null / Credit: Wolfgang Schaller/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jun 24, 2025 / 12:37 pm (CNA).

The Supreme Court this week said it will decide whether prisoners can sue individual prison workers — rather than merely the government itself — over violations of a key U.S. religious liberty law.

The high court on Monday granted certiorari in the case Landor v. Louisiana Department of Corrections and Public Safety. Oral arguments for the case are expected to take place this fall. 

The case concerns Damon Landor, a Rastafarian who as part of his religious belief took the “Nazarite Vow” to let his hair grow out. While incarcerated at the Raymond Laborde Correctional Center in Cottonport, Louisiana, a guard shaved Landor’s head, cutting off nearly two decades’ worth of hair. 

Landor sued the state government under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, a law that the U.S. Department of Justice says requires states to “not place arbitrary or unnecessary restrictions on religious practice.” 

Notably, Landor also sued the facility’s warden, Marcus Myers, in the latter’s individual capacity as well as Louisiana Department of Corrections Secretary James LeBlanc.

Both a district court and the U.S Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit dismissed the personal lawsuits, citing precedent barring such actions. Individuals “cannot seek money damages from officials in their individual capacities,” the appeals court ruled.

The Supreme Court’s ruling could either affirm the lower court rulings or explicitly expand the religious freedom law to allow individual lawsuits.

In May, the federal government filed an amicus brief in support of Landor, citing earlier Supreme Court decisions that suggested the law allows for individual lawsuits. 

The issue is “undeniably important,” the government said in its filing, arguing that the religious liberty law was meant to be “broadly interpreted to protect religious exercise to the fullest extent allowed.”

In addition to its protections for prisoners, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act — passed in 2000 — protects “individuals, houses of worship, and other religious institutions from discrimination in zoning and landmarking laws,” according to the Department of Justice. 

The measure “prohibits zoning and landmarking laws” that “substantially burden the religious exercise of churches or other religious assemblies or institutions.”

Any burdens in zoning laws should be accomplished with “the least restrictive means of furthering a compelling governmental interest,” the government said.

Statue of St. John the Baptist with golden cross, Charles Bridge, Prague, Czech Republic. / Credit: Oldrich Barak/Shutterstock

Rome Newsroom, Jun 24, 2025 / 11:13 am (CNA).

St. John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, is one of only three people in history — after Jesus and Mary — whose birthday is celebrated in the Church’s liturgy.

In fact, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist on June 24 is a solemnity, meaning it is the highest form of Catholic feast day. And because it falls exactly six months before the solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord, it is sometimes known as “summer Christmas.”

“The Church observes the birth of John as in some way sacred; and you will not find any other of the great men of old whose birth we celebrate officially. We celebrate John’s, as we celebrate Christ’s,” St. Augustine of Hippo said in his sermon 293. 

In the Mass for the solemnity, the priest prays to God in the preface that in Christ’s precursor, “St. John the Baptist, we praise your great glory, for you consecrated him for a singular honor among those born of women.”

“His birth brought great rejoicing; even in the womb he leapt for joy at the coming of human salvation. He alone of all the prophets pointed out the Lamb of redemption,” the prayer continues. “And to make holy the flowing waters, he baptized the very author of baptism and was privileged to bear him supreme witness by the shedding of his blood.”

St. Augustine explained that “John, it seems, has been inserted as a kind of boundary between the two Testaments, the Old and the New. That he is somehow or other a boundary is something that the Lord himself indicates when he says, ‘The Law and the prophets were until John.’ So he represents the old and heralds the new. Because he represents the old, he is born of an elderly couple; because he represents the new, he is revealed as a prophet in his mother’s womb.”

John’s connection to Christ

Father Mauro Gagliardi, a theologian and liturgist who teaches in Rome, wrote in a 2009 article on Zenit that it is important to emphasize John the Baptist’s role as “indicator.” John is “a prophet who refers back to Christ.”

The liturgy, Gagliardi said, does the same thing, and thus the June 24 solemnity “reminds us of this: The Christian liturgy is a powerful indicator of Christ to the peoples, like [John] the Baptist.”

