International Catholic Jurists Forum (ICJF)

ICJF is a forum for Catholic jurists and scholars to discuss issues related to faith, family, life, and religious freedom.

RT ≠ Endorsement

[Catholic News Agency @cnalive]

Thomas More Society attorneys released guidelines and recommendations to assist school districts that are working "to uphold parental rights." Learn more in this Catholic education news roundup:

https://t.co/iG2XOJZsSP

[Ordo Iuris International @OrdoIuris_Int]

🇵🇱 BREAKING | Poland's Marriage Battle

On May 22, Polish Minister of Interior Marcin Kierwiński signed a regulation enabling the transcription of foreign same-sex "marriage" records into Poland's civil registry — a move Ordo Iuris argues is flatly unconstitutional. ⚖️

Poland's Constitution explicitly protects marriage as a union between a man and a woman. This regulation bypasses that protection, placing local government officials in an impossible position: comply with a ministerial order, or uphold the Constitution they are sworn to respect.

Several officials — including the Mayor of Zakopane — have already announced their refusal to transcribe such records. The Polish Bishops' Conference has voiced its support for them. 🙏
Ordo Iuris is standing with those officials. We are offering free legal assistance to any local government representative facing consequences for refusing to transcribe foreign same-sex "marriage" certificates.

📘 On June 8, we will publish a practical guide for local authorities. 💻 On June 10, we host an online training session.
The Constitution is not a suggestion. We will defend it.

Read more: https://t.co/PWAGfKU5In

#Poland #MarriageProtection #ConstitutionalLaw #OrdoIuris

[Catholic News Agency @cnalive]

A French children’s rights group urges the U.N. to scrutinize Greece and Ireland’s surrogacy laws, arguing “altruistic” frameworks still harm children.

https://t.co/lBOEu7u0pI

[ACN International @acn_int]

Attacks and vandalism against churches continue to rise across Europe and the Americas, yet Christians often lack the official legal instruments at the UN and EU levels to fight back against this growing trend of discrimination. 👇
https://t.co/Al6ucqY0EW

[USCCB Government Relations @USCCBGovRel]

In a letter to Congressional appropriators, Bishop Edward Burns of Dallas, chairman of USCCB's Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, urges Congress to "steward taxpayer funding away from government-sponsored programs that facilitate the spread of gender ideology—what Pope Francis referred to as the 'worst danger' in our time—especially as it impacts children." https://t.co/xQK2mKIh9j

[CourageInternational @RCCourage]

Let us lift up a prayer for the Vicar of Christ and his mission to guide God's people with the grace of the Holy Spirit.

For more information about Courage International, please click the link in the bio or send a direct message.

[Edward Pentin @EdwardPentin]

Critics Say Synod Report Undermines Church Teaching, Misrepresents Courage International | National Catholic Register https://t.co/34GL2Z7w7C @NCRegister

[CourageInternational @RCCourage]

Courage International's Response to the Synodal Report. (You are welcome to repost our response and the link below to our official press release)

On Tuesday (5 May 2026), the Vatican’s General Secretariat of the Synod published the final report of Working Group 9, dedicated to “Theological Criteria and Synodal Methodologies for Shared Discernment of Emerging Doctrinal, Pastoral, and Ethical Issues.” As many outlets have already reported, the document contains an unflattering reference to the Courage Apostolate.

Further, an accompanying “Annex” provides testimony from one individual about his negative experience with Courage.

Courage considers this report to be both calumny and detraction against the organization and its members.

Calumny, because the report mischaracterizes Courage’s work.

Courage is not nor ever has been involved in “reparative therapy,” as alleged.

The working group could have clarified this point by simply contacting Courage leadership.

Rather than do so, however, the report presents one person’s experience and opinion as part of an official ecclesiastical document.

Second, it is unjust to our members for the Synod to publicly present Courage meetings and members in a negative light on the basis of one person’s experience.

This individual characterizes the meetings he attended as “secretive and hidden.”

Courage members understand those meetings to be confidential and secure – precisely so that they can speak candidly and vulnerably without fear of someone reporting about them.

Which is what this individual does when he describes people at the meeting as “lonely, hopeless, and often depressed.”

Whether his estimation is correct, we don’t know.

But it’s precisely because people often are lonely, hopeless, and depressed that we bring them together for support and insist on the confidentiality that enables them to speak freely about their struggles.

Courage has suffered calumny and detraction before, but usually from secular outlets.

It is a great sadness and an additional wound to our members to have this false and unjust depiction in a Vatican document.

If synod officials would like to learn more about Courage International, Inc. and its apostolate over 45 years, our chaplains and members would be happy to meet with them.

