President Donald Trump signs an executive order related to foster care and foster parents on Nov. 13, 2025. / Credit: Alliance Defending Freedom
CNA Staff, Nov 15, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that aims to improve the nation’s foster care system, including the modernization of the current child welfare system, the development of partnerships with private sector organizations, and prioritizing the participation of those with sincerely held religious beliefs.
The executive order issued Nov. 13 states that the Trump administration is “dedicated to empowering mothers and fathers to raise their children in safe and loving homes.”
The order says current problems with the foster care system include overworked caseworkers, antiquated information systems, and policies that “prohibit qualified families from serving children in need as foster and adoptive parents because of their sincerely-held religious beliefs or adherence to basic biological truths.”
The legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has represented Christian families who were barred from serving as foster parents because of their faith, suing on behalf of Brian and Katy Wuoti and Bryan and Rebecca Gantt after the Vermont Department for Children and Families informed the two families that their belief that persons cannot change biological sex and that marriage is only between a man and a woman precluded them from serving as foster parents in the state.
Despite describing the Wuotis and the Gantts as “amazing,” “wonderful,” and “welcoming,” state officials revoked the couples’ foster care licenses after they expressed those beliefs. The state said these beliefs made them “unqualified” to parent any child, regardless of the child’s age, beliefs, or identity.
ADF Senior Counsel Johannes Widmalm-Delphonse, who represents the Wuotis, Gantts, and other Christian families who are prohibited from fostering in lawsuits in Massachusetts, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington, told CNA that he hopes the executive order will lead to the states “prioritizing the best interests of children rather than ideological agendas.”
In the face of shortages of foster families, he said the states should be “pursuing a big tent, welcoming as many loving families as possible. But they’re doing the opposite while children who need foster care are sleeping in unlicensed group homes, police stations, and hospitals.”
Trump’s executive order directs the department of Health and Human Services, the White House Faith Office, and the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs to “take appropriate action to address state and local policies and practices that inappropriately prohibit participation in federally-funded child-welfare programs by qualified individuals or organizations based upon their sincerely-held religious beliefs or moral convictions.”
It also directs those agencies to “increase partnerships between agencies and faith-based organizations and houses of worship to serve families” involved with the foster care system.
Widmalm-Delphonse told CNA it is “difficult to say how the states will respond” to the executive order, indicating that he hopes either the order or the pending lawsuits will lead to changes in their “discriminatory” policies against families of faith.
“The path the states should take is obvious: It’s a win-win when you open up foster care to people of faith and put the interests of children first,” he said.
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![Judge rules against saints’ statues on Massachusetts government building #Catholic
Statues of St. Florian (at left) and St. Michael the Archangel (at right) are currently barred from appearing on the planned public safety building of Quincy, Massachusetts. / Credit: Courtesy of Office of Mayor Thomas Koch
Boston, Massachusetts, Oct 16, 2025 / 12:18 pm (CNA).
A Massachusetts trial court judge has issued an order blocking the installation of statues of two Catholic saints on a new public safety building in the city of Quincy, setting up a likely appeal that may determine how the state treats separation of church and state disputes going forward.The 10-foot-high bronze statues of St. Michael the Archangel and St. Florian, which were scheduled to be installed on the building’s façade this month, will instead await a higher court’s decision.The statues cost an estimated $850,000, part of the new, $175 million public safety building that will serve as police headquarters and administration offices for the Boston suburb’s fire department.Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch, a practicing Catholic, has said he chose St. Michael the Archangel because he is the patron of police officers and St. Florian because he is the patron of firefighters, not to send a message about religion.But the judge said the statues can’t be separated from the saints’ Catholic connections.“The complaint here plausibly alleges that the statues at issue convey a message endorsing one religion over others,” Norfolk County Superior Court Judge William Sullivan wrote in a 26-page ruling Oct. 14.The judge noted that the statues “represent two Catholic saints.”“The statues, particularly when considered together, patently endorse Catholic beliefs,” the judge wrote.The plaintiffs who brought the lawsuit challenging the statues — 15 city residents represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts — have amassed facts that “plausibly suggest that an objective observer would view these statues on the façade of the public safety building as primarily endorsing Catholicism/Christianity and conveying a distinctly religious message,” the judge wrote.Rachel Davidson, staff attorney at the ACLU of Massachusetts, who argued the case during a lengthy court hearing on Sept. 19, praised the judge’s decision.