John the Baptist’s feast day also has cosmic connections, the theologian pointed out. The fact that June 24 is close to the summer solstice demonstrates the fulfillment of the prophecy in John 3:30 that “he must increase; I must decrease,” since after John’s birthday the days get shorter, or “decrease,” while after Jesus’ birthday on Dec. 25, the days get longer, or “increase.”

“This interweaving between a figure from the history of salvation — John — and the cosmic rhythms (both guided by the same God) has found a fruitful development in the devotion and liturgy of the Church,” Gagliardi said.

Popular customs of ‘summer Christmas’

The Church’s liturgical commemoration of St. John the Baptist dates back to the fourth century.

Acknowledgement of the saint’s importance can also be noted in his shared patronage, together with St. John the Apostle, of Rome’s Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, which is also the seat of the bishop of Rome — that is, the pope.

The night of June 23 is known in some countries, including Italy, as “St. John’s Eve.” Due to the solemnity’s timing, shortly after the summer solstice, some of the practices connected to the feast have a pagan character, including that some refer to it as “the Night of the Witches.”

Modern-day secular festivities may include concerts and theatrical performances, while Catholics usually celebrate Mass and hold religious processions.

One of the most typical customs related to St. John’s Eve, both secular and religious, is the bonfire, called in some countries “St. John’s Fires,” which are lit in honor of the saint who “was not the light, but came to testify to the light (Jn 1:8).” Fireworks or candle-lit processions can also take the place of bonfires.

In an Angelus message on June 25, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI said the feast of St. John the Baptist “reminds us that our life is entirely and always ‘relative’ to Christ and is fulfilled by accepting him, the Word, the Light, and the Bridegroom, whose voices, lamps, and friends we are.”

“‘He must increase, but I must decrease’ (Jn 3:30): The Baptist’s words are a program for every Christian,” Benedict said.

This story was first published on June 24, 2024, and has been updated.

Statue of St. John the Baptist with golden cross, Charles Bridge, Prague, Czech Republic. / Credit: Oldrich Barak/Shutterstock

Rome Newsroom, Jun 24, 2025 / 11:13 am (CNA).

St. John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, is one of only three people in history — after Jesus and Mary — whose birthday is celebrated in the Church’s liturgy.

In fact, the Nativity of St. John the Baptist on June 24 is a solemnity, meaning it is the highest form of Catholic feast day. And because it falls exactly six months before the solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord, it is sometimes known as “summer Christmas.”

“The Church observes the birth of John as in some way sacred; and you will not find any other of the great men of old whose birth we celebrate officially. We celebrate John’s, as we celebrate Christ’s,” St. Augustine of Hippo said in his sermon 293. 

In the Mass for the solemnity, the priest prays to God in the preface that in Christ’s precursor, “St. John the Baptist, we praise your great glory, for you consecrated him for a singular honor among those born of women.”

“His birth brought great rejoicing; even in the womb he leapt for joy at the coming of human salvation. He alone of all the prophets pointed out the Lamb of redemption,” the prayer continues. “And to make holy the flowing waters, he baptized the very author of baptism and was privileged to bear him supreme witness by the shedding of his blood.”

St. Augustine explained that “John, it seems, has been inserted as a kind of boundary between the two Testaments, the Old and the New. That he is somehow or other a boundary is something that the Lord himself indicates when he says, ‘The Law and the prophets were until John.’ So he represents the old and heralds the new. Because he represents the old, he is born of an elderly couple; because he represents the new, he is revealed as a prophet in his mother’s womb.”

John’s connection to Christ

Father Mauro Gagliardi, a theologian and liturgist who teaches in Rome, wrote in a 2009 article on Zenit that it is important to emphasize John the Baptist’s role as “indicator.” John is “a prophet who refers back to Christ.”

The liturgy, Gagliardi said, does the same thing, and thus the June 24 solemnity “reminds us of this: The Christian liturgy is a powerful indicator of Christ to the peoples, like [John] the Baptist.”

John the Baptist’s feast day also has cosmic connections, the theologian pointed out. The fact that June 24 is close to the summer solstice demonstrates the fulfillment of the prophecy in John 3:30 that “he must increase; I must decrease,” since after John’s birthday the days get shorter, or “decrease,” while after Jesus’ birthday on Dec. 25, the days get longer, or “increase.”

