An Illinois town intends to purchase the childhood home of Pope Leo XIV, hoping to turn the property and its surroundings into a historical site.

The board of trustees of the Village of Dolton voted unanimously July 1 to buy the modest, one-story brick dwelling located at 212 E. 141st Pl. in Dolton.

Since the election of the first U.S.-born pope, the 75-year-old home — in which the former Robert Prevost was raised — has become a tourist attraction and even a place of pilgrimage.

“So many people are coming to the block,” Nakita Cloud, spokesperson for the Village of Dolton, told OSV News. “You see tour buses (here).”

Next-door-neighbor Donna Sagna Davis previously told CBS News Chicago that visitors are “bringing rosaries, flowers.”

Davis also told the outlet, “I’ve seen a lot of people; people from Greece, people from Italy, Germany. One woman came and she prayed, touched the door of the pope’s house, and she said she wanted to be healed.”

Dolton Mayor Jason House has highlighted the property’s potential to help revitalize the community.

A sale price for the house, which had been up for auction, will not be publicly disclosed until the transaction has been completed, Cloud said.

She noted the town had “negotiated directly with the seller and his agent, and we came up with an amount that is satisfactory for everyone.”

The final price, while not “millions of dollars,” was “certainly more than the $199,000 original auction price,” she said.

Images of the home on the real estate site Zillow show a fully renovated interior, with newer appliances, bathroom fixtures and flooring, as well as a gray-white paint scheme and modern decor.

According to CBS News Chicago, resident Annette Mauro, who identified herself as a “practicing Catholic,” said at the July 1 village board meeting — which was open to the public — “I see no reason why you want to buy that house,” since the inside “does not look anything like when Father Prevost lived there.”

At the July 1 board meeting, town officials also decided to purchase a nearby residence located at 200 E. 141st Pl., which Cloud described as “kind of an eyesore at the end of the block.”

Online images viewed by OSV News at the Redfin real estate website showed that the home was badly decayed, with heavy overgrowth, roof damage and what appeared to be a missing front door as well as broken windows.

“What we want to do is, in honoring the faith as well as the archdiocese (of Chicago), we want to turn that entire block into a historical site,” said Cloud. “So we’re going to acquire that property as well and fix it up.”

Cloud said the village is not working with the Archdiocese of Chicago “at this time” on the transformation of Pope Leo’s childhood home into a historical site, although she added, “We’re trying to work it all out.”

OSV News is awaiting a response to its request for comment by the archdiocese.

St. Damien de Veuster and St. Marianne Cope have touched countless lives as their legacies of selfless ministry, compassion and faith in Molokai, Hawaii, have been shared across the globe.

A county jail, an abbey and the capital of the United States are among the most recent places where the saints have been celebrated and venerated, thanks to the efforts of an Arkansas man whose life was changed by St. Damien eight years ago.

Since May, Mark Jechura has brought relics of St. Damien and St. Marianne, as well as a piece of wood from a tree planted on topside Molokai by St. Damien, to sites across the mainland  — from Arkansas to Washington, D.C. — on what he has named the Tree of Hope Tour.

In this Jubilee Year of Hope, Jechura told the Hawaii Catholic Herald, “The Church is inviting us to become pilgrims of hope in a world that desperately needs it. Sts. Damien and Marianne — who served the most forgotten in Molokai — embody that message.”

“Their legacy deserves to be carried across the country,” he continued. “The tour is not about spectacle; it’s about planting hope in parishes large and small, one stop at a time.”

Healing and hope

Jechura, 59, a daily Mass-goer at St. Stephen Church in Bentonville, a volunteer fire and hospital chaplain and an employee in the Walmart corporate offices, said he had no direct ties to Hawaii until 2017, when he met a couple from Molokai while on pilgrimage in Fatima, Portugal.

The couple gave Jechura the tree fragment (which has since been authenticated). They did not know that Jechura was seriously ill at the time with an undiagnosed condition.

“I prayed for St. Damien’s intercession and began to recover,” he said. “That healing opened the door to everything that followed.”

“After that healing, I knew I had received something sacred — not just physically, but spiritually,” he said.

Jechura — who is deeply involved in his parish and community — wanted to share the tree fragment and devotion, but his desire did not coalesce into the Tree of Hope Tour until he experienced a second serious illness and subsequent recovery.

This year, declared the Jubilee Year of Hope by the late Pope Francis, “felt providential,” Jechura said. He cited the “wisdom and encouragement” of his spiritual advisers, including clergy and laypeople, as helping him shape the Tree of Hope Tour’s spirit and mission.

