalled the Second Vatican Council’s teaching that the family is “‘the basis of society,’ a gift from God and ‘a school for human enrichment.’”
Since Vatican II, he added, “the two Apostolic Exhortations, Familiaris consortio — issued by St. John Paul II in 1981 — and Amoris laetitia (AL), have both strengthened the Church’s doctrinal and pastoral commitment to the service of young people, married couples and families.”
The Lord has entrusted families with the task of participating in the Church’s mission to proclaim the Gospel, including in places where the Church can witness only through the lay faithful, the pope said.
“For this reason, the Church’s commitment in this area must be renewed and deepened, so that those whom the Lord calls to marriage and family life can, in Christ, fully live out their conjugal love, and that young people may feel attracted, within the Church, to the beauty of the vocation to marriage,” he said.
The pontiff also pointed out ”valuable teachings that we must continue to examine today” from Amoris laetitia, including how to live through family crises, that love in marriage “always gives life,” and the need for new pastoral methods.
Annual DC Eucharistic procession to be halfway point for 2026 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage
The nation’s capital will serve as the halfway point for the 2026 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States.
The Catholic Information Center’s (CIC) Washington, D.C., Eucharistic procession has taken place the past three years, processing through the city’s downtown area near the White House and past the U.S. Capitol.
Father Charles Trullols, CIC director, started the procession in 2023. “I thought it was a great opportunity as we were going through the National Eucharistic Revival to have a Eucharistic procession in the center of our nation’s capital, so that so many people around the country could see that we praise, and we pray, and we worship, together,” Trullols said in an interview with “EWTN News Nightly.”
Ahead of the upcoming 2026 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, the Archdiocese of Washington reached out to Trullols to inquire if the CIC would partner with the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in the capital for the 250th anniversary of the country.
“To partner with them at the heart of our nation’s capital … is a great honor,” Trullols said. “And we are looking forward to having many, many, many people joining us.”
“I was so excited and so happy to be able to do that, especially because the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage is going to have such a relevance … this year for so many people to see our faith and to express their belief in the real presence of the Eucharist through the journey that they are going to be doing from Florida, going up north, and finally ending in Philadelphia,” Trullols said.
The 2026 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s theme is “One Nation Under God,” to commemorate the anniversary. Pilgrims will journey on the St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Route to honor the first American citizen to be canonized.
The 2026 pilgrimage is set to kick off on May 24 in St. Augustine, Florida, and conclude on July 5 in Philadelphia. The Eucharistic procession will go through 18 dioceses and archdioceses.
Walking with Jesus
Since starting the annual event in D.C., Trullols said “the best part, for me, of the Eucharistic procession is to see Jesus walking with us.”
There are “so many people out there in the streets who do not know what’s going on, and they ask, and they inquire, and they also benefit from all the grace that is coming out from the monstrance, from the Blessed Sacrament, even if they don’t realize that is happening,” he said.
“But many other times people also join, without expecting it, into the procession. And this year, on June 6, when we are going to have our Eucharistic procession with the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage … I hope it will be a great sunny day for us to celebrate, to commemorate, and to walk with Our Lord in the Eucharist,” he said.
Physically walking with the Eucharist in person is “very important because it’s a personal encounter with Jesus Christ,” Trullols said. “Through the screens, we see people, we look at people, but many times we are lacking this personal encounter with Our Lord, which is to physically be with him and honor him and worship him publicly.”
Trump’s HHS investigates 13 states for alleged conscience protection violations on abortion
President Donald Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is launching an investigation into 13 states for allegedly violating federal conscience protections for those who hold moral or religious objections to abortion.
The HHS Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced March 19 that its investigation relies on information that those states have allegedly coerced health care entities to provide coverage of or pay for abortions as a condition of offering health coverage in those states.
States that either have laws or regulations that conflict with federal conscience protection mandates are: California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington.
According to a news release, the states may be in violation of the Weldon Amendment, which is routinely added to health care spending bills annually. It prohibits state and local discrimination against health entities that do not provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortions.
“OCR launches these investigations to address certain states’ alleged disregard of, or confusion about, compliance with the Weldon Amendment,” HHS OCR Director Paula M. Stannard said in a statement.
“Under the Weldon Amendment,” she added, “health care entities, such as health insurance issuers and health plans, are protected from state discrimination for not paying for, or providing coverage of, abortion for any reason. Period.”
