DHS blasts order for improvements to migrant facility, says it houses ‘worst of the worst’
Auxiliary Bishop Jose María García-Maldonado attempts to visit detainees at the Broadview, Illinois, immigration facility and was not admitted Nov. 1, 2025. / Credit: Bryan Sebastian, courtesy of Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership
Washington, D.C., Nov 7, 2025 / 18:40 pm (CNA).
The Trump administration this week denounced a Chicago-based federal judge’s ruling that mandated cleanliness and hygiene standards as well as adequate legal representation at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Illinois.
Government lawyers said Nov. 7 they are in compliance or are in the midst of complying with the judge’s conditions. The detainees’ attorneys, however, say they “are doubtful” the government is “actually in compliance” with some of the conditions, “including as to facility cleaning, the provision of food and water, and the provision of prescription medication.”
The detainees’ attorneys asked the court to conduct an inspection with an expert and have the government provide immediate proof of compliance.
Administration officials said an “activist judge” issued the temporary restraining order and based it on hoaxes, while religious and civil-rights advocates pressed for detainees’ access to the Eucharist.
Access to Communion
A group of 19 spiritual leaders including six priests renewed a request to offer pastoral care and Communion at the Broadview facility in a Nov. 6 letter to ICE and asked to discuss “procedures by which our small delegation of religious ministers can be granted access.” The delegation bringing Communion was denied access Nov. 1.
The judge’s temporary restraining order followed an Oct. 30 lawsuit in which detainees claimed they were placed in unsanitary conditions, provided inadequate food and water, and unconstitutionally deprived of access to legal representation and spiritual care. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said ICE’s Broadview facility houses “criminal illegal aliens” whom it described as “some of the worst of the worst.”
“Some of the worst of the worst including pedophiles, gang members, and rapists have been processed through the facility in recent weeks,” Tricia McLaughlin, assistant Homeland Security secretary for public affairs, said in a Nov. 5 statement.
The list included Jose Manuel Escobar-Cardona, described by DHS as “a criminal illegal alien” from Honduras who was convicted of multiple charges of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor, assault, driving under the influence of liquor, making a false report, illegal reentry, and making a false report.
Also named by DHS was Alfonso Batalla-Garcia, “a criminal illegal alien from Mexico, convicted of sex assault, kidnapping an adult to sexually assault, and homicide.”
Other detainees named by DHS included migrants who were said to have been convicted of drug trafficking, kidnapping, first-degree murder, and weapons trafficking.
Publicly reported individuals detained by ICE in November also included a day care worker at the Rayito De Sol center, a Chicago preschool where the woman was removed in front of children.
Pope Leo XIV on Nov. 4 said: “Many people who’ve lived for years and years and years, never causing problems, have been deeply affected by what’s going on right now.” Leo invited authorities to allow pastoral workers to attend to the needs of detainees.
He reminded that “Jesus says very clearly … at the end of the world, we’re going to be asked … how did you receive the foreigner? Did you receive him and welcome him or not? And I think that there’s a deep reflection that needs to be made in terms of what’s happening.”
A detainee testified he spent six days at the Broadview ICE facility before Judge Robert Gettleman ordered bedding, three meals a day, free water, hygiene products, papers translated into Spanish, a clock in each hold room, and free phone service for detainees to talk to counsel. Gettleman also ordered DHS to list all detainees on the Locator Online Detainee Locator System of ICE.
DHS says facilities such as Broadview are designed to serve only as short-term holding centers, typically for about 12 hours, where individuals are briefly held for processing before being moved to longer-term detention facilities.
“Despite hoaxes spread by criminal illegal aliens, the complicit media, and now an activist judge, the ICE Broadview facility does not have subpar conditions,” McLaughlin said. She said detainees receive three meals a day, access to water, and proper medical care.
Neither McLaughlin’s statement nor the judge’s order addressed the lawsuit’s claims that Broadview detainees have been unconstitutionally denied access to faith leaders and clergy.