Origins of journey

Jechura obtained permission from the Diocese of Honolulu to take the relics on a national tour. Bishop Larry Silva said the ability to transport the relics for veneration outside Hawaii stems from an initiative conceived by the Father Damien-Mother Marianne Commission, which seeks to promote devotion to St. Damien and St. Marianne across the U.S. and the world.

The permanent home of the first-class relics (meaning they are from the bodies of St. Damien and St. Marianne, bone fragments in both cases) is the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in downtown Honolulu, though for now they reside at the Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa in Honolulu while the cathedral basilica undergoes major renovations.

“We are grateful for the Tree of Hope Tour organizers for helping promote devotion to these two wonderful saints,” Bishop Silva told the Hawaii Catholic Herald. “We thank (Mark Jechura) and encourage others to do the same.”

The tour begins

Jechura, a master swimmer, kicked off the Tree of Hope Tour on the feast day of St. Damien, May 10, on Molokai. Ambitious plans to inaugurate the trip with a swim across the Kaiwi Channel to Oahu were thwarted, but the tour still got underway with stops in Arkansas and Oklahoma.

The relics are each housed in their own reliquaries — a wooden box for St. Damien and a wooden Tau cross (the symbol of the Franciscan order) for St. Marianne. The tree fragment’s stand resembles a monstrance. A book of prayers in which people can write their intentions is also traveling with the relics and will be returned to Molokai when the tour ends.

One stop of note was the Benton County Jail in Bentonville, where seven incarcerated men were able to view the relics and tree fragment. Jechura described the May 24 visit in an email sent to people following the Tree of Hope Tour virtually: After reflecting on the saints’ lives, “the men held the tree relic with care, passing it reverently from one to another, and offered handwritten intentions that will return to Molokai with the relics.”

‘Quiet reverence’

In June, the relics made a memorable stop in Washington, D.C., at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception — the largest Catholic church in North America and designated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as an official “national sanctuary of prayer and pilgrimage.”

The relics spent June 15, the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, on display in the basilica’s lower-level Crypt Church. Jechura wrote in a June 18 email update that “a quiet reverence filled the Crypt Church” as hundreds of people visited the relics throughout the day, with many writing in the book of prayers.

Tim Dias, a communications associate for the basilica, said that the timing of the visit was notable because both St. Damien and St. Marianne are depicted in the basilica’s Trinity Dome — the “crowning jewel” of the national shrine, which portrays the Trinity and a procession of saints through a mosaic of millions of pieces of colored glass.

The relics’ visit was “a great reminder for all of us that God can choose ordinary people to do extraordinary things, and be examples of virtue and holiness,” he said.

Another period of quiet reverence occurred at Our Lady of Clear Creek Abbey in Hulbert, Okla., where the relics were honored with an overnight vigil that saw participation from hundreds of lay faithful and dozens of monks.

“The monastery’s novices faithfully kept vigil from 9 a.m. to 5 a.m., a moving testimony of young monastic devotion,” Jechura wrote in a June 24 dispatch.

One of the Tree of Hope Tour’s last stops in June was at St. Mary Church in Siloam Springs.

On the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, June 22, the relics were viewed and venerated at four Masses — one in English, another in Vietnamese and two in Spanish.

Pastor Father Salvador Marquez-Munoz told the Hawaii Catholic Herald that the relics’ visit on the solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ was not a minor detail.

“The fact that Our Lord keeps offering himself to the Father through his most holy Eucharist on our behalf was an excellent reminder to all of us to offer our lives in the service of others, especially for those who live on the margins of our society, and Father Damien and (Mother) Marianne were a great example of that,” Father Marquez-Munoz said.

“Our congregation in St. Mary’s (is approximately) 80 percent of immigrant people, and the fact that these saints were immigrants like them made it so special and personal,” he added. 

Other stops in Arkansas included St. Stephen Church in Bentonville, St. Joseph Church in Tontitown and Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Springdale.

The Tree of Hope Tour’s July itinerary includes visits to several churches in Arkansas and proposed stops at churches in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Jechura said the relics are scheduled to return to Hawaii by the end of July.

Jechura told the Herald that his goal for the tour is for “people to encounter hope.”

“Sts. Damien and Marianne didn’t just serve the poor — they became one with them. They brought dignity, love and healing to people society had abandoned,” he said. “My hope is that this tour will plant seeds — of compassion, of vocation, of reconciliation — and help people realize the Church still has living witnesses of radical love.

“The saints are not distant. They walk with us.”

Arkansas tour

The Jubilee for Sick and Immigrants events will be held July 18-20 at three Jubilee Churches in Arkansas, highlighting the lives and missionary work of St. Damien de Veuster and St. Marianne Cope. First-class relics of these saints will be available for veneration. 

