Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 19, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Here is an overview of some of the religious freedom developments and news in the United States and abroad in 2025:

White House started the Religious Liberty Commission

President Donald Trump established the White House Religious Liberty Commission in May to report on threats to religious freedom in the U.S. and seek to advance legal protections. 

The commission and advisory boards include members of various religions. Catholic members on the commission include Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Bishop Robert Barron. Catholic advisory board members include Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, Bishop Thomas Paprocki, Bishop Kevin Rhoades, and Father Thomas Ferguson.

Lawmakers condemned persecution of Christians

Rep. Riley Moore, R-West Virginia, and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, introduced a joint resolution condemning the persecution of Christians in Muslim-majority countries across the world.

The measure called on the Trump administration to leverage trade, security negotiations, and other diplomatic tools to advocate for religious freedom. 

Court blocked law that would require priests to violate the seal of confession

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a state law in May that would require priests to report child abuse to authorities even if they hear about it during the sacrament of confession. Catholic bishops brought a lawsuit against the measure. A federal judge blocked the controversial law.

Trump announced federal guidelines to protect prayer at public schools

President Donald Trump announced the U.S. Department of Education will issue federal guidelines to protect prayer at public schools during a Sept. 8 Religious Liberty Commission hearing. He said the guidelines will “protect the right to prayer in our public schools and [provide for] its total protection.”

The president said he sought the guidelines after hearing about instances of public school students and staff being censored and facing disciplinary action for engaging in prayer, reading the Bible, and publicly expressing their faith.

Report found most states fail to safeguard religious liberty 

About three-fourths of states scored less than 50% on Napa Legal Institute’s religious freedom index, which measures how well states safeguard religious liberty for faith-based organizations. The October report was part of Napa’s Faith & Freedom Index that showed Alabama scored the highest and Michigan scored the lowest.

Lawmakers urged federal court to allow Ten Commandments display

First Liberty Institute and Heather Gebelin Hacker of Hacker Stephens LLP filed an amicus brief in December on behalf of 46 United States lawmakers urging the federal court to allow the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools.

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana; Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas; and Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, R-Texas, were among the lawmakers who supported the cause after federal judges blocked Texas and Louisiana laws requiring the display of the commandments.

Supreme Court ruled on religious freedom cases 

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a group of Maryland parents who sued a school district over its refusal to allow families to opt their children out of reading LGBT-themed books. 

In a 6-3 decision on July 27 in Mahmoud v. Taylor, the court ruled the Catholic, Orthodox, and Muslim parents “are likely to succeed on their claim that the board’s policies unconstitutionally burden their religious exercise.” 

In July, the Supreme Court ordered the New York Court of Appeals to revisit Diocese of Albany v. Harris, which challenged a 2017 New York state mandate requiring employers to cover abortions in health insurance plans.

In October, a Native American group working to stop the destruction of a centuries-old religious ritual site in Arizona lost its appeal to the Supreme Court.

Religious liberty abroad: Religious freedom diminished in Afghanistan

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said in a report that “religious freedom conditions in Afghanistan continue to decline dramatically under Taliban rule.”

The USCIRF wrote in an Aug. 15 report examining the Taliban’s Law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice one year after its enactment: The morality law “impacts all Afghans” but “disproportionately affects religious minorities and women, eradicating their participation in public life and systematically eliminating their right to [freedom of religious belief].”

Chinese government banned Catholic priests from evangelizing online

In September, the State Administration for Religious Affairs in China banned several forms of online evangelization for religious clergy of all religions, including Catholic priests.

The Code of Conduct for Religious Clergy was made up of 18 articles including one that said faith leaders are banned from performing religious rituals through live broadcasts, short videos, or online meetings. 

U.S. commission said China should be designated as a country of particular concern

The USCIRF reported China tries to exert total control over religion and said the U.S. Department of State should redesignate China as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) regarding religious freedom.

USCIRF said in September that China uses surveillance, fines, retribution against family members, imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture, and other forms of abuse to control the Catholic Church and other religious communities in the nation.