McLaughlin wrote on X that “religious organizations have ALWAYS been welcome to provide services to detainees in ICE detention facilities. Religious leaders may request access to facilities through proper channels and have those requests approved.”
McLaughlin also responded to questions from CNA, saying dangerous conditions — including belligerent actions and “attacks,” such as the use of tear gas, by protesters — and Broadview’s status as a short-term “field office” have prevented ICE from accommodating requests by religious organizations seeking access to detainees there.
“ICE staff has repeatedly informed religious organizations that, due to Broadview’s status as a field office and the ongoing threat to civilians, detainees, and officers, they are not able to accommodate these requests at this time,” McLaughlin told CNA. “Even before the attacks on the Broadview facility, it was not within standard operating procedure for religious services to be provided in a field office, as detainees are continuously brought in, processed, and transferred out.”
Chicago faith leaders wrote to ICE Nov. 7: “We understand that in past years ministers were granted access to the Broadview ICE facility for pastoral purposes. We also note public statements by DHS acknowledging detainees’ rights to chaplaincy and religious resources, while noting that requests for entry may require advance approval.”
‘Careful review’
Bishop Robert E. Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, who serves on the Department of Justice’s Religious Liberty Commission, said on X that senior officials in the U.S. government “assured” him that detainees in immigration custody will have access to Catholic sacraments and that the situation is “under careful review.”
The Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC) said in a email Nov. 7: “CLINIC is disturbed by these instances in which the human and constitutional right to religious practice is being restricted. We hope the administration follows up on its ‘careful review’ by rectifying this and taking further action.”
Pope Leo’s recent exhortation Dilexi Te says: “The Church, like a mother, accompanies those who are walking. Where the world sees threats, she sees children; where walls are built, she builds bridges. She knows that her proclamation of the Gospel is credible only when it is translated into gestures of closeness and welcome. And she knows that in every rejected migrant, it is Christ himself who knocks at the door of the community.”
New Jersey diocese drops lawsuit in anticipation of fix to foreign-born priest visa issue
null / Credit: Taiga/Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 7, 2025 / 18:10 pm (CNA).
A Catholic diocese in New Jersey has dropped a lawsuit against the U.S. government over a rule change to the religious worker visa used by foreign-born priests.
Attorneys for the Diocese of Paterson dropped a lawsuit they filed last year against the Biden administration’s State Department, Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, along with their respective heads, after reportedly coming to an agreement regarding a solution with national implications, according to local reports.
The lawsuit was filed Aug. 8, 2024, in the U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey.
Raymond Lahoud, the lawyer representing the diocese, said in an Oct. 31 email that the diocese and its five foreign-born priests listed as plaintiffs moved to dismiss the case “to allow for agency action and/or rulemaking that will render moot the relief plaintiffs sought from the court.”
The priests named in the suit include Filipino citizens Father Regin Nico Dela Cruz Quintos, Father Joemin Kharlo Chong Parinas, Father Armando Diaz Vizcara Jr., and Father Joseph Anthony Aguila Mactal, and Colombian national Father Manuel Alejandro Cuellar Ceballos.
Lahoud also said in the email that his team had “reached a deal that impacts the entire country” and that he would provide more details “as soon as I am permitted.”
Lahoud did not respond to multiple requests by CNA for comment.
The lawyer later said the diocese “was hoping proposed legislation regarding religious worker visas would resolve their lawsuit,” citing legislation introduced in both the U.S. House and Senate that would allow religious workers to remain in the country amid the unprecedented backlog in the EB-4 visa category.
Neither piece of legislation has moved forward amid the government shutdown.
Religious workers such as foreign-born priests come to the U.S. on R-1 visas, which allow them to remain in the country for up to five years. During this time, religious workers seeking to apply for a green card must do so in the EB-4 visa category. However, due to an unprecedented backlog, the former 12- to 24-month process has stalled significantly enough that religious workers are faced with the possibility of having to return to their home countries before completing their green card application.