• Fort Smith: Immaculate Conception, Friday, July 18: Veneration will be before and after the 7 a.m. Mass.
• Little Rock: St. Edward, Saturday, July 19: Mass will be celebrated at 4 p.m. Private veneration will begin at 3 p.m. and continue to 6 p.m.
• Little Rock: Cathedral of St. Andrew, Sunday, July 20: Relics will be on display during Masses at 8:30 a.m., 12:05 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. After each Mass, a five-minute reflection will be given. Private veneration will be available from 1-5 p.m.

“We’ve had more 3,500 people venerate, and my goal would be to do 5,000, in keeping with the biblical number,” Mark Jechura told Arkansas Catholic. “Jesus fed the 5,000, and he had very little to work with. I’ve given him very little to work with here, and we’ve had good success.”

Legacies of St. Damien and St. Marianne

The work of St. Damien and St. Marianne — who were canonized in 2009 and 2012, respectively — is well known across Hawaii but may not be as well known in Arkansas. 

Damien de Veuster arrived in Hawaii from Belgium in 1864 as a missionary of his religious order, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. He was ordained a priest in Honolulu, and after nine years on the island, volunteered to minister to people with leprosy (now also called Hansen’s disease) on the remote Molokai peninsula of Kalaupapa, where patients with Hansen’s disease had been quarantined.

Father Damien contracted the disease himself, dying on Molokai in 1889.

Mother Marianne Cope was already a skilled health care administrator in New York when she arrived in Hawaii in 1883, answering a plea from the Hawaiian monarchy to help care for Hansen’s disease patients.

Mother Marianne and other sisters of St. Francis were based on Oahu, ministering to Hansen’s disease patients and their healthy children, until sailing to Kalaupapa shortly before Father Damien’s death. She died there in 1918.

The Franciscan sisters remained on Molokai, continuing Father Damien’s work and establishing their own legacy of care. To this day, a Sacred Heart priest and two Franciscan sisters remain in Kalaupapa, maintaining the orders’ dedication to the settlement.

Three years after a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its prior abortion precedent, states have enacted or considered differing legislation surrounding the issue of abortion.

Since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision was issued June 24, 2022, 12 states have banned abortion, while another six limit it at some point between six to 12 weeks gestation.

“As we are celebrating, we are also getting ready for the work that we have left to do,” said Kelsey Pritchard, state public affairs director for SBA Pro-Life America, a pro-life advocacy organization.

“We recognize how much work is ahead, with the number of abortions increasing since the Dobbs decision, because we’re now at 1.1 million abortions annually,” she said.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, in 2024 there were 1,038,100 clinician-provided abortions in the United States, an increase of less than 1% from 2023.

The Dobbs case involved a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks, in which the state directly challenged the high court’s previous abortion-related precedents in Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). The Supreme Court ultimately overturned its own prior rulings, undoing nearly a half-century of its own precedent on the issue and returning it to state legislatures.

“There is a federal role broadly on the issue of abortion,” Pritchard said, pointing to ongoing federal funding for Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, and that “those in Washington should be emboldened by the pro-life progress made by their legislators in their states, and be equally committed to act boldly.”

While many states have wrapped their regular legislative sessions for the year, Pritchard pointed to some that have enacted laws her organization supports, including what advocates call a medical education or “med ed” bill that directs the state to clarify the state’s abortion regulations for health care professionals and the general public.

“Those are bills that essentially make it clear that if you are in a pro-life state under your pro-life law and you are pregnant, you can continue to receive emergency care for ectopic pregnancy, for miscarriage, for any other medical emergency, as you did prior to the Dobbs decision,” Pritchard said, noting one such bill in Texas was approved by the Legislature but has yet to be signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

In April, Tennessee’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee approved legislation supporters said would clarify medical exceptions to the state’s ban, but opponents said would further restrict abortion. In March, Kentucky lawmakers overrode Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of House Bill 90, similar legislation.

Arkansas, which has an abortion ban in place, also approved legislation in April to prohibit abortion based on the race of the unborn child. That bill was designed to be in place in the event the overall abortion ban was blocked or overturned.

Conversely, other states have moved to reduce barriers to abortion. Gov. Jared Polis, D-Colo., signed legislation in April that enshrined access to abortion in the state constitution and permitted the use of public funds for abortions.

Asked about her concerns about efforts concerning the issue of abortion at the state level, Pritchard said, “We can expect some more bad abortion ballot measures in 2026.”

In 2024, voters approved most of the referendums to expand legal protections for abortion in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Missouri, and related measures in Maryland and New York. But Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota rejected such measures, defying a trend from elections in 2022 and 2023.