In its annual report, USCIRF also recommended Afghanistan, Burma, Cuba, Eritrea, India, Iran, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam be designated as CPCs.

As the Church marks the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Abbot Marion Nguyen reflects on the theme "Justice without judgement: the righteousness of Joseph"

Read all

 

“The universality of salvation: A hope without conditions” is the theme of the third Advent meditation, delivered Friday morning in the Paul VI Hall in the presence of the Pope. In his sermon, Fr Roberto Pasolini, the Preacher of the Papal Household focuses on the attitude of the Magi, who boldly dared to open themselves to the unknown.

Read all

 

ROME (CNS) -- With the Vatican's Nativity scene and huge Christmas tree glittering in the Roman sun behind him, David Henrie reflected on the joy of giving during the Advent season.

As a father of three young children, he said, it was important he find a more "visual way" to help them understand and experience this "spirit of Christmas that involves giving back."

An actor, director, producer and active Catholic, Henrie was in Rome promoting some of his latest projects, including his expanding partnership with the U.S.-based Cross Catholic Outreach, which helps mobilize Catholics to bring material and spiritual support to the poorest of the poor through the church's international network of dioceses, parishes and missionaries. 

Henrie told Catholic News Service Dec. 18 that the charity's Box of Joy ministry made the joy of Advent and Christmas more "memorable" for his family by helping them experience it in a different, concrete way.

"It was the perfect thing for me and my family because my kids got to go pick out little toys and little gifts that they put in a little shoe box and send to a kid somewhere in the world who maybe hasn't had a Christmas present before," he said.

Since 2014, Cross Catholic Outreach has helped families, parishes, schools and others pack and deliver more than 781,000 Box of Joy gifts to children in developing countries. The gifts include toys, clothing, school supplies, a rosary and the story of Jesus as a sign of Christ's love and compassion for everyone.

Henrie said the project opened his children's eyes to how some children don't have toys or even enough food to thrive. "I got to explain to them the concept of poverty in a way that they felt like they were contributing."

"What a way to help them be curious about poverty and what we can do to help poverty," he said, "and they took so much delight in picking out their favorite toys for other kids out there."

To this day, he said, when they pray the family rosary, "I go, 'What do you guys want to pray for?' And they go, 'For the poor kids who don't have gifts!'"

As "ambassador" for Cross Catholic Outreach, Henrie went with his wife, Maria, to Guatemala in 2024 and the Dominican Republic in 2023 to personally deliver Box of Joy gifts. 

"I remember we were handing out tons of boxes, my wife and I, and I got down to one last box," during the mission trip to the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima in Guatemala, he said.

One little girl "wanted the box so bad, but she goes, 'But I have a brother.' And so she took our last box, and she gave it right to her brother," Henrie said, remarking how impressed he was with her selflessness.

"I was like, 'Oh, I'm not that generous.' That was so nice of her to do for her little brother," he said.

While the people he saw lacked so many material necessities, they were abundant in faith, he said. Homes without bathrooms and running water would have "little shrines to the Blessed Mother" and "prayer corners."

"I got so much out of it," he said, urging Catholics to visit BoxOfJoy.org and get involved before Dec. 25.

"Right now is the perfect time," he said, especially "if you're looking for a way to get your family together around this wonderful initiative."

WASHINGTON – Pope Leo XIV has accepted the resignation of Bishop Gerald M. Barbarito, 75, from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Palm Beach, and has appointed Reverend Manuel de Jesus Rodriguez, as Bishop-elect of Palm Beach. Father Rodriguez is a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn and currently serves as pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Corona (Queens), New York. The resignation and appointment were publicized in Washington, D.C., on December 19, 2025, by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

The following biographical information for Bishop-elect Rodriguez was drawn from preliminary materials provided to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops:

Father Rodriguez was born January 15, 1974, in the Dominican Republic; he became a United States citizen on July 25, 2018. 