The EB-4 “special immigrant” category can distribute up to 7.1% of all available immigration visas, the second-lowest of any category, and contains not only programs for religious workers but also individuals such as former employees of the U.S. government overseas, broadcasters, and, recently under the Biden administration, unaccompanied minors.
‘This is our faith in action:’ Catholic groups expand food aid amid SNAP cuts
Volunteers prepare and distribute food to families coming through the drive-through distribution site at the Catholic Charities Diocese of Galveston-Houston Guadalupe Center, a food pantry near central Houston. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston
CNA Staff, Nov 7, 2025 / 17:40 pm (CNA).
As federal food benefits have been frozen during the government shutdown, Catholic dioceses and charities around the country are holding emergency food drives and launching fundraising efforts.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits will resume once the government passes a bill to fund the federal government — but, more than a month into the shutdown, there is no set end date in sight.
Two federal district judges at the end of October moved to compel the Trump administration to pay for SNAP benefits, but because Congress has not yet authorized funding for federal government operations, the Trump administration asked an appeals court on Friday to block the orders and continue with partial SNAP payments.
The pause in SNAP benefits is estimated to affect about 42 million Americans.
In St. Louis, food pantries saw an influx of people in need. In response, parishes across the archdiocese are holding emergency food drives for the first two weekends of November.
Nearly 300,000 people in the area could “lose access to vital food benefits,” Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski said in a letter to pastors, whom he asked to “respond with love and generosity to this urgent need.”
“We are called to be people of faith and action,” Rozanski said. “And so, I ask the good people of our archdiocese to come together to help our neighbors who are in danger of going without their ‘daily food.’”
The archdiocese is working with the local Catholic Charities and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to ensure that food pantries are full.
Julie Komanetsky, a spokesperson for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in St. Louis, said the food drives are “bringing great results for our food pantries.”
“This is our faith in action,” she told CNA. “Like the story of the good Samaritan who sees the victim and cares for him, Catholics see that people need to be fed and they are responding. They are answering God’s call to be good Samaritans rather than indifferent bystanders!”
So far, the parish food drives have been “very successful and will help keep our pantries stocked and able to support the need,” Komanetsky said.
“Our hope for this effort is to keep all within the boundaries of our archdiocese from going hungry during this difficult time in our country,” she continued. “This is our united Catholic effort to let all people know that we see them, we hear their needs, and we will help.”
“Pope Leo tells us: Faith cannot be separated from love for the poor,” she continued. “This effort is a testament of our faith and our love.”
St. Louis is not the only archdiocese finding creative solutions to the SNAP crisis. In Connecticut, Hartford Archbishop Christopher Coyne has released $500,000 of emergency funding to food banks.
Coyne said the funding is being contributed “in the spirit of Jesus’ command to serve our brothers and sisters in need.”
“The Catholic Church provides relief and hope for God’s children,” Coyne said in a statement. “It’s what we have done for over 2,000 years and what we continue to do today.”
The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston Catholic Charities is seeing a similar rise in need. Across its three food pantries Catholic Charities is extending hours and increasing distribution.
“Many families across our service area are struggling, worried about missing paychecks or not being able to put food on the table,” Cynthia Nunes Colbert, who heads the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, told CNA.
The group is also offering emergency rental assistance to federal workers and is reaching out to the wider community for support by encouraging food drives, volunteering, and donations, Catholic Charities told CNA.
“Whether it’s through financial donations, food drives, or volunteering, together we can provide hope and stability during these uncertain times,” Colbert said.
As part of a nationwide effort, Catholic Charities USA launched a fundraising effort in light of the funding cuts. The funds raised will go directly toward buying and sending food to Catholic Charities groups across the country to support ministries such as food pantries and soup kitchens.
For families who rely on food assistance programs, this a “catastrophic moment” said CCUSA President and CEO Kerry Alys Robinson.
The government shutdown “has created incredibly serious, real-life consequences for millions of people, from furloughed federal workers to those living in poverty who will now struggle even more to provide for their families,” Robinson said in a recent statement.