An HHS official said in a conference call that the OCR is investigating every state with “some type of mandate” that requires insurance plans to “cover abortion, regardless of whether or not [an entity] … objects on the basis of religious belief or conscience.”
The HHS official said OCR sent letters to relevant states March 18, requesting information to help determine whether the policies violate the Weldon Amendment. If OCR determines that a state is in violation, the office will seek to solve the matter informally, the official said. If this fails, OCR will withhold funding or request action from the Department of Justice, the official said.
In January, OCR strengthened its interpretation of the Weldon Amendment. It disavowed a legal opinion under former President Joe Biden that had previously excluded employers and plan sponsors from protection under Weldon.
Although OCR determined in January that those entities were covered under Weldon, the HHS official said states did not amend laws or regulations to comply with the current interpretation.
A 2026 report from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Committee on Religious Liberty urged Congress to pass the Conscience Protection Act to broadly expand conscience protections for all Americans.
From Pius IX to Francis: 7 modern popes who strengthened devotion to St. Joseph
Modern popes of the last two centuries — from Pius IX to Francis — have sought the protection and intercession of St. Joseph in times of personal and societal need, elevating his status as a patron for all Catholics.
Here’s how some of the popes of the past have contributed to the Church’s devotion to the holy patriarch.
Pius IX
Early in his pontificate, Pope Pius IX saw the growing devotion to St. Joseph among Catholic faithful across Europe and abroad, according to theologian and Church historian Veronika Seifert.
“[He] welcomed the growing spirituality towards St. Joseph and promoted these seeds,” she told EWTN News. “There were many religious congregations and dioceses that chose him as their protector and many confraternities formed with a strong devotion to him.”
This impetus from Catholic communities led Pius IX to approve the 1870 decree Quemadmodum Deus, which declared St. Joseph as universal patron of the Church, toward the end of the First Vatican Council.
Leo XIII
Quamquam Pluries, the first encyclical dedicated to St. Joseph, was published by Pope Leo XIII in 1889, nearly two decades after Pius IX declared the earthly father of Jesus the patron of the universal Church.
“Practically every pope has added a small piece to what was missing” in Pius’ 1870 decree, Seifert said.
Known for his devotion to the Virgin Mary, Leo XIII’s personal devotion to St. Joseph was subsequently connected to the Mother of God. Though his encyclical, he encouraged Catholics to jointly seek the aid of the two holy spouses.
“Joseph shines among all mankind by the most august dignity, since by divine will, he was the guardian of the Son of God and reputed as his father among men,” he wrote.
Pius X
Pope Pius X, who governed the Church for 11 years in the wake of the first world war, wrote a number of prayers dedicated to the holy patriarch and approved the Litany of St. Joseph in 1909.
Seeing in him a virtuous model for families and workers, he encouraged Catholics to imitate Joseph’s example as head of the Holy Family and as a laborer in his workshop in Nazareth.
Pius XII
Devotion to St. Joseph the Worker was further elevated when Pope Pius XII instituted a liturgical feast day in his honor in 1955.
“Pius XII instituted the feast day that Pius XI intended to [be celebrated] on the third Sunday after Easter. Pius XII moved it to May 1 — a date we now all know,” Seifert said.
Wanting to counter the influence of communism on the Church and its faithful, Pius XII wanted to emphasize a Christian vision of work that saw labor as a means of participating in the creative power of God.
May 1 is “Labor Day” or “International Workers Day” in over 80 countries, including most of Europe.
John XXIII
Describing Pope John XXIII as a “great devotee” of St. Joseph, Seifert said he was the first pope to decree his inclusion in the Mass.
“He inserted the name of St. Joseph into the [Roman] Canon, precisely in the First Eucharistic Prayer, placing it immediately after the Virgin Mary,” she said.
Announced just one month into the opening of the Second Vatican Council on Nov. 13, 1962, the liturgical change was the first to the Roman Canon since the seventh century, The New York Times reported.
John Paul II
Pope John Paul II wrote about the life and mission of St. Joseph when he published his apostolic exhortation Redemptoris Custos in 1989 to mark the centenary of Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Quamquam Pluries.
“May St. Joseph become for all of us an exceptional teacher in the service of Christ’s saving mission, a mission which is the responsibility of each and every member of the Church: husbands and wives, parents, those who live by the work of their hands or by any other kind of work, those called to the contemplative life and those called to the apostolate,” he wrote.
Seifert said the joyful and sorrowful experiences of the Holy Family are not distant to the human realities of the present day.