Father Rodriguez pursued studies at the Pontifical University Madre y Maestra in the Dominican Republic, earning degrees in philosophy (1996) and law (1998), and a degree in education from the Catholic University of Santo Domingo (1997). He received a doctorate in legal studies from the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome (2003), a master’s degree in education from the Instituto Tecnologico de Santo Domingo (2006), and a licentiate in canon law from The Catholic University of America (2016), and a doctorate in canon law from the University of Navarre in Spain (2019).

He was admitted to the Salesians of Don Bosco (a religious order) in 1993 and made his final profession to the Salesians on September 22, 2002. Father Rodriguez was ordained to the priesthood on July 3, 2004, in the Dominican Republic, and was incardinated into the Diocese of Brooklyn in 2012. 

Bishop-elect Rodriguez’s assignments after ordination in the Dominican Republic include: director of John Bosco School (2004-2008); director of Sacred Heart of Jesus School in Santo Domingo (2008-2009). His assignments in the Diocese of Brooklyn include: parochial vicar at St. Michael Church in Brooklyn (2009-2011); administrator (2011-2012) and then pastor (2012-2014) at Sts. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church in Brooklyn; administrator (2014) and then pastor at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Queens (2014-2020). Father Rodriguez has also served as the defender of the bond on the diocesan tribunal since 2017 and has served as pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Corona, Queens since 2020. Bishop-elect Rodriguez speaks English, Spanish, French, and Italian.

###

WASHINGTON – Pope Leo XIV has appointed Reverend Monsignor Peter Dai Bui, as Auxiliary Bishop of Phoenix. Monsignor Bui is a priest of the Diocese of Phoenix and currently serves as the diocese’s Vicar for Clergy. The appointment was publicized in Washington, D.C. on December 19, 2025, by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

The following biographical information for Bishop-elect Bui was drawn from preliminary materials provided to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops:

Monsignor Bui was born January 11, 1970, in Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam. He studied at the Legion of Christ Minor Seminary and entered the Legion of Christ Novitiate in Cheshire, Connecticut in 1989, making his First Profession in 1991. Monsignor Bui attended the Pontifical Athenaeum in Rome, earning degrees in philosophy and theology as well as a licentiate in philosophy (2003). He was ordained to the priesthood on December 24, 2003, for the Legionaries of Christ (a religious order).

Bishop-elect Bui served as chaplain of a private Catholic school in Caracas, Venezuela, organizing mission trips to Amazonia and Medellin, Colombia (2003-2006). He was incardinated into the Diocese of Phoenix in October 2009. His pastoral assignments in the diocese have included: associate pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in Queen Creek (2007-2008); associate pastor at Christ the King parish in Mesa (2008-2010); pastor at Resurrection parish in Tempe (2010-2011); and pastor at Holy Spirit parish in Tempe (2017-2022). Bishop-elect Bui also served as an official on the Pontifical Council Cor Unum from 2011-2016. On December 16, 2014, he was named a Chaplain to His Holiness, with the title of Monsignor. Since 2022, Monsignor Bui has served as the Vicar for Clergy for the Diocese of Phoenix. He speaks English, Vietnamese, Spanish, Italian, and German.

###

Pope Leo XIV publishes a Rescript and approves the new statute of the Labour Office of the Apostolic See (ULSA), which is tasked with promoting and strengthening the working community of the Holy See, introducing several significant innovations.

Read all

 

In this week’s news from the Eastern Churches, produced in collaboration with L’Œuvre d’Orient: Christians in Damascus prepare for Christmas with prayer and remembrance at the Church of Mar Elias, Iraqi faithful celebrate the much-loved feast of the martyrs Mar Behnam and Sara, and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church launches Svitlyk, a new YouTube channel bringing faith-filled content to children.

Read all

 

Pope Leo XIV greets several young members of the Italian Catholic Action, and invites them to make peace with somebody close to them before Christmas, emphasizing that peace is built starting from our daily relationships.

Read all

 

As the world prepares for the Christmas season, Christians in Pakistan are working together with civil authorities to implement special measures to ensure maximum security near Christian churches.

Read all