Pope Leo XIV plans to hold major meeting of cardinals in January
Cardinals follow the ceremony during the ordinary public consistory for the creation of new cardinals at St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, Dec. 7, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
National Catholic Register, Nov 7, 2025 / 17:10 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV is planning to convene an extraordinary consistory of cardinals in early January, the theme of which is not yet known.
In a brief communication sent to cardinals on Nov. 6 and obtained by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, on Friday, the Vatican Secretariat of State said that “Holy Father Leo XIV has in mind to convene an extraordinary consistory for the days of Jan. 7 and 8, 2026.”
“In due course, the dean of the College of Cardinals will send to Your Eminence the relevant letter with further details,” the note continued, before ending: “With profound reverence, coordinating office of the Secretariat of State.”
When the Register asked Holy See Press Office Director Matteo Bruni about the communication on Friday, he said the press office had not yet publicly “confirmed its existence” and that he did not think an announcement of such an event would be made “that far ahead.”
As well as the topic remaining unknown, it is also not yet certain if all cardinals have been notified of the planned gathering.
Extraordinary consistories are usually special gatherings of all cardinals, convened by the pope to discuss matters of “particular needs of the Church” or highly important issues requiring broad consultation among the world’s cardinals.
News of the meeting comes after cardinals at this year’s conclave complained about a lack of meetings and collegiality under Pope Francis.
Held behind closed doors, the last extraordinary consistory at the Vatican took place on Aug. 29-30, 2022, under Pope Francis. Its purpose was to bring all the cardinals together to discuss the implementation and meaning of the new apostolic constitution for the Roman Curia, titled Praedicate Evangelium. The meeting also focused on the reforms of Church governance and the Roman Curia.
During that consistory, cardinals received an official report on the curial reform and then broke into language groups to debate the practical consequences and underlying principles of the new constitution before reuniting for a concluding summary discussion. The format was a departure from previous consistories, modeled instead on synodality.
Pope Francis also used the opportunity to hold a consistory of new cardinals at the same time, although it is unlikely that will be Pope Leo’s intention, as the College of Cardinals already has 128 cardinal-electors, well over the advised limit of 120.
Prior to that extraordinary consistory, a more famous one was held on Feb. 20-21, 2014, also under Pope Francis. That gathering brought together all the cardinals to reflect on the theme of the family and was intended to provide guidance and theological foundations for a Synod on the Family, which was held later in 2014 and again in 2015.
That extraordinary consistory notably featured a controversial address by Cardinal Walter Kasper in which the German theologian launched what became known as the “Kasper Proposal” that would open the door to a “pastoral solution” for some civilly remarried divorcees to be able to receive holy Communion. The proposal, which attracted considerable criticism and controversy, significantly influenced the synod proceedings, and a form of the Kasper Proposal was included in Pope Francis’ 2016 postsynodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia. A number of cardinals rose to criticize Kasper’s intervention, according to reports.
That was the only extraordinary consistory of the College of Cardinals under Francis at which members were permitted to speak freely on any topic they wished. At subsequent such consistories, in February 2015 and the later one in August 2022, interventions were limited to certain subjects.
Prior to Francis, Pope John Paul II convened six extraordinary consistories, three of which discussed issues pertaining to curial reform and the Holy See’s financial situation. The other three gatherings covered present-day threats to life, the proclamation of Christ as sole savior, and the threat of sects (1991); preparation for the 2000 Jubilee (1994); and the Church’s prospects in the third millennium in light of Novo Millennio Ineunte (2001), John Paul II’s apostolic letter outlining the Church’s priorities for the millennium.
Benedict XVI held no formal extraordinary consistories during his pontificate, instead choosing to hold all-day meetings the day before consistories of new cardinals.
This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.
Pope Leo XIV warns about new addictions: pornography and internet abuse
null / Credit: sitthiphong/Shutterstock
ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 7, 2025 / 16:11 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV on Friday warned about new addictions of recent times such as compulsive gambling, betting, and pornography as consequences of excessive internet use.