Contact: Rev. Kyle Schnippel, Chairman of the Board of Directors [email protected]

To go directly to the full press release please click the link below. ⬇️

https://t.co/7W6A76GRxa

[EWTN News @EWTNews]

Today, April 29, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Catherine of Siena.

St. Catherine was a third-order Dominican, peacemaker and counselor to the Pope. She singlehandedly ended the Avignon exile of the successors of Peter in the 14th century.

She is the co-patron of Italy and of Europe.

She exhibited an unusually independent character as a child and an exceptionally intense prayer life. When she was seven years old she had the first of her mystical visions, in which she saw Jesus surrounded by saints and seated in glory. In the same year she vowed to consecrate her virginity to Christ.

She joined the Dominican Tertiaries and lived a deep and solitary life of prayer and meditation for the next three years in which she had constant mystical experiences, capped, by the end of the three years with an extraordinary union with God granted to only a few mystics, known as ‘mystical marriage.’

The Lord called her to a more public life while she was still in her 20s, and she established correspondences with many influential figures, advising and admonishing them and exhorting them to holiness, including the Pope himself who she never hesitated to rebuke when she saw fit.

Great political acts which are attributed to her include achieving peace between the Holy See and Florence who were at war, to convince the Pope to return from his Avignon exile, which he did in 1376, and to heal the great schism between the followers of the legitimate Pope, Urban VI, and those who opposed him in 1380. She achieved this while on her deathbed.

Her Dialogues, one of the classics of Italian literature, are the record of her mystical visions which she dictated in a state of mystical ecstasy.

In 1375, while visiting Pisa, she received the stigmata, even though they never appeared on her body during her lifetime, owing to her request to God. They appeared only on her incorruptible body after her death.

She died in Rome on April 29, 1380, at the age of 33.

St. Catherine of Siena, pray for us!

#Catholic #SaintoftheDay

[Catholic Culture @FormTheCulture]

Leading African prelate calls for greater recognition of African Church's importance (CWN) https://t.co/l8vcKVmNpY

[ECF @catholic_front]

We are excited to announce that our organization has become a partner of the international Jubilee 2033 initiative 🎉
In collaboration with ICJF (@ICJurists), we will present our mission at the conference this September.
#Jubilee2033 #Mission #Catholic

[Ambassador Brian Burch @BrianBurchUSA]

It could be said the US-Holy See relationship is much bigger than mere diplomatic relations. It is rooted in a civilizational idea that the Catholic Church helped advance, which the U.S. proudly inherited, and carries forth today.

https://t.co/V7rfCU1jIY

[Crux Now Media @Crux]

Pakistan’s bishops decry court ruling in child marriage case

https://t.co/dqxeRJHZsN

[Daily Citizen @DailyCitizen_]

In an 8-1 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a Colorado law banning so-called conversion therapy for minors “regulates speech based on viewpoint,” violating counselors’ First Amendment rights.

Thank you @ADFLegal for your hard work with this case. 🎉

https://t.co/G2S1YiOgP4

[First Things @firstthingsmag]

“On March 26, the Supreme Court of Finland handed down its verdict in the case of Päivi Räsänen... The court found her guilty of ‘insult’ for a church pamphlet she wrote in 2004, in which she expressed her views on sexual morality. On the basis of the decades-old pamphlet, she has been criminally convicted for ‘making available to the public a text that insults a group.’” @Rob_ADFIntl

[The Catholic Herald @CatholicHerald]

The Holy See has called for an end to “eugenic practices” linked to prenatal screening and the termination of babies with Down syndrome.

🔗 https://t.co/i6IkaiSaY2

[Bishop Robert Barron @BishopBarron]

Friends, this video is a part of the series “The Story of America," a collaboration between the @WhiteHouse and @Hillsdale in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding.
https://t.co/FBZ0hAiwmL

[Elizabeth Kirk @erheakirk]

Pope Leo XIV reminded a Vatican children's rights gathering last month that children have a "right to receive love from a mother and a father." But, that framing no longer plays a role in domestic parentage law.

https://t.co/0NKjPfx7pi

[Catholic News Agency @cnalive]

In the context of the government's effort to enshrine abortion in the constitution, Spain's bishops present the moral and scientific grounds for why abortion can never be a right. https://t.co/nec03AsAtX

[National Catholic Register @NCRegister]

Holy See to UN: Christians Are the Most Persecuted Community in the World

The Holy See’s permanent observer to the UN provided statistics demonstrating the extent of the persecution of Christians worldwide.⬇️

https://t.co/efT0CKj4lI