“By meditating on the feelings of St. Joseph, we can learn a lot and perhaps even put something right in our own lives,” the theologian and Church historian said.
Francis
Having inaugurated his pontificate on the March 19 feast day of St. Joseph in 2013, Pope Francis popularized devotion to the “Sleeping St. Joseph” following his 2015 apostolic journey to the Philippines.
During the papal journey, Francis revealed his love for the foster father of Jesus, saying: “Even when he is asleep, he is taking care of the Church! … So when I have a problem, a difficulty, I write a little note and I put it underneath St. Joseph, so that he can dream about it!”
Pope Francis also proclaimed the Church’s first-ever Year of St. Joseph through his 2020 apostolic letter Patris Corde (“With a Father’s Heart”) to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the holy patriarch being named patron of the universal Church by Pope Pius IX.
Watch “Devotion to St. Joseph throughout the Centuries” on Vaticano here.
Pope Leo XIV laments ‘growing deterioration’ of the Amazon’s natural environment
Pope Leo XIV sent a video message to the participants of the sixth assembly of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA, by its Spanish acronym). The region is the largest tropical rainforest on the planet, covering an area of approximately 2.59 million square miles shared by nine South American countries. The pontiff lamented the “growing deterioration” of the natural environment.
“You have made me keenly aware of the sufferings and hopes of the region’s inhabitants, as well as the growing deterioration of their natural environment. To all those suffering from this situation, I wish to express my closeness,” the pope said in the message for the gathering, which is being held in Bogotá from March 17–19 and which marks a new step in the ecclesial journey of the Amazon region.
The gathering brings together pastors, men and women religious, and lay faithful from the Amazonian territories with the aim of laying the foundations to promote synodality within local Churches during the 2026–2030 period, foundations that could serve as an instrument to guide the evangelizing mission in the Amazonian territory.
The pontiff also referenced another key part of the meeting: the election of the presidency of the CEAMA for the 2026–2030 term.
He noted that the new team’s tasks will include continuing to advance the implementation of the Synod for the Amazon and preparing contributions drawn from the Amazonian experience for the ecclesial assembly scheduled to take place in Rome in 2028.
“Know that I accompany you with my prayers in this important step,” assured the pope, who also described the assembly as “a privileged time of listening to the Holy Spirit” to discern the path of Christian communities in the Amazon region.
In this regard, he cited Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonía, recalling that the Church’s mission is to proclaim “a God who loves every human being infinitely, a love he has fully manifested in Christ.”
‘Something new is being born’
The participants in CEAMA’s sixth assembly have chosen as their theme a verse from the prophet Isaiah: “I am about to do something new: It is already springing forth, do you not perceive it?” (Is 43:19).
The pope revisited this image to highlight the process currently underway within the Amazonian Church. “It’s true: Something new is being born; it is still fragile, but it is already in process,” he affirmed.
To illustrate this, he drew upon the image of the “shihuahuaco” — known as the “giant of the jungle” — a tree that grows slowly but can live for over a thousand years and become an ecosystem in itself, serving as a sanctuary for numerous species.
Through this metaphor, the pope explained that the Church must “be a sign of unity in diversity and a safe haven that generates and protects life.”
Furthermore, he noted that the current context demands an “adequate response to the numerous social, environmental, cultural, and ecclesial challenges that persist in the Amazon — a region threatened by situations of abuse and exploitation.” In this context, he made reference to the passion flower, “whose distinctive shape makes a striking allusion to the passion of Christ” and which the participants have chosen as the symbol of the assembly.
“It represents the prophetic role of the Church and of all its members — each according to their own mission: to proclaim the ‘kerygma’ [Gospel message] and new life in Christ, to accompany those who suffer, and to safeguard creation and respect for life in all its forms, especially human life,” he stated.
A Church with an Amazonian face
Another objective of the ecclesial conference, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary, is to advance toward the construction of a Church with an “Amazonian face,” one of the great aspirations that emerged during the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region.
According to the Holy Father, this process is achieved through the inculturation of the faith, which allows the Church to be enriched by new cultural expressions and to manifest the mystery of Christ with greater fullness.
However, he warned that it is a demanding path. “Inculturation is a difficult, yet necessary, path,” he affirmed, encouraging the participants to “courageously embrace the newness of the Spirit, capable of always creating something new with the inexhaustible treasure of Jesus Christ.”
