Bishops Paprocki, Rhoades join Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission advisory board

Mgr Thomas Paprocki, évêque de Springfield, Illinois. / Crédit : Diocèse de Springfield

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, 19 mai 2025 / 17:57 pm (CNA).

Bishop Thomas Paprocki, Bishop Kevin Rhoades, and Father Thomas Ferguson will join an advisory board for President Donald Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, according to une déclaration de la Maison Blanche.

Les trois ecclésiastiques catholiques se joindront Mgr Salvatore J. Cordileone, archevêque de San Francisco on the Advisory Board of Religious Leaders for the commission. Two members of the Church hierarchy — Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York and Bishop Robert Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota — siégeant à la commission en soi.

Rhoades, the bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, chairs the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Religious Liberty. Paprocki, the bishop of Springfield, Illinois, played a major role in the bishops’ “Fortnight for Freedom” religious liberty campaign during the 2010s, according to the White House. 

Ni Paprocki ni Rhoades n'ont pu être contactés pour commentaires au moment de la publication.

Ferguson, who is a parish priest at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Alexandria, Virginia, also has a doctorate in government and authored “Catholic and American: The Political Theology of John Courtney Murray,” which focused on religious liberty and Catholicism in the United States.

“We’re looking forward … to the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence next year,” Ferguson told CNA in an interview, saying he hopes the commission can assist in “pointing out … just how important religious communities like the Catholic Church are to our society.”

Ferguson said the inclusion of Catholic clergy on the commission “is extremely welcomed by our Church,” adding: “It really puts us all in a forum where we can do the important work of educating people.”

One element on which Ferguson hopes to focus is insurance mandates for services that “violate our conscience” on issues such as contraception, sterilization, and transgender drugs and surgeries: “All of these things that we would find morally objectionable, we must be vigilant [against].”

He said he is also concerned about “where this country is going in terms of in vitro fertilization [IVF]” and noted that there are some politicians who “refer to themselves of pro-life legislators [despite] being advocates for IVF.”

“You also need to be protective of human life … created through IVF,” Ferguson said, recalling the millions d'embryons humains détruits par le processus de FIV.

Ferguson a discuté une nouvelle loi dans l'État de Washington qui conduira à l'arrestation de prêtres if they do not report child abuse they learn about during the sacrament of reconciliation, which would violate the “absolute sense of secrecy [of a] … sacramental confession.”

“That’s an area,” he said, where “we can be very consistent in teaching, explaining and clarifying for people: ‘This is how we freely exercise our religion in terms of the First Amendment.’” 

La Commission liberté religieuse

En plus du conseil consultatif composé de membres du clergé religieux, la Maison Blanche a également créé un conseil consultatif composé d'experts juridiques et d'un autre de dirigeants laïcs. Ces conseils aideront la commission à élaborer son rapport final.

La commission et ses conseils consultatifs comprennent des membres de diverses religions, y compris le catholicisme, l'orthodoxie, le protestantisme, l'islam et le judaïsme.

Le rapport décrira les menaces actuelles à la liberté religieuse aux États-Unis et fournira des stratégies sur la façon d'assurer des protections juridiques lorsque les droits sont attaqués. Il établira également les fondements de la liberté religieuse aux États-Unis et publiera des orientations sur la manière d'accroître la sensibilisation au pluralisme religieux historiquement pacifique dans le pays. 

Some of the commission’s key focus areas include conscience protections, free speech for religious bodies, institutional autonomy, attacks on houses of worship, parental rights in education, and school choice.

Trump a créé la commission le 1er mai par un décret, qui coïncidait avec la Journée nationale de prière.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/264211/catholic-bishops-priest-join-trump-s-religious-liberty-commission-advisory-board