The Holy Father issued his warning in a video message addressed to participants in the seventh National Conference on Addictions, organized in Rome by Italy’s Presidency of the Council of Ministers.
In his Nov. 7 message, the pontiff emphasized that in recent times, in addition to addictions such as drugs and alcohol — which continue to be the most prevalent — “new forms have emerged, since the growing use of the internet, computers, and smartphones is associated not only with clear benefits but also an excessive use that often leads to addictions with negative consequences for health.”
These addictions, the pope explained, are related “to compulsive gambling and betting, pornography, and almost constant presence on digital platforms. The object of addiction becomes an obsession, conditioning behavior and daily life.”
He emphasized that these phenomena are “a symptom of the mental or inner distress of the individual and a social decline in positive values and references, particularly in teenagers and young people.”
In this context, he stressed that this time of youth “is a time of trials and questions, of the search for meaning in life,” sometimes marked by drug use, the pursuit of easy money through slot machines, or internet addiction, which demonstrates “that we live in a world without hope, where there is a lack of vigorous human and spiritual proposals.”
Consequently, he lamented that many young people “think that all forms of behavior are equal, as they are unable to distinguish good from evil and do not have a sense of moral limits.”
For this reason, the Holy Father urged everyone to value and encourage “the efforts of parents and various educational agencies, such as schools, parishes, and oratories, aimed at inspiring spiritual and moral values in the younger generation so that they behave responsibly.”
Furthermore, he emphasized that young people “need to form their consciences, develop their inner lives, and establish positive relationships with their peers and constructive dialogue with adults in order to become free and responsible architects of their own lives.”
Pope Leo made a powerful appeal to institutions, the Church, and all of society “to perceive among these young people a cry for help and a deep thirst for life, to offer an attentive and supportive presence that invites them to make an intellectual and moral effort, and helps them to forge their will.”
He thus called for a commitment to prevention efforts “that translates into action by the community as a whole.” He also emphasized the urgency of “boosting the self-esteem of the younger generation in order to combat the sense of insecurity and emotional instability fostered both by social pressures and by the very nature of adolescence.”
Finally, he encouraged the formulation of “practical proposals aimed at promoting a culture of solidarity and subsidiarity; a culture that opposes selfishness and utilitarian and economic logic but which reaches out to others, listening to them, on a journey of encounter and relationship with our neighbors, especially when they are most vulnerable and fragile.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Underground Chinese bishop who said his life ‘consists of speaking about Jesus’ dies at 90
null / Credit: esfera/Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 7, 2025 / 15:41 pm (CNA).
An underground Chinese Catholic bishop from the Diocese of Zhengding has died at 90 years old.
Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo, a Catholic bishop in China renowned for his unwavering adherence to the Church despite decades of persecution at the hands of the Chinese government, passed away on Oct. 29.
A member of the underground Church, unsanctioned by the Chinese government, Zhiguo was bishop of the Zhengnding Diocese in the Hebei Province. He was known for having a missionary spirit, promoting priestly training, caring for children with disabilities, and maintaining communion with Rome.
Born on May 1, 1935, in Wuqiu Village, Jinzhou City, Zhiguo was ordained a priest in 1980 by Bishop Fan Xueyan of Baoding, who later consecrated him as bishop, according to Vatican News’ Chinese-language site.
“The big problems started when I was a seminarian,” he told the Italian news outlet La Stampa in 2016. “From 1963 to 1978 I worked as a forced laborer in remote, cold and hostile areas.”
In the same interview, he said he had “lost count” of how many times he had been arrested. Latest UCA reports say his last arrest took place in August 2020.
“My life,” Zhiguo said when asked about his experience as a pastor in China, “consists of speaking about Jesus. I have nothing else to say or do. My whole life, every single day, is dedicated to telling others about Jesus. Everyone.”
Pope Leo XIV highlights role of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Blessed Juan de Palafox in Mexico
Blessed Juan de Palafox y Mendoza and Our Lady of Guadalupe. / Credit: Public domain
ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 7, 2025 / 15:11 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV praised the missionary work of the Church in Mexico throughout history, inspired by the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the example of Blessed Juan de Palafox y Mendoza.