A potential 2026 ballot measure in Virginia would amend the Virginia Constitution to establish a right to reproductive freedom, which it would define as “the right to make and effectuate one’s own decisions about all matters related to one’s pregnancy.” In Virginia, amendments to the commonwealth’s constitution must be approved by the General Assembly twice in at least two years, after which the public can vote by referendum.

Pritchard said SBA plans to work against the ballot measure’s passage in Virginia.

“There’s potential, really, for any abortion ballot measure in any state that has a process that allows citizens to pass amendments or laws that way,” she said.

The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and as such, opposes direct abortion. After the Dobbs decision, church officials in the U.S. have reiterated the Church’s concern for both mother, and child and called to strengthen available support for those living in poverty or other causes that can push women toward having an abortion.

Just over half of U.S. adults, or 52 percent, say they favor allowing public school teachers to lead their classes in prayers “that refer to Jesus,” while 46 percent of adults say they oppose it, according to an analysis from the Pew Research Center in Washington.

It also found support for Christian prayer in U.S. public schools varies widely by state.

“In 22 states, more adults say they favor allowing teachers to lead their classes in prayers that refer to Jesus than say they oppose it,” Pew said June 23, noting that support for such prayers is “particularly high in parts of the South.”

“In 12 states and the District of Columbia, more adults say they oppose allowing teachers to lead their classes in prayers that refer to Jesus than say they favor it,” Pew said. “The 16 remaining states are divided, with no statistically significant differences in the shares who favor or oppose allowing teachers to lead their students in prayers that mention Jesus.”

With 69 percent of adults opposed to teacher-led prayer, the District of Columbia ranks among the parts of the country “with the highest levels of opposition to allowing teachers to lead their classes in prayers that refer to Jesus.”

These findings come from the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study. Conducted from 2023 to 2024, the study surveyed nearly 37,000 U.S. adults in all 50 states about their religious affiliations, beliefs and practices along with their social and political views and demographic characteristics.

Of the 52 percent who say they support teacher-led prayer about Jesus in public schools, 27 percent “strongly” favor it. Of the 46 percent against it, 22 percent say they are “strongly” opposed.

States with a majority of adults who favor such teacher-led prayer include Mississippi, 81 percent; Alabama, 75 percent; Arkansas, 75 percent; Louisiana, 74 percent; and South Carolina, 71 percent; Oklahoma, Kentucky and West Virginia, 67 percent each; South Dakota, 65 percent; North Dakota, 61 percent; Indiana, 58 percent; Kansas, 58 percent; Missouri, 57 percent; Nebraska, 56 percent; Ohio, 53 percent; and Michigan, 53 percent.

States with a majority of adults opposed to such prayer — with three on the West Coast and six in the Northeast — include: Oregon, 65 percent; Washington, 61 percent; California, 56 percent; Vermont, 64 percent; Connecticut, 60 percent; New Hampshire, 60 percent; Minnesota, 59 percent; Massachusetts and Colorado, 58 percent each; Illinois, 54 percent; New York, 53 percent; and New Jersey, 53 percent.

In the remaining states, Pew said that once the survey’s margins of error are accounted for, there is “no statistically significant differences” between those in favor and those opposed to teacher-led prayer in public schools. For example, 56 percent of adults in Delaware and 52 percent in Virginia favor such prayer. In Idaho, it’s 55 percent, and in Arizona, 53 percent.

“It’s important to note that teacher-led Christian prayers are just one way that religion can play a role in public schools,” Pew said. “The 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study also asked a separate question about “allowing teachers to lead their classes in prayers that refer to God but not to any specific religion.”

Nationwide, it said, “a slightly larger share of Americans say they favor allowing teacher-led prayers referencing God (57 percent) than favor allowing teacher-led prayers specifically referencing Jesus (52 percent).”

Pew’s 2023-2024 Religious Landscape Study was conducted in English and Spanish from July 17, 2023, to March 4, 2024, among a nationally representative sample of 36,908 U.S. adults. Respondents were recruited by mail, using address-based sampling. “This approach gives nearly all U.S. adults a chance of being selected to participate,” Pew said.

In the same way that a relationship with Christ is not about something but someone, the organizers of the National Eucharistic Revival will tell you that their movement is not just something faithful Catholics do, but something that they are — a grace from God, stirring up the hearts of his people.

The National Eucharistic Revival — a three-year initiative of the U.S. bishops aimed at reviving Catholic belief in Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist — began in 2022. The revival ends June 22.

Its launch nurtured a spark of urgent motivation: In August 2019, the Pew Research Center reported “just one-third of U.S. Catholics agree with their Church” that the Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ. 