At the conclusion of his message, Pope Leo XIV encouraged the Amazonian communities to continue strengthening the identity of missionary disciples in the region, recalling the witness of so many men and women who gave their lives for the Gospel in those territories.
“I encourage you to press forward together — pastors and faithful alike — in strengthening the identity of missionary disciples in the Amazon. Continue sowing in the furrow that has been watered even with the blood of so many men and women who have preceded you, and who, united to the passion of Christ, have become the root of a ‘giant tree’ growing in the Amazon,” the pontiff said.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
House bill targets environmental impact of chemical abortion and doctors’ role in the process
A recent bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would regulate abortion pills due to their potential environmental impact.
The Clean Water for All Life Act would also require a physician to be present for the chemical abortion and a “catch kit” for contaminated blood and aborted tissue. It would also require an in-person exam to prescribe abortion pills.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois, is designed to address claims that chemical abortion procedures may contribute to environmental contamination. Supporters say the bill would tighten disposal requirements, while critics question the science behind those concerns.
“The murder-for-profit abortion industry is not only ending innocent life but is also polluting our water, endangering women, and operating with virtually no accountability,” Miller said at a press conference in Washington, D.C., on March 18. “Every year, more than 50 tons of chemically contaminated medical waste, including blood, placental tissue, and the remains of preborn children are flushed into America’s water systems as a direct result of chemical abortion pills.”
In 1996, the Food and Drug Administration did an environmental assessment of mifepristone tablets and found “no significant impact.”
The drug was first approved for chemical abortions in 2000, however, and mifepristone-induced abortions now account for more than 60% of abortions in the U.S., not including un-facilitated abortions, such as mail-order abortions in states where chemical abortions are illegal, many of which go unrecorded.
A Students for Life of America report claims that “more than 50 tons of abortion pollution and human remains enter our water system every year,” including endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDC) that affect hormones.
Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins spoke about the research on “EWTN News Nightly” on March 17.
“What we have found through our own research is that in three metropolitan areas where we tested the water, the three active metabolites that are only found in the chemical abortion drug mifepristone are actually in our drinking water,” Hawkins said.
Mifepristone, a synthetic hormone, blocks the reception of progesterone, a hormone essential for maintaining pregnancy. When mifepristone is taken during pregnancy, it prevents the unborn child from receiving vital nutrients, causing an abortion.
“Chemical abortions are the leading cause of infant death in our country,” Hawkins said. “You’re talking over 700,000 abortions a year are happening this way.”
Miller called the issue “a growing and deeply alarming public health and environmental crisis.”
“Our water systems were never designed to filter these toxic substances,” Miller said. “The fact is, the abortion pill ingredients used to starve a preborn child remain active and unfiltered in our water treatments. That means families across the nation may be unknowingly ingesting abortion-related chemicals in their drinking water, exposing them to potential health risks like infertility and cancer.”
“Innocent life should never be discarded as waste; our environment should not be contaminated; and women deserve full transparency about the dangers of the abortion pill,” Miller said. “When women are fully informed of the harms of chemical abortion pills, I believe they are far more more likely to choose life, sparing not only the life of their unborn child but also preserving the health of our population.”
“This is more than about policy; it’s about protecting life, defending public health, and holding an industry accountable for its actions that has led to the death of millions,” Miller said.
Catholic legal group ‘hopes and prays’ Supreme Court will side with Haitian, Syrian migrants
The Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), which works closely with the U.S. bishops, told EWTN News that it “hopes and prays” the U.S. Supreme Court will order President Donald Trump’s administration to keep protections in place for Syrian and Haitian migrants.
On March 16, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a lawsuit that challenges the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) decision to revoke temporary protected status (TPS) for migrants from Haiti and Syria.
The court ordered that the protections will remain in place for the time being, until the justices make a final decision. This prevents deportations while the case is litigated. The court will hear oral arguments in the last week of April.
More than 300,000 Haitians and more than 6,000 Syrians are protected from removal based on the TPS status but would lose the ability to live and work in the United States if it is ultimately terminated.
“CLINIC hopes and prays that the Supreme Court recognizes that the administration cannot abuse its executive authority and play with human lives,” Elnora Bassey, a policy attorney for CLINIC, told EWTN News.
Bassey said “this constant back-and-forth” between the administration and the courts has put migrants who rely on those protections “in a state of despair as their future remains unknown.”