In a message addressed to the participants of the 17th National Missionary Congress of Mexico, being held in Puebla Nov. 7–9, the Holy Father noted that the greatest privilege and duty of missionaries is “to bring Christ to the heart of every person.”
Taking a closer look at missionary work, the pope offered the parable of the yeast from the Gospel of Matthew: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened” (Mt 13:33).
In light of this verse, the pope explained that the “leaven of the Gospel” arrived in Mexico in the hands of a few missionaries: “These were the hands of the Church, which began to knead the leaven they carried with them — the deposit of faith — with the new flour of a continent that did not yet know the name of Christ.”
The Holy Father noted that the Gospel “did not erase what it found but transformed it,” until it “took root in their hearts and blossomed into works of unique holiness and beauty.”
Legacy of Our Lady of Guadalupe and Blessed Juan de Palafox y Mendoza
The pope referred to the message of the Virgin Mary on Tepeyac Hill as “a sign of perfect inculturation” that God bestowed upon the Church, and noted that the message of Guadalupe provided “missionary momentum” for the first evangelizers, who “faithfully took up the task of doing what Christ commanded.”
He also highlighted the figure of Blessed Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, whom he described as a “pastor and missionary who understood his ministry as service and leaven.”
The Holy Father recalled his visit to Puebla as prior general of the Order of St. Augustine, where, he stated, the figure of Blessed Juan “remained alive in the memory of the people of Puebla; his [spiritual] fatherhood had left such a profound mark that it is still felt today in the simple faith of the faithful.”
Palafox served as bishop of Puebla in the mid-1600s.
For the pontiff, the example of the bishop challenges pastors today, “for it teaches that to govern is to serve, that to provide serious formation is to evangelize, and that all authority, when exercised according to the criteria of Christ, becomes a source of communion and hope.”
Furthermore, as the pope pointed out, in his life and writings Palafox “shows that the true missionary does not dominate but loves; does not impose but serves; and does not exploit faith for personal gain.”
Looking at the present, he lamented that “social divisions, the challenges of new technologies, and sincere desires for peace continue to be ground together like new flours that risk being fermented with bad yeast.”
Therefore, he emphasized that today’s missionaries are called to be “the hands of the Church that place the leaven of the risen Lord in the dough of history, so that hope may be fermented anew.”
“We must be willing to put our hands into the dough of the world! It is not enough to talk about the flour without getting our hands messed up; we must touch it,” he emphasized.
He added: “This is how the kingdom will grow — not by force or numbers but by the patience of those who, with faith and love, continue kneading alongside God.”
At the end of his message, the pope noted that the Catholic Church in Mexico “strives to live this call of Christ fully” and thus thanked the missionaries for their dedication.
“May the Lord Jesus make all your initiatives fruitful and may Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Star of Evangelization, always accompany you with her motherly tenderness, showing you the way that leads to God,” he prayed.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
Pope Leo XIV calls on Catholics to lead in ethical AI development
Pope Leo XIV greets pilgrims during his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025 / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA
Vatican City, Nov 7, 2025 / 14:41 pm (CNA).
The story of a mother whose son committed suicide after interacting with a chatbot moved participants at an AI conference in Rome on Friday, underscoring what Pope Leo XIV described earlier in the day as Catholics’ moral and spiritual responsibility for the development of artificial intelligence (AI).
An MIT researcher nearly broke down in tears as he recounted the experience of the woman, Megan Garcia, who herself took part in the conference and spoke there to experts in robotics and AI.
“I apologize for being so emotional because it is so emotional,” said Jose J. Pacheco, co-director of the MIT Advanced Manufacturing and Design Program, speaking at the Builders AI Forum at the Pontifical Gregorian University on Nov. 7. He said Garcia's story illustrated “how urgent this conversation needs to be, how urgent this conversation is, and how much responsibility we have.”