While a later study conducted by Vinea Research proposed the wording of Pew’s survey was problematic — its 2024 results indicated 69 percent of Catholics believe in the Real Presence — adherence is still not universal.

“I think that Pew study … was a catalyst that got our Church moving,” said Kris Frank, vice president of growth and marketing at the National Eucharistic Congress Inc., or NEC. “But whether it was a lack of belief or just indifference, I think what the revival did was bring the Eucharist front and center — and reminded us of what a gift we have in the person of Jesus Christ.”

That gift literally took a road trip, when — from May 17 to July 16, 2024, on routes north, south, east and west  — a total of 250,000 participants processed 6,500 miles in the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage across America. The routes eventually converged on Indianapolis for the 10th National Eucharistic Congress, held from July 17 to 21, 2024, and attended by more than 60,000 participants.

But Jesus’ journey wasn’t done.

This year, in a second National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, Christ has once again been on the move, traveling since May 18 from Indianapolis to Los Angeles. A June 22 Mass, Eucharistic procession and festival in Los Angeles will mark the feast of Corpus Christi and the end of the pilgrimage.

The 11th National Eucharistic Congress is expected to be held in 2029.

In mid-May, the NEC released its Eucharistic Missionary formation program, “which is a more intentional commitment to live out the spirit of the National Eucharistic Revival,” Joel Stepanek, NEC vice president of programming and administration, said. “And so that’s an invitation for people to undergo a few weeks of formation — and in those few weeks, take up some daily practices they’ll continue as they live out life as a Eucharistic Missionary.”

Those things include making a Holy Hour every week; attending a daily Mass, in addition to the Sunday obligation; joining a small group; finding ways to serve in family, neighborhoods and parishes; and offering daily prayers and fasting for both those they are accompanying and for ongoing Eucharistic revival in the United States.

Amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on foreign student visas, several Catholic universities contacted by OSV News said they are actively seeking to support affected students.

“Our international students, scholars and their families are important and vital members of our campus community, and we will continue working to ensure that they are welcomed and supported at Notre Dame,” the University of Notre Dame told OSV News in an emailed statement May 29.

“We are highly concerned and troubled that the State Department has chosen to halt the interviews required for international students to obtain visas during this crucial admission period for our incoming classes, creating uncertainty for our international students and our admissions process,” Santa Clara University said in a May 30 statement to OSV News, adding that the school “continues to support newly admitted and current international students during this process.”

After revoking Harvard University’s ability to accept foreign students May 22 — a move currently being battled in the courts, while the Department of Homeland Security later gave the school 30 days to prove it satisfies visa program requirements — the Trump administration ordered U.S. embassies throughout the world to pause further appointments for student visas, while noting that social media vetting of applicants would be expanded. Previously scheduled appointments will still proceed, although no new applications will be considered.

CBS News reported it had viewed a copy of the May 27 cable from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who indicated the measures would remain in place “until further guidance is issued.”

In a May 28 statement, Rubio said the State Department would partner with the Department of Homeland Security “to aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.

“We will also revise visa criteria to enhance scrutiny of all future visa applications from the People’s Republic of China and Hong Kong,” said Rubio.

Foreign students in the U.S. numbered more than 1.1 million during the 2023-2024 academic year, and —  according to the nonprofit NAFSA, the Association of International Educators — boosted the nation’s economy by $43.8 billion.

In many cases, particularly at large research universities, international students pay higher tuition rates at the schools they attend, according to the American Council on Education.

Fordham University — which counts more than 1,800 international students among its total student body of 17,000 — has created a dedicated webpage with extensive information for those impacted by the administration’s new policies on immigration, research, financial aid and other concerns.

The webpage directs students, faculty and staff who are in danger of immigration arrest, detention or deportation to call the university’s public safety department, which in turn will connect them with university resources.

An evenly divided Supreme Court on May 22 sidestepped a major ruling in a case over what would have been the nation’s first Catholic charter school, effectively blocking the effort.

The high court’s 4-4 ruling means that a previous decision by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which found the establishment of the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School as a publicly funded religious school was unconstitutional, will stand for now.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who may have otherwise been a decisive vote, recused herself from any involvement in the case. No official reason was given by the court for her decision, but Barrett was previously a professor at Notre Dame Law School, which worked on behalf of the proposed Catholic charter school.

“Families across the state of Oklahoma deserve the educational opportunities presented by St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. We are disappointed that the Oklahoma State Supreme Court’s decision was upheld in a 4-4 decision without explanation,” Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City and Bishop David A. Konderla of the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma said in a written statement shared with OSV News.