“The administration’s lawless attempts to interfere with humanitarian protections for immigrants must come to an end, and they must adhere to the legal process set in place to ensure the integrity of that process remains intact,” Bassey said.
“Immigrants, just like all other human beings, ought to be treated with dignity and respect, and the administration must follow the law of the land and provide humanitarian protections rather than disregard the plain language of the statute to protect vulnerable human beings,” she said.
The lawsuit comes as the Trump administration seeks to revoke TPS status for migrants from nearly a dozen countries, action that has faced legal challenges. These moves are part of Trump’s broader efforts to restrict immigration and enforce mass deportations.
Andrew Arthur, former immigration judge and resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), told EWTN News he is “reasonably sure” the Supreme Court will ultimately side with the Trump administration in the lawsuit.
He said the court’s decision to allow the TPS designation to remain in place until the case is settled “keeps everybody in place until the decision is made.”
“It basically maintains the status quo until the case is completed, to err on the side of caution,” Arthur said.
He said he believes the Trump administration will prevail because law permits TPS designations to be offered in response to a “substantial but temporary disruption of living conditions” that prevents people from returning to their home countries safely. He said it’s “meant for a very short period of time.”
Arthur said conditions in Syria are more stable than amid the 2012 designation during the civil war. Haiti’s issues, he said, are more long-standing and Haiti is “no more dangerous … than it was 10 years ago.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) declined to comment on this specific development and referred to previous statements in which the bishops have urged the administration to keep TPS status in place.
Specifically regarding Haiti, USCCB Committee on Migration Chair Bishop Brendan Cahill and Committee on International Justice and Peace Bishop A. Elias Zaidan issued a joint statement in January that said “there is simply no realistic opportunity for the safe and orderly return of people.”
Jurors given piano performance, crash course in music as part of copyright suit over Catholic hymns
A years-old copyright lawsuit over Catholic hymns saw jurors in Oregon this week receive a crash course in music reading along with a livestreamed performance of the songs at the center of the dispute.
The suit, originally filed by American Catholic composer Vincent Ambrosetti in May 2020, accuses songwriter Bernadette Farrell and Oregon Catholic Press of copyright infringement against Ambrosetti’s 1980 hymn “Emmanuel.”
The suit alleges that Farrell’s 1993 hymn “Christ Be Our Light” illegally copied elements of “Emmanuel,” with Ambrosetti arguing for a “striking similarity” between the two songs.
Part of Farrell’s work contains “the same notes, the same key, and the same time signature,” the suit alleges.
The suit was dismissed in March 2024, with U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut arguing that Ambrosetti had not shown that the defendants had had “access” to his song prior to writing their own song or that there was a “striking similarity” between the two works.
But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit reversed that decision in August 2025, reviving the lawsuit and arguing that there were “genuine issues of material fact” regarding the similarity of the songs.
The appeals court noted that in 1985, Oregon Catholic Press then-publisher Owen Alstott allegedly met Ambrosetti at a convention, where Ambrosetti gave Alstott a copy of “Emmanuel.” Alstott would go on to meet and eventually marry Farrell.
The trial began anew on March 16. The Oregonian reported that the panel of eight jurors were instructed on several basic principles of musical comprehension, including how to read music, “how to distinguish between a quarter note and a half note,” and “how many beats each measure holds.”
Lawrence Ferrara, a professor of music at New York University, also performed several musical samples of the disputed works via video during the trial.
Ferrara has participated in court proceedings and copyright disputes for decades, including analysis and professional opinion. In a February preliminary report filed to the court he pointed to similarities in the two songs that he said provide “strong objective musicological evidence of copying.”
Ambrosetti in his 2020 lawsuit said he had sent an infringement notice to the plaintiffs alleging the copyright violation but that they continued to use their song, leading to his filing the suit. The trial is expected to continue through the week.
Catholic ethicists file amicus brief backing Anthropic in Pentagon dispute
A group of Catholic moral theologians and ethicists have filed an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in federal court in support of Anthropic, an American artificial intelligence (AI) company that is suing the Department of Defense over the Pentagon’s insistence that it should be free to use Anthropic’s AI products without restriction, including for mass surveillance and autonomous weaponry.
Anthropic, creator of the widely adopted AI assistant Claude, ran afoul of the Pentagon’s leadership late last month when its CEO, Dario Amodei, told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that the company refused “in good conscience” to allow Claude to be used specifically for those purposes.