In a message to the conference, which was read aloud to participants on Friday morning, Leo said the development of AI “cannot be confined to research labs or investment portfolios. It must be a profoundly ecclesial endeavor.”
He urged all AI creators to “cultivate moral discernment” and put technology at the service of every human person.
AI, the pope wrote, “carries an ethical and spiritual weight” because “every design choice expresses a vision of humanity.” He called on builders of AI “to develop systems that reflect justice, solidarity, and a genuine reverence for life.”
“Whether designing algorithms for Catholic education, tools for compassionate health care, or creative platforms that tell the Christian story with truth and beauty, each participant contributes to a shared mission: to place technology at the service of evangelization and the integral development of every person,” Leo XIV said.
The two-day Builders AI Forum brought together Catholic ethicists, entrepreneurs, educators, technology experts, and health care professionals from more than 160 organizations across the United States, Europe, Latin America, Asia, and the Vatican. Hosted by the Pontifical Gregorian University and sponsored by Longbeard, the company behind the Catholic chatbot Magisterium AI, the event aimed to form an interdisciplinary community to guide AI innovation through the lens of Catholic social teaching.
In small working groups, participants discussed AI’s impact on education, health care, and business. Educators debated how much children should interact with chatbots, while health care experts questioned what the “essential role of a human” in medicine could be in an increasingly automated system.
On the sidelines of the conference, young Catholic entrepreneurs pitched new AI tools and applications to potential investors, and professors exchanged ideas with practitioners over cappuccinos. Despite differences in opinion, participants broadly agreed that Catholics — with their intellectual and ethical tradition and focus on human dignity — must help shape AI’s future.
Josh Thomason, CEO of TrekAI, an Atlanta-based Catholic tutoring startup, said he attended to “come together with like-minded believers to think together about where we are today and how we iterate towards what that future is.” He added that “it is critical that people of faith are ultimately working in this space to shape it.”
John Johnson, CEO of Patmos Hosting and the Albertus Magnus Institute in California, urged participants to offer a “human alternative” to the commodification of people by technology.
“Every tech company that invented this technology … has the same exact product and that’s you, and that’s me,” Johnson said. “The Church … is called to stand up and very aggressively, even triumphantly, pronounce … the transcendent alternative to the commodification of the human person.”
Pope Leo XIV, the first American pope and a former mathematics major, has made ethical technology one of the key priorities of his papacy. He said he chose his papal name in part to honor Pope Leo XIII, who addressed the challenges of the industrial revolution in his encyclical Rerum Novarum.
“In our own day,” Leo said shortly after his election in May, “the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice, and labor.”
Leo XIV praised the Builders AI Forum for fostering “dialogue between faith and reason renewed in the digital epoch,” saying that “intelligence — whether artificial or human — finds its fullest meaning in love, freedom, and relationship with God.”
Think tank criticizes Biden for fueling anti-Christian bias in government
President Joe Biden speaks during an interfaith prayer service at the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis, King of France, in New Orleans on Jan. 6, 2025. / Credit: ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 7, 2025 / 14:11 pm (CNA).
A report from the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) compiled regulatory actions under former President Joe Biden that the researchers argue show systematic anti-Christian bias from the prior administration.
The Nov. 3 report was released in response to President Donald Trump’s Feb. 6 executive order to eradicate anti-Christian bias and protect religious liberty through changes to federal policies and regulations.
According to the report, the Biden administration disregarded religious liberty as a means to enforce its “radical pro-abortion and pro-LGBTQI+ policies.” It states that religious liberty was ignored “when it came to those policy priorities,” which affected public and private employees, businesses, religious organizations, students, and those seeking federal partnerships.
The report lists three key ways in which this was carried out: policies at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that attacked health-care-related rights of conscience, policies at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that jeopardized religious liberty, and a broader failure to respect religious liberty through the rulemaking process.
Anti-Christian policies and practices
Under Biden, the report said HHS dismantled the enforcement of conscience protections for health care workers despite safeguards in federal law. It says former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra got rid of most mentions of conscience and religious freedom protections and eliminated the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division.