“We remain firm in our commitment to offering an outstanding education to families and students across the state of Oklahoma,” the bishops’ statement said. “And we stand committed to parental choice in education, providing equal opportunity to all who seek options when deciding what is best for their children.”

The statement added that the bishops are “exploring other options for offering a virtual Catholic education to all persons in the state.”

The effort by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma to establish St. Isidore was approved by a state school board in 2023, but was challenged in court by the state’s attorney general. He argued that a religious charter school with public funds would be a violation of both the constitutional separation of church and state and Oklahoma’s state law.

Proponents of the school argued its application met all criteria for approval as a charter school and should not be discriminated against for its religious identity. The Oklahoma Supreme Court later sided with the attorney general.

“The judgment is affirmed by an equally divided court,” the Supreme Court wrote in a one-page, unsigned ruling in reference to the lower court’s decision. The ruling did not specify how each justice voted on the issue, which is typical in cases where there is no majority.

In court filings, Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond argued that permitting the school to move forward could pave the way to Oklahoma taxpayers subsidizing schools that hold religious beliefs contrary to their own. In a statement on X about the court’s ruling, he said, “The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of my position that we should not allow taxpayer funding of radical Islamic schools here in Oklahoma.”

“I am proud to have fought against this potential cancer in our state, and I will continue upholding the law, protecting our Christian values and defending religious liberty,” Drummond said.

In prior statements, Drummond said that if Oklahomans are “being compelled to fund Catholicism … tomorrow we may be forced to fund radical Muslim teachings like Sharia law.” He then mentioned the governor’s openness to welcome a “Muslim charter school funded by our tax dollars” as evidence for his argument.

Both Catholics and Muslims, which Drummond singled out repeatedly, are also tiny minorities in Oklahoma, representing 8 percent and less than 1 percent, respectively, of the state’s population.

The Catholic charter school case placed Drummond and the state’s Gov. Kevin Stitt — both Republicans —  at odds with each other as the governor backed the effort.

It’s one of those moments — certainly for Catholics, and often for those who are not — when people remember where they were, and what they were doing at the announcement of a new pope.

As white smoke finally poured from the intensely watched temporary chimney secured atop the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel — while the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica rang out in Rome — a sort of pious pandemonium broke out.

And not just in the Eternal City. American Catholics from coast to coast were thrilled to learn the next pope was one of their very own: Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, an American from Chicago.

“More happy than I can be,” Veronica Canadas told OSV News while sitting in her white cab outside Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago. She was waiting for a passenger to leave church where congregants heard the joyous news.

Canadas, a 30-year Chicago resident originally from Ecuador, said she was “even more happy” to know Pope Leo XIV is a Chicago native and a Spanish-speaker who spent significant time in Peru, saying he knows Latin American culture.

“I’m so excited because, you know, it’s not only the Catholic Church that loves our pope. It’s the whole world that loves our pope now,” Eileen Quinn Knight told OSV News.

A Holy Name parishioner and retired education professor at St. Xavier University south of Chicago, Knight said she was struck by how the students were drawn to Catholicism.

“The growing need in our young people for our Church is wonderful,” she said. “And I think it’s going to be a new Church with this pope — in a different way, a wonderful way.”

Outside Philadelphia, students at Villanova University, Pope Leo XIV’s alma mater, freaked out when they learned that the new pope was an alumnus.

“We actually didn’t know that he was an alum, we heard them mention on the newscast that Pope Leo XIV is an alum,” Noel Villepigue, a freshman from Weston, Conn.

“We all just went absolutely nuts,” he said.

At Benedictine College in Atchison, Kan., teachers paused final exams, shouts rang out across the Benedictine College campus — “Habemus Papam! Habemus Papam!” — as people spread the good news to each other.

In the campus coffee shop, Holy Grounds, students slammed their notebooks shut and switched from writing papers to watching the live feed of the Vatican as they eagerly awaited the new pope to emerge.

Students like Sarah Meersman, a senior from Cumming, Georgia, said hearing the news of white smoke —  while taking a test — was a moment she will never forget.

“I will never forget sitting with all of my senior girls, watching our new pope, our new father being announced,” Meersman told OSV News.

Upon hearing that the College of Cardinals had selected Cardinal Prevost, an Augustinian from Chicago, jaws dropped, as students, like senior Finnigan Ritchie, celebrated the election of the first American pope.

“He’s from a place I know,” Ritchie said. “It just gives me a sense of familiarity with the pope that I’m not used to.”

Young people across the world rejoiced with the announcement of a new pope, excited to once again have a spiritual father.