“This interweaving between a figure from the history of salvation — John — and the cosmic rhythms (both guided by the same God) has found a fruitful development in the devotion and liturgy of the Church,” Gagliardi said.

Popular customs of ‘summer Christmas’

The Church’s liturgical commemoration of St. John the Baptist dates back to the fourth century.

Acknowledgement of the saint’s importance can also be noted in his shared patronage, together with St. John the Apostle, of Rome’s Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, which is also the seat of the bishop of Rome — that is, the pope.

The night of June 23 is known in some countries, including Italy, as “St. John’s Eve.” Due to the solemnity’s timing, shortly after the summer solstice, some of the practices connected to the feast have a pagan character, including that some refer to it as “the Night of the Witches.”

Modern-day secular festivities may include concerts and theatrical performances, while Catholics usually celebrate Mass and hold religious processions.

One of the most typical customs related to St. John’s Eve, both secular and religious, is the bonfire, called in some countries “St. John’s Fires,” which are lit in honor of the saint who “was not the light, but came to testify to the light (Jn 1:8).” Fireworks or candle-lit processions can also take the place of bonfires.

In an Angelus message on June 25, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI said the feast of St. John the Baptist “reminds us that our life is entirely and always ‘relative’ to Christ and is fulfilled by accepting him, the Word, the Light, and the Bridegroom, whose voices, lamps, and friends we are.”

“‘He must increase, but I must decrease’ (Jn 3:30): The Baptist’s words are a program for every Christian,” Benedict said.

This story was first published on June 24, 2024, and has been updated.

St. Mary Cathedral in Hamburg, Germany. / Credit: John Samuel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Deutsch, Jun 24, 2025 / 10:31 am (CNA).

The Archdiocese of Hamburg in Germany has drawn sharp criticism from former Catholic school students and others following the unveiling of a controversial 33-page sexuality education framework that critics say breaks with Catholic teaching on gender and sexual orientation.

The document, titled “Male, Female, Diverse: Framework for Sexual Education at Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Hamburg,” is scheduled for implementation across all 15 Catholic school locations in Hamburg beginning with the 2026-2027 school year.

Document demands acceptance

Vicar General Father Sascha-Philipp Geißler, SAC, said during the presentation that the document would not introduce new theology but advocate for “a relationship-ethically based view of love, partnership, marriage, family, and sexuality” while promoting “acceptance of diversity regarding sexual orientations and gender identity.”

The new framework explicitly states that “recognition of different identities and sexual orientations will be actively promoted.”

Under “gender diversity,” the concept encompasses not only traditional male and female identities but also “trans identity, intersexuality, or nonbinary identity.”

Students in upper secondary school will learn about “legal regulations regarding the personal status ‘diverse’ as well as transition.”

As to why these changes are being pushed, Christopher Haep, head of the archdiocese’s education department, said that “perspectives and value systems have changed in recent decades — and therefore we must also be able to provide contemporary answers to children and young people’s questions.”

The controversial German Synodal Way has also promoted gender theory: Delegates in 2023 overwhelmingly voted for a change in Church practices based on transgender ideology.

Alumni articulate ardent opposition

Former students of the Catholic Sophie-Barat-Schule mounted immediate resistance to the proposal, addressing an open letter to responsible officials shortly after the framework’s announcement. The alumni argued that the concept stands “in considerable contradiction to the binding sexual teaching of the Catholic Church.”

Their criticism particularly targets the framework’s demand for “acceptance — not just tolerance — of all sexual orientations and family constellations,” which they argue fundamentally contradicts the Church’s teaching that marriage between a man and a woman represents the only legitimate form of lived sexuality.

The critics also expressed concern about passages describing early childhood sexual experiences, calling such characterizations “highly offensive.”

The Hamburg document contrasts with recent Vatican pronouncements on the topic. Pope Francis repeatedly condemned gender ideology, calling it “the ugliest danger” of our time in March 2024.

Gender ideology, which seeks to blur differences between men and women through movements such as transgenderism, “makes everything the same,” the pontiff said.

