CNA Staff, Dec 3, 2020 / 10:00 am MT (CNA).- In an apparent victory for religious freedom during state efforts to impose necessary COVID restrictions, the Supreme Court on Thursday vacated the Ninth Circuit’s ruling against California churches. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of the Brooklyn …

CNA Staff, Dec 2, 2020 / 01:05 pm MT (CNA).- Three Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, including a Catholic university student, were sentenced to prison on Wednesday for participating in illegal protests. Democracy activists Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, and Ivan Lam were sentenced to 13.5 months, 10 months, and 7 months, …

CNA Staff, Nov 26, 2020 / 01:23 pm MT (CNA).- The Supreme Court said Wednesday night that NY state restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic are a violation of the First Amendment’s protection of free religious exercise. After the ruling the Bishop of Brooklyn, whose diocese was a plaintiff in the …

CNA Staff, Oct 12, 2020 / 06:14 pm MT (CNA).- Senator Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) on Monday criticized questions aimed at Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s religious beliefs, saying they reflect a fundamental confusion of civics with politics. “Religious liberty is the basic idea that how you worship is none …

by Matt Hadro Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 5, 2020 / 01:45 pm MT (CNA).- Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito on Monday said that the Supreme Court’s Obergefell ruling is already posing problems for religious freedom. “By choosing to privilege a novel constitutional right [to same-sex marriage] over the religious …

CNA Staff, Sep 28, 2020 / 12:00 pm MT (CNA).- The U.S. Department of Justice on Sept. 25 warned San Francisco officials that its current restrictions on public worship in the city may be unconstitutional, drawing praise from Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone. “Catholics in San Francisco have been patiently suffering injustice …

By Matt Hadro Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 22, 2020 / 04:00 am MT (CNA).- The federal government is suing the Kroger Company for discrimination after two employees at an Arkansas store were fired for not wearing a symbol they say represents the LGBT cause. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) …

Twentieth Century theologian John Courtney Murray, S.J., remains the most important interpreter of the American Catholic experience of citizenship and religious liberty. Featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1960, Father Murray was a chief architect of Vatican II’s Declaration on Religious Liberty. In his seminal book, We Hold …

CNA Staff, Aug 12, 2020 / 03:26 am MT (CNA).- Efforts to protect people from harm and error now marginalize and even demonize others for unpopular opinions, warns a new statement urging a revival of civil engagement and conscientious respect for the convictions of others. “We want—and to be true …

CNA Staff, Aug 10, 2020 / 11:30 am MT (CNA).- Chinese authorities arrested pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong and imposed new sanctions on American lawmakers August 10, as part of an apparent crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong. Prominent democracy activists were arrested and charged for violating Hong Kong’s …