Kate Scanlon

President Trump's decision to initiate major combat operations against Iran in concert with Israel has raised debate within Congress over its war powers prerogatives.

A Catholic legal network and other opponents of the Trump administration's suspension of immigration from 75 countries are calling into question a key claim the government made in support of that policy.

The statement from 20 U.S. prelates called for the restoration of asylum in the immigration system, particularly at the border, and an end to intimidation and fear tactics in enforcement efforts.

The Holy See "will not participate" in President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" for Gaza, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, said Feb. 17, citing "points that leave us somewhat perplexed."

A group including Catholic organizations announced Jan. 21 a new partnership — The Catholic Immigrant Prophetic Action Project — that aims to assist the Catholic Church in the U.S. in organizing a robust response on behalf of migrants and refugees in the country, including those with legal status, who are affected by mass deportation efforts.

The Department of Homeland Security said Jan. 14 it issued an interim final rule reducing wait times for religious worker visas. Catholic advocates were among those who pushed the Trump administration to address the backlog in their visa category.

Although there was a significant increase in executions in the U.S. in 2025, a smaller number of new death sentences was imposed, a new report from the Death Penalty Information Center found.

A prayer service outside the Washington headquarters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Dec. 12 paid homage to Mary and showed support for "our immigrant brothers and sisters," organizers said.

Despite an uptick in executions in the U.S. in 2025, opponents of the death penalty lauded decreases in new death sentences and waning public support for the practice during comments at a Dec. 3 press event announcing a new coalition called the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty.

The Supreme Court on Dec. 2 heard oral arguments in an appeal from a group of faith-based pregnancy centers in New Jersey challenging an investigation by that state's attorney general alleging they misled people about their services and seeking information about their donors.

President Donald Trump said in a series of social media posts on Thanksgiving Day that he will "permanently pause" all immigration from what he called "Third World Countries," prompting concern from Catholic immigration advocates.

" … I'm also saying this as a Catholic, I think they need to spend time fixing the Catholic Church," the Trump administration official said.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Nov. 10 a case that asked it to revisit its landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. The 2015 ruling overturned state laws defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman, a decision the head of the U.S. Catholic bishops at the time called a "tragic error."

A federal appeals court will hear arguments in January about state laws in Texas and Louisiana requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms.

As the U.S. Supreme Court considered President Donald Trump's sweeping tariff policy, economists raised concerns about the potential impact of that policy on the poor.

Closely watched off-year elections in several states that offered the first major opportunity for voters to weigh in at the ballot box since President Donald Trump began his second term resulted in key victories for Democratic candidates and showed signs voters were motivated by cost-of-living increases, an area of Catholic social concern.

The ruling "reaffirms a fundamental principle: no administration can use hunger as a political weapon," the coalition of plaintiffs in the case said in a statement. 

The Trump administration indicated it would restrict the number of refugees it admits annually into the country to 7,500, with most of that number to be white South Africans.

The president of the U.S. bishops' conference has urged lawmakers to fund federal food assistance before a looming deadline risks disrupting benefits for more than 40 million people.

A coalition of Catholic organizations held prayer vigils across the country on Oct. 22 for what organizers called "a national day of public witness for our immigrant brothers and sisters."