In April 2024, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued Dignitas Infinita, which condemned gender theory and emphasized that attempts to “obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman are to be rejected.”

The document stressed that human life, in all its aspects, is a gift from God and should be accepted with gratitude.

In February, the Vatican’s doctrine chief delivered a pointed critique of gender ideology at a theological conference in Germany.

This story was based on a report published by CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

St. Mary Cathedral in Hamburg, Germany. / Credit: John Samuel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Deutsch, Jun 24, 2025 / 10:31 am (CNA).

The document is scheduled for implementation across all 15 Catholic school locations in Hamburg beginning with the 2026-2027 school year.

Listen on: Apple | Spotify This episode of Just Politics sounds a little different—and that’s the point. Rather than diving into our usual policy discussion, hosts Colin and Eilis pass the mic to a group of young men wrestling with one of the most pervasive forces shaping our political and cultural moment: toxic masculinity. These college students […]

The post Young men on the toxic masculinity infecting our politics appeared first on U.S. Catholic.

Cassandra Baker, now a coordinator for the Catholic Montessori Institute, presents a math lesson introducing the decimal system to a 4-year-old student in spring 2023 at the Christ the King Catholic Montessori Grade School in Mandan, North Dakota. / Credit: Mike McCleary/University of Mary

CNA Staff, Jun 24, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The University of Mary has launched the world’s first Catholic Montessori Institute (CMI), making the institute the go-to place for certification in Catholic Montessori education.

Montessori has grown popular in both secular and religious spaces since its founding by Dr. Maria Montessori (1870–1952), a practicing Catholic who developed a way of teaching young children about God according to their own needs.

University of Mary, a small liberal arts college in North Dakota, will serve as the home for the new institute, which organizers hope will become the center of Catholic Montessori education.

JoAnn Schulzetenberg, the executive director and visionary for the program, said she plans for the institute to become a center for networking, mentorship, and connection.

“I envision a worldwide network where individuals — whether establishing new environments, enhancing existing ones, or simply seeking guidance — can come together to connect, find mentorship, and inspire future generations to continue the Montessori tradition,” she told CNA.

Schulzetenberg, who has spent more than 20 years as a Montessori practitioner, said she hopes the program will bring new life to Catholic education.

Montessori education prioritizes holistic development, emotional and cognitive growth, intrinsic motivation, community engagement, and global citizenship, according to Schulzetenberg. 

“Dr. Montessori’s method emphasizes respect for each child’s unique development, encouraging autonomy, exploration, and intellectual, social, and emotional growth,” Schulzetenberg said. 

“She specifically designed materials and an environment to influence mainstream education and special education,” Schulzetenberg said. “This was incredibly important as her method could be utilized in every culture across the globe.”

An estimated 22,000 Montessori education programs exist across 110 countries — but the institute is the first of its kind.

“It is my prayer that this movement will revive and strengthen Catholic schools at risk of closure, breathing new life into Catholic education on a global scale,” she said.

All students and educators seeking CMI certification will begin their training at University of Mary followed by both in-person and online courses over a year. The training program will be run by the Association Montessori Internationale, the organization Montessori co-founded “to safeguard the method’s integrity, ensuring faithful transmission across generations to come,” according to Schulzetenberg. In addition, UMary already offers a fully online master of education degree in Catholic Montessori.

Schulzetenberg said she hopes the institute will “cultivate a global community of Montessori educators who are committed to integrating Dr. Maria Montessori’s authentic pedagogy with their Catholic faith.”

In 2016, theologian Jeff Keuss joined a national research effort funded by the Lilly Endowment to explore a pressing question: Why were so many young adults turning away from religion? “It wasn’t a million-dollar question,” Keuss says. “It was a $55 million question.” He was one of 12 principal investigators studying the shifting religious landscape […]

The post Young people are seeking connection. Can the church respond? appeared first on U.S. Catholic.

null / Credit: blvdone/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jun 24, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The Catholic Church’s enduring commitment to support human rights — anchored in a fundamental understanding of what it means to be human — has taken on renewed urgency amid recent global conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine war, the war in Gaza, and humanitarian crises like the political fight over migration in the United States.