“We are the next generation of moms, the next generation of dads, the next generation of priests and religious life, and how fitting that we have a new pope during the year of hope,” Meersman said.

“A lot of young people are craving leadership right now,” she said, “and I’m really excited to see what this new pope is going to do for us in our generation.”

But the election of an American pope was welcomed as an important spiritual validation for Catholics in the U.S.

“My lifetime has been spent imagining that there had never been an American pope because the College of Cardinals regarded its American members as somehow deficient in holiness,” said Sharon Clark Chang, a parishioner at St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Fairfax, Va. “I’m proud of the College of Cardinals for at last overcoming issues that have borne no relation to the excellence of the man for the office.”

Chang told OSV News she was “proud of Pope Leo XIV on so many levels — among them, his balance, his thoughtful acknowledgment of Church history and tradition and his sacrificial connection” to the developing world.

She said, “Very glad to have lived to see the first American pope!”

In Phoenix, yellow and white banners and streamers — reminiscent of the Vatican flag — adorned the courtyard outside St. Mary’s Basilica, where faithful gathered for noon Mass in thanksgiving for Pope Leo’s election.

Secular Franciscan Carmen Duron told OSV News she believes Pope Leo will continue the path set by Pope Francis.

“He’s a missionary, and that is very special because Pope Francis was,” Duron said. “Pope Leo has served the poor, and that’s what we want, someone that is very much attuned to the marginalized.”

Nayeli Garcia, who works for the Diocese of Phoenix Office of Worship and Liturgy, told OSV News she recognized the “providential” connection between the new pontiff and the last pope to assume that name, Pope Leo XIII.

“I love that it (his election) happened to be on the Feast of the Apparition of St. Michael, and Pope Leo (XIII) is the one who actually wrote the St. Michael Prayer,” Garcia said. “I think it’s very providential, and we just are excited for what’s to come for the Church.”

Through his involvement with the Missionaries of Mary apostolate, Armando Ruiz told OSV News he had a chance to meet the new pope when the latter was still serving as bishop of Chiclayo, Peru.

“He’s American and Latino, so he’s got a heart for the people, but he’s direct and takes care of business,” Ruiz said, acknowledging the Holy Father’s U.S.-Peruvian dual citizenship. “It’s this incredible moment that he’ll bring calmness, decisiveness and that missionary love.”

President Donald Trump on May 1 signed an executive order creating a religious liberty commission during an interfaith event marking the National Day of Prayer in the White House Rose Garden.

Those named to the commission included Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minn.

The White House said the commission, which will advise its Faith Office and the Domestic Policy Council, is tasked with producing “a comprehensive report on the foundations of religious liberty in America, strategies to increase awareness of and celebrate America’s peaceful religious pluralism, current threats to religious liberty, and strategies to preserve and enhance protections for future generations,” and that some of its areas of focus include school choice and conscience protections.

In comments at the event, Trump sought to cast his administration as one defending “people of all faiths, their religious freedoms, at home and abroad.”

Trump lamented the absence of Cardinal Dolan from the event. He is in Rome preparing for the conclave to elect a new pope later in May, following the April 21 death of Pope Francis.

“He has really an excuse,” Trump said of the prelate. “Cardinal Dolan is in Rome, I just left Rome, it was a beautiful service,” Trump said in reference to his attendance at the late pontiff’s funeral April 26. “But he’s in Rome having to vote for the next pope.”

In a post on X, Bishop Barron wrote, “I am grateful to President Trump for appointing me to serve on the Commission on Religious Liberty. Freedom of religion in our country has been a central concern of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for decades, and I see my task as bringing the perspective of Catholic social teaching to bear as the Commission endeavors to shape public policy in this matter.”

At the request of the Holy See, Catholic dioceses worldwide have designated local cathedrals, other churches and shrines as local pilgrimage sites during the 2025 Jubilee Year. While none outside of Rome have designated Holy Doors — as cathedrals did for the 2015 Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy — these sites are still special places for prayer and a place where pilgrims may receive an indulgence if they meet certain requirements.

While around 30 million pilgrims are expected to visit Rome for the Jubilee Year, many people will be marking the Holy Year much closer to home. But pilgrimage is a key part of the Jubilee Year for everyone, Pope Francis emphasized in “Spes Non Confundit,” the 2024 document announcing the Holy Year. The year’s theme —  “Pilgrims of Hope” — also underscores this particular journey of faith.

“Pilgrimage is of course a fundamental element of every Jubilee event,” Pope Francis wrote. “Setting out on a journey is traditionally associated with our human quest for meaning in life. A pilgrimage on foot is a great aid for rediscovering the value of silence, effort and simplicity of life.”

