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

Bispo Thomas Paprocki de Springfield, Illinois. / Crédito: Diocese de Springfield

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, 19 de maio de 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 Declaração da Casa Branca.

Os três clérigos católicos juntar-se-ão São Francisco Arcebispo Salvatore J. Cordileone 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 — estão a servir na comissão itself.

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. 

Nem Paprocki nem Rhoades puderam ser contactados para comentários no momento da publicação.

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 milhões de embriões humanos destruídos através do processo de fertilização in vitro.

Ferguson debateu uma nova lei no estado de Washington que levará à prisão de padres 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.’” 

A Comissão da Liberdade Religiosa

Além do conselho consultivo composto por clérigos religiosos, a Casa Branca também criou um conselho consultivo composto por especialistas jurídicos e outro de líderes leigos. Estes conselhos assistirão a Comissão na elaboração do seu relatório final.

A comissão e seus conselhos consultivos incluem membros de várias religiões, incluindo o catolicismo, a ortodoxia, o protestantismo, o islamismo e o judaísmo.

O relatório delineará as ameaças atuais à liberdade religiosa nos EUA e fornecerá estratégias sobre como garantir proteções legais quando os direitos estiverem sob ataque. Também estabelecerá as bases da liberdade religiosa nos Estados Unidos e emitirá orientações sobre como aumentar a conscientização sobre o pluralismo religioso historicamente pacífico dentro do país. 

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 estabeleceu a comissão em 1o de maio através de uma ordem executiva, que coincidiu com o Dia Nacional de Oração.

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