In his first weeks as pontiff, the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, who chose his name in honor of his predecessor Pope Leo XIII, has emphasized Christ’s call for peace and the respect for the dignity of all people. Papal biographer George Weigel said Leo XIV has the opportunity to continue Leo XIII’s vision of the Church as a “great institutional promoter and defender of basic human rights” in society.

CNA spoke with V. Bradley Lewis, dean of the School of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., about what the Church teaches on human rights and how those teachings have developed over the past few centuries.

Historical roots

Lewis told CNA that contrary to a common misconception, the concept of human rights within Catholic teaching is not a recent addition but rather has roots extending back to the Church’s constant teaching on human dignity, and later in the development of canon law and the thought of theologians such as St. Thomas Aquinas — even if the specific terminology of “human rights” developed relatively recently.

“There’s an important sense in which it was not a new thing in modern times, and in which it’s always been a part of the Catholic tradition,” Lewis said. 

The Catholic Church has always affirmed the inherent dignity of every human person as a creation in God’s image (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1700). All people have an inherent worth as composites of a mortal body and an immortal soul, and all people are called to have a relationship with God, their creator. 

“Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be recognized as a free and responsible being. All owe to each other this duty of respect. The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of the human person. This right must be recognized and protected by civil authority within the limits of the common good and public order” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1738). 

Natural law

All rights, from a Catholic perspective, are grounded in natural law, which Lewis said provides the essential context for properly understanding and defending human rights from a Catholic perspective. 

There is a right to life because, according to the natural moral law, life is a good that must be protected, Lewis wrote in a 2019 article for the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner. True human rights, then, are derived from natural law and contribute to human flourishing and reasonable ways of living together, he explained.

A problematic way to view rights, he continued, is as purely individual possessions or forms of “individual sovereignty” asserted against others; in contrast, the Catholic way of understanding rights sees them as a framework for understanding and regulating relationships between people within a community.

Various kinds of rights

“There clearly are certain human rights that are absolutely necessary: like the right to life, not to be intentionally killed as an innocent person; rights to religious freedom; rights to family life; things like this. And then there’s lots of other rights that we have that are just legal rights, that can be limited in various ways,” Lewis said.

“And then there are some ‘rights’ that are just totally made up, and that means they could be unmade depending on what we want,” he continued, specifically mentioning in his article societal claims to the existence of “abortion rights, the so-called right to die, homosexual and transgender rights.”

Pope Leo XIII — Leo XIV’s literal and spiritual predecessor — emphasized the rights of workers and the right to private property in his writings as pope from 1878 to 1903. Rerum Novarum, Leo XIII’s foundational document in Catholic social teaching that addressed the challenges of the industrial revolution, emphasizes a need for reforms to protect the dignity of the working class while maintaining a relationship with capital and the existence of private property.

Recent developments

In 1948, in the wake of World War II, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), influenced in part by the thought of Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain, whose work emphasizing the importance of human rights as part of human dignity indirectly influenced the discourse around the declaration, although he wasn’t directly involved in its drafting.

The Church’s teaching developed further throughout the 20th century; St. John XXIII’s 1963 encyclical letter Pacem in Terris includes an extensive catalogue of human rights, including the right to life, the right to respect and to a good name, and the right to education as well as the right to “bodily integrity and to the means necessary for the proper development of life, particularly food, clothing, shelter, medical care, rest, and, finally, the necessary social services.”

“In human society one man’s natural right gives rise to a corresponding duty in other men; the duty, that is, of recognizing and respecting that right. Every basic human right draws its authoritative force from the natural law, which confers it and attaches to it its respective duty. Hence, to claim one’s rights and ignore one’s duties, or only half fulfill them, is like building a house with one hand and tearing it down with the other,” St. John XXIII wrote in Pacem in Terris. 

The Second Vatican Council’s 1965 Dignitatis Humanae further affirmed the importance of religious freedom, saying this right “has its foundation in the very dignity of the human person as this dignity is known through the revealed word of God and by reason itself.”

