U.S.
Supreme Court finds Trump executive order on birthright citizenship unconstitutional
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship, finding it violated the 14th Amendment. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community.” Previously, the Supreme Court limited the ability of federal judges to issue nationwide injunctions against the order while litigation over it proceeded, but did not directly address the merits of the order itself. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc. previously submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, arguing that ending the practice of birthright citizenship would weaken families and risk leaving children stateless, thereby making them targets for violence, trafficking and exploitation. On June 25, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration can end a program temporarily shielding eligible Haitian and Syrian immigrants living in the U.S. from deportation. The Trump administration previously asked the high court to pause rulings by federal judges that barred the government from ending Temporary Protected Status designation for Haitian and Syrian nationals. At the time, the U.S. bishops and other advocates urged that TPS for eligible Haitians remain in place due to ongoing unsafe conditions in that country.
Religious Liberty Commission draft report recommends DOJ guidance on Establishment Clause
WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice’s Religious Liberty Commission on June 26 presented a draft of its report to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. “We will closely study this report that is being presented to me as president today,” Trump said at the presentation, vowing his administration would work toward “protecting religious liberty for all Americans.” The draft notably advises the president to “instruct the Department of Justice to issue guidance clarifying the proper understanding of the Establishment Clause and separation of church and state.” It does not address some of the specific cases the commission heard testimony about in hearings, including state laws requiring clergy to report child abuse or neglect without exceptions for clergy-penitent privilege, and an effort by an Indigenous coalition seeking to protect its sacred site at Oak Flat in Arizona, previously on federal land, from destruction by a copper mining giant. But the draft makes recommendations on other key topics on which the commission heard testimony, including preventing violence against houses of worship, combating antisemitism, protecting the ability of faith-based organizations to participate in public-private partnerships and grants, and protecting religious freedom for members of the armed services. (OSV News)
Pope names new bishop for Puerto Rico
PONCE, Puerto Rico — On June 24, Pope Leo XIV accepted the resignation of Bishop Rubén Antonio González Medina, who has headed the Diocese of Ponce for more than 10 years, and appointed as his replacement Bishop-designate Geraldo Ramírez Torres, the vicar general of the diocese. Bishop González, a member of the Claretian order, is 77, two years past the age when canon law requires bishops to submit their resignation to the pope. Bishop-designate Ramirez was born on Nov. 17, 1967, in Villalba, Puerto Rico, and ordained a priest for the Diocese of Ponce in 1991. Since his ordination, he has been a parochial vicar, parish administrator or parish priest at a number of parishes. He was diocesan consultant for Catholic youth from 1994 to 1998. Since 2006, he has been spiritual director of the Cursillos de Cristiandad movement. He has served as vicar general of the diocese since 2021. (OSV News)
WORLD
SSPX carries out unauthorized consecration of 4 bishops despite pope’s warning
ECONE, Switzerland — Despite a personal appeal from Pope Leo XIV, the Society of St. Pius X went ahead July 1 with the unauthorized consecration of four new bishops at its seminary in Écône. In a June 29 letter released by the Vatican, the pope urged SSPX Superior General Father Davide Pagliarani to cancel the ceremony, warning it would constitute a schismatic act and could deprive the faithful of lawful, and in some cases valid, access to the sacraments. The Vatican had also said the bishops would incur excommunication for proceeding without a papal mandate. During the ceremony, one of the new bishops professed obedience to Pope Leo before the consecrations continued. The consecrations revive tensions dating to the 1988 illicit episcopal ordinations carried out by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. (OSV News)