Will Peterson, founder and president of Modern Catholic Pilgrim, suggested four ways Catholics can deepen their local pilgrimage experience, whether they are visiting a familiar church or someplace totally new.

• Discern the destination: While Catholics visiting local Jubilee-designated churches will not be preparing for a trip overseas, Peterson recommends they nonetheless prepare their hearts for pilgrimage, beginning by determining where they plan to go.

“To be a pilgrim is to know where you’re going and what your intentions are,” said Peterson, whose organization helps parishes and dioceses organize local pilgrimages and also coordinated the four routes of the 2024 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage across the U.S. Modern Catholic Pilgrim has offices in St. Paul, Minnesota and San Diego.

If a diocese has designated several sites as potential Jubilee pilgrimage designations, “I would invite potential pilgrims to discern ‘where do I feel called?’ Is it the cathedral? Is it a local shrine? … and why?” Peterson said. “Because the intention and the destination obviously go hand in hand; you can kind of answer one before the other, but oftentimes there’s an interplay.”

• Set an intention: Peterson recommends that a pilgrim chooses a particular prayer intention for the journey.

“You have to name the intention for where you’re going,” he said. “So have that time — even if it’s just 10, 15 minutes as you’re looking at the diocesan list (of sacred sites designated for the Jubilee Year) — to reflect either individually or in conversation with a spouse, with children — getting them to name, ‘Hey, what are your intentions for this pilgrimage we’re going to make?'”

In some cases, an intention might be inspired by the pilgrimage site. At a cathedral, a pilgrim might pray for the whole diocese and its ministries, Peterson said. For a saint’s shrine, a pilgrim might consider who the saint is and ask for his or her intercession for a particular cause close to the saint’s experience or patronage.

Peterson recommends choosing the intention in advance and writing it down to make it concrete, even carrying that note on the journey. If young children are making the pilgrimage, they could also draw a picture or bring a memento to remind them of their prayer.

Pilgrims can also ask others to share their intentions and commit to praying for them, too, to “create that larger connection” to the Church, Peterson said.

Children especially, he said, “are going to really take pride in that, being given the responsibility of this is Grandma’s intention or this is Uncle Joey’s.”

• Pray: Prayer is an essential frame for the pilgrimage, even if pilgrims are traveling just a short distance.

“I’m always about Christ himself as a pilgrim,” Peterson said. “So could you pray Psalm 84 before you set out on your journey? Could you pray Psalm 122 when you get to your destination?”

A jubilee-related pilgrimage could also include special prayers written for the Holy Year, Peterson said, noting that both the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have posted Jubilee prayers on their websites.

Ideally, a pilgrimage would conclude with time for the pilgrim to go to confession and attend Mass with the local community, Peterson said. “At least have some time to offer up those intentions individually as a family,” he said.

• Get creative about getting there: While it might be customary to drive to the pilgrimage destination, Peterson encourages pilgrims to include walking if they can.

“Make the pilgrimage by plane, train or automobile; but I’d encourage people to consider how walking could be a part of it,” he said. “Could you walk to the local place? Could you drive 15 of the miles and walk the last two?”

Making a pilgrimage to a local site for the Jubilee Year is “a chance to engage with the sacred locally,” Peterson said, even if it is a church the pilgrim regularly visits.

In that case, walking instead of driving to a familiar church “kind of re-energizes the fact that this is a special holy site,” he said. “So even if it’s your own parish church that you go to every Sunday — if you walk there and make a true pilgrimage, you seek the intercession of your patron saint in this Jubilee Year on a Saturday — I think that’s going to change how your family experiences the Sunday Mass. It’s going to become a bit more of, ‘Oh yeah, this is sacred ground.'”

5 Arkansas churches to visit this year

Make plans to visit a Jubilee Church in Arkansas through Jan. 6, 2026. 

• Cathedral of St. Andrew, Little Rock, the oldest place of continuing worship in Little Rock
• St. Edward Church, Little Rock, built in 1885 for German immigrants, home of the Divine Mercy Chapel,
• Immaculate Conception Church, the first Catholic church in Fort Smith, built in 1899
• St. Joseph Church, Pine Bluff, founded in 1858 by French immigrants          
• St. Mary Church, Helena, known for its design by architect Charles Eames

A jubilee plenary indulgence is available for those who visit a jubilee site, receive the Eucharist, go to confession and pray for the pope’s intentions. 

“I warmly encourage each of you to embark on a pilgrimage to one of these Jubilee Churches,” Bishop Anthony B. Taylor wrote in his Nov. 27 letter. “Let this journey be an opportunity to encounter God’s abundant mercy and become true agents of hope in our world.”