In addition to Anthropic subsequently losing a $200 million contract with the Defense Department, Hegseth announced Anthropic would be designated a “supply chain risk” — a first for an American company. President Donald Trump has directed all government agencies to halt the use of Anthropic’s products within six months. Fearing financial annihilation, Anthropic on March 9 filed two lawsuits against the Department of Defense, challenging the “supply chain risk” designation as an inappropriate retaliation.
The falling out between Anthropic and the Pentagon sparked a major debate on the ethics and morality of AI, with many commentators expressing appreciation for Anthropic’s decision to make a principled stand against the government’s demands.
In the brief filed March 13 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division, the group of 14 Catholic scholars — including professors, authors, and at least one priest, Legionary Father Michael Baggot — said the teaching of the Catholic Church supports Anthropic’s decision to reject the Pentagon’s demands on its technology related to mass surveillance and autonomous weapons.
“Anthropic, in the red lines it has drawn for the use of its products on domestic mass surveillance and autonomous weapons systems, sought to uphold minimal standards of ethical conduct for technical progress. In doing so, Anthropic was acting as a responsible and moral corporate citizen, not as a threat to the safety of the American supply chain,” the authors of the brief wrote.
The substance of the brief was written by four scholars: Charles Camosy, an associate professor of moral theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.; Joseph Vukov, an associate professor of philosophy and the associate director of the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage at Loyola University Chicago; Brian J.A. Boyd, a moral theologian; and Brian Patrick Green, a lecturer in ethics at the Graduate School of Engineering at Santa Clara University, a Catholic institution in California.
‘A threat for man and for the world’
In the brief, the scholars note that Anthropic has said it is not categorically opposed to the idea of autonomous weaponry or mass surveillance; rather, the company believes its systems are not yet “sufficiently reliable, interpretable, or controllable to be entrusted with decisions that directly take a human life without human oversight, or to conduct population-scale surveillance.”
While the scholars indicated agreement with Anthropic on the criticisms of such systems’ reliability, they stressed that the Catholic tradition has “consistently emphasized that decisions affecting human life, freedom, and dignity must remain the responsibility of human actors and that not every technically feasible or legally permissible use of a tool is therefore appropriate,” and that “when technology is capable of violating life, dignity, and freedom, it is reasonable to draw clear boundaries around its use.”
On the topic of mass surveillance, the scholars note that the Church’s teaching on the right to privacy is rooted in the dignity of every human person. A widespread surveillance regime by the military would undermine the dignity of those being surveilled, the scholars argued.
Such a centralized surveillance system would also tread on the Catholic idea of subsidiarity — the idea that decisions and oversight should be handled by the smallest, most local competent body — by undermining state and local governments, which are not only more likely to understand context better than a distant AI but which must also live with the effects, the scholars continued.
On the topic of lethal autonomous weapons systems, or LAWS (sometimes called “killer robots”), the scholars firmly asserted that the use of weapons capable of making wartime decisions on their own violates the Catholic principle of “just war.” In a just war, human judgment must be employed to ensure, for example, that a violent act is a proportionate use of force, or in the selection or avoidance of targets. Human involvement in such decisions is crucial, the scholars said, because “judgments of proportionality and discrimination are prudential — not mere pattern matching.” This and other reasons are why the Vatican has repeatedly and forcefully expressed opposition to the idea of LAWS, going back as far as 2013.
“[LAWS] circumvent the kind of practical judgment and careful decision-making that should inform all human decisions, and especially those that involve matters of life and death,” the scholars wrote.
The scholars conclude their brief by quoting Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Spe Salvi on the topic of technological progress. “If technical progress is not matched by corresponding progress in man’s ethical formation, in man’s inner growth (cf. Ephesians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 4:16), then it is not progress at all but a threat for man and for the world,” the encyclical states.
Green, one of the authors of the amicus brief, previously told the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News, that Anthropic’s principled stand, especially coming from a commercial company, is important.
“You can imagine an alternate universe where Dario Amodei just said, ‘OK, we’ll sign it. It’s no big deal.’ They would be doing fine as a business, and the rest of the world would not be talking about AI ethics right now. [But] this universe that we’re living in is one that has been fundamentally changed in a lot of ways because somebody decided to take an ethical stand. I think that’s important,” Green said.
“I think this ethical stand is good, potentially — assuming that the government does not actually destroy Anthropic and reduce their value to zero,” he added.
This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, the sister partner of EWTN News, and has been adapted by EWTN News.