Biden’s HHS website listed four actions regarding conscience protections as of 2024, and two of those were to halt enforcement measures taken under Trump, the report said. The two other measures sought to protect health care workers who participated in abortions.
HHS also sought to enforce the Affordable Care Act’s ban on “sex” discrimination to include a ban on discriminating against a person based on “gender identity” or having an abortion. HHS later conceded it would hear religious liberty objections on a “case-by-case basis” to permit employees to bring cases against religious employers, according to the report.
The report said HHS used the same “case-by-case” standard for other anti-discrimination rules, including in the administration of grants.
At EEOC, the administration sought to limit religious exemptions to anti-discrimination laws, the report notes. One example listed was enforcement of the Protecting Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, in which the administration sought to force employers, including religious organizations, to offer accommodations for women to procure abortions. This prompted a lawsuit from the U.S. Catholic bishops and other groups, which led to multiple courts halting enforcement.
The report notes that the EEOC also pushed transgender pronoun and bathroom mandates on businesses and often argued against religious liberty exemption requests in court proceedings.
The authors of the report encouraged the Trump administration to rewrite any regulations that jeopardize religious liberty. It also suggested that Congress pass laws to better protect religious liberty, which could prevent future administrations from disregarding those protections.
EPPC President Ryan Anderson serves on the Religious Liberty Commission, which Trump created earlier this year to combat discrimination against religious people and organizations.
U.S. Supreme Court allows Trump administration to require biological sex on passports
Photo of the latest federal passport form with no “X” option and the updated sex identification section. / Credit: U.S. Department of State
CNA Staff, Nov 7, 2025 / 11:56 am (CNA).
The U.S. Supreme Court said on Thursday that the Trump administration could require passports to display an applicant’s biological sex, granting the White House a victory in its efforts to roll back transgender ideology in federal policy.
The court said in an unsigned Nov. 6 order that requiring biological sex on a passport “no more offends equal protection principles than displaying [a] country of birth.”
In either case, “the government is merely attesting to a historical fact without subjecting anyone to differential treatment,” the court said.
The White House is “likely to succeed” in its effort to defend the law, the high court said in the order.
The decision overturns a lower court order that paused the policy while the lawsuit in question plays out in court. The suit was brought by a woman who identifies as a man and who challenged the rule on 14th Amendment grounds.
In a dissent, U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan referred to the passport policy as “questionably legal” and argued that individuals who identify as the opposite sex will suffer “concrete injury” if required to display their sex on their passport.
Citing the government’s decades-old policy allowing for opposite-sex identification on passports, the justices argued that Americans who want to be identified as the opposite sex would experience “significant anxiety and fear for their safety” if required to correctly identify the biological marker on their passports.
In a post on X on Nov. 6, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the order was the administration’s “24th victory” at the Supreme Court so far.
“Today’s stay allows the government to require citizens to list their biological sex on their passport,” Bondi wrote. “In other words: There are two sexes, and our attorneys will continue fighting for that simple truth.”
The policy comes after several months of effort by the Trump administration to reverse transgender-related rules and policies at the federal level.
In January President Donald Trump signed an executive order removing gender ideology guidance, communication, policies, and forms from governmental agencies. That order also affirmed that the word “woman” means “adult human female.”
That same order required government identification like passports and personnel records to reflect biological reality and “not self-assessed gender identity.”
The White House has also investigated hospitals for performing irreversible and experimental transgender procedures on children. Multiple U.S. children’s hospitals have ended their child gender programs in response to federal pressure.
Church leaders, including bishops around the world, have spoken out against transgenderism and gender ideology. In April 2024, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith said in its declaration Dignitas Infinita that gender ideology “intends to deny the greatest possible difference that exists between living beings: sexual difference.”
The Holy See said at the time that “all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman are to be rejected” and that “only by acknowledging and accepting this difference in reciprocity can each person fully discover themselves, their dignity, and their identity.”