“This ruling affirms the bedrock principle that our government cannot favor one religion above others, or religious beliefs over nonreligious beliefs,” Davidson said in a written statement. “We are grateful to the court for acknowledging the immediate harm that the installation of these statues would cause and for ensuring that Quincy residents can continue to make their case for the proper separation of church and state, as the Massachusetts Constitution requires.”The mayor said the city will appeal.“We chose the statues of Michael and Florian to honor Quincy’s first responders, not to promote any religion,” Koch said in a written statement provided to the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, by a spokesman. “These figures are recognized symbols of courage and sacrifice in police and fire communities across the world. We will appeal this ruling so our city can continue to celebrate and inspire the men and women who protect us.” The lawsuit, which was filed May 27 in Norfolk County Superior Court in Dedham, relies on the Massachusetts Constitution, not the U.S. Constitution, but there is a tie-in.In 1979, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court adopted the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1971 three-pronged “Lemon test” when considering church and state cases — whether a law concerning religion has “a secular legislative purpose,” whether “its principal or primary effect … neither advances [n]or inhibits religion,” and whether it fosters “excessive entanglement between government and religion.” The state’s highest court also added a fourth standard — whether a “challenged practice” has “divisive political potential.”But in June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ditched the Lemon test in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, a case involving prayers offered by a high school football coach in Washington state.If the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, which is the ultimate interpreter of state law, takes the Quincy statues dispute, it would be the first time the court has considered a case on point since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Kennedy decision.This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/judge-rules-against-saints-statues-on-massachusetts-government-building-catholic-statues-of-st-florian-at-left-and-st-michael-the-archangel-at-right-are-currently-barred-from-appea.webp)
![Brooklyn usher murdered in subway remembered as ‘tremendous man of faith’ #Catholic
Nicola Tanzi. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Deacon Anthony Mammoliti
CNA Staff, Oct 10, 2025 / 15:37 pm (CNA).
A Catholic man who served as an usher at his Brooklyn parish before he was killed in a brutal attack in a city subway is being remembered as a “good soul” with a “tremendous” faith in Christ.Sixty-four-year-old Nicola Tanzi was killed on Oct. 7, when police say 25-year-old David Mazariegos beat him to death in the Jay Street-MetroTech station in Brooklyn. He later died at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the attack as “horrific.” Police were able to apprehend the suspect using photos and a physical description transmitted through their phones, Tisch said. Mazariegos has reportedly been arrested multiple times before. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on X that state Gov. Kathy Hochul “has blood on her hands” over the death.“Nicola Tanzi’s life was taken by another repeat offender roaming New York’s streets freely,” Duffy wrote. ”New York needs leaders who will back the blue and make America’s transit system safe again.”Victim mourned as a ‘simple, good person’Those who knew Tanzi have mourned his death in the days following his murder. Deacon Anthony Mammoliti told CNA in an interview on Oct. 10 that Tanzi was “probably the most Christ-like parishioner I’ve encountered.” Mammoliti serves at St. Dominic’s Parish in Bensonhurst where Tanzi attended. Tanzi served as an usher there at the Italian Mass for at least 10 years, the deacon said. “He was a man who would give of himself,” Mammoliti said. “In his civilian job, he would often, without hesitation, switch shifts to allow married colleagues to have family time. When I engaged with him in the parish, it was always with a congenial smile.”Tanzi would regularly greet elderly parishioners with a “Buon Giorni!” and “Come Stai!” while holding the door for them, Mammoliti said. The deacon said the parish is in shock over the news. “We’re all in a state of disbelief. The old expression, ‘Bad things happen to good people,’ that’s the first thought that came to mind,” he said. Deacon John Heyer of Sacred Hearts and St. Stephen Catholic Church in the city’s Carroll Gardens neighborhood told CBS News that Tanzi was “definitely a good person. Like, a simple, good person.”“[He was the] type of guy who went to work and came home and was part of different community organizations,” Heyer said. “Especially those related to his family’s heritage and roots in Mola di Bari, Italy.”Mazariegos, the suspect in the killing, reportedly has multiple criminal cases open against him throughout the city. He allegedly admitted to the killing afterward. Mammoliti said Tanzi, a “tremendous man of faith” with a “good soul,” had he survived the assault, would have forgiven his assailant. “He would have done what he normally did, which was to be a good Christian,” he said.“Your first initial reaction [upon hearing the news] is, you know, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,” the deacon admitted. “But we’re called to be people of faith. We’re called to emulate the teachings of the Gospel.” “We would honor Mr. Tanzi if we would live up to what Jesus teaches us, which is to forgive our enemies.”](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/brooklyn-usher-murdered-in-subway-remembered-as-tremendous-man-of-faith-catholic-nicola-tanzi-credit-photo-courtesy-of-deacon-anthony-mammoliticna-staff-oct-10-2025-15.webp)