The relative lateness of these latter writings might lead some people to believe that the Catholic Church “discovered” human rights in the mid-20th century, which is not correct, Lewis said. Rather, the underlying concepts of what we now call human rights have been present among Catholic thinkers for centuries, even if not explicitly named or discussed in the same focal way; for example, within medieval canon law — which became a highly developed legal system — discussions of rights can be found. 

“Rights really come into our tradition, really the Western tradition, through law. I think wherever you have a very highly developed legal system and system of legal reasoning, you find an attention to rights. There was more of it there in the legal tradition than there was, for example, among theologians,” Lewis continued.

Lewis said the development of the idea of human rights was in part a response to the rise of modern states and governments.

He noted that the modern state possesses an unprecedented ability to exercise concentrated power, due in large part to technology. This power can enable both incredible good and terrible oppression, and given this modern power, human rights are essential protections against potential state overreach and oppression.

“I don’t know anybody who’d want to live in a modern state without the protection afforded [by] human rights. We don’t live in medieval villages or ancient Greek city states anymore. We live in these incredibly powerful modern states. [Government power] has to be limited,” Lewis said.

ROME (CNS) -- Sent by his religious order to Hong Kong to share the Gospel in Asia, one Catholic priest's missionary work is raising hell -- but not with the Chinese Communist Party.

"Not a Hope in Hell" is Dominican Father James Dominic Rooney's 2025 book-length defense of eternal damnation -- a Catholic doctrine he says is increasingly debated in academic circles, and one he's frequently invited to speak on across Asia. 

"Just a couple days ago I was in Singapore to discuss hell," he told Catholic News Service June 3, adding that he receives several hell-related invitations each month, ranging from in-person talks across Asia to podcast interviews and article contributions.

People in Asia "think it's a fascinating discussion," he said, noting that atheists in particular are intrigued by the challenge of reconciling hell with Christian teachings on God's love and mercy. 

As one of Christianity's most vividly imagined teachings -- portrayed in foreboding scenes from Michelangelo's fresco "The Last Judgment" to John Milton's poem "Paradise Lost" -- hell, Father Rooney said, remains a subject of both perennial and pressing debate.

"I have a few jihads that I'm on, and this is one of them," he said.

He is not alone in seeing the doctrine of hell as under siege today. In March, Msgr. Charles Pope released his own book on the subject -- also with a tongue-in-cheek title: "The Hell There Is: An Exploration of an Often-Rejected Doctrine of the Church."

"Only 17% of Catholics go to Mass now in (the United States), and so we've got to recover some sense of urgency, which is lacking today," Msgr. Pope told CNS, explaining his motive for writing the book.

Msgr. Pope, a popular lecturer and pastor of Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian Catholic Church in Washington, was interviewed on EWTN in April and expressed his regret over a comment made by Pope Francis in 2024: "This isn't dogma, just my thought: I like to think of hell as being empty. I hope it is."

The comment, made on Italian television, was met with applause. A CNS social media post sharing the late pope's words has been viewed more than 42 million times.

"I think that it's unfortunate," Msgr. Pope said. "Even when they are clear, they are just expressing an opinion. I think popes need to be very careful about what they say, because it carries authority whether they want to admit it or not."

While the Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms the existence of hell and refers to it as an "eternal fire" of everlasting punishment, some Catholic theologians are renewing interest in a minority view held by certain early Church Fathers: that, in the end, all will be saved and reunited with God -- a universalism they argue is more consistent with faith in an all-loving, all-powerful God. 

For example, patristics scholar Ilaria Ramelli, in her 900-page work "The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis" (from the Greek word for "restoration"), argues that saints such as Gregory of Nyssa, Isaac the Syrian and Maximus the Confessor were convinced that all people ultimately would be saved.

This view is often described as "confident" or "hard" universalism, distinguishing it from the position of figures like Swiss Father Hans Urs von Balthasar and, more recently, Bishop Robert Barron, who argue that one may hope -- but cannot know -- that all will be saved.

Jordan Daniel Wood, a theologian at Belmont University in Nashville, defended hard universalism in a livestreamed debate at The Catholic University of America in 2024.

Then, in a February 2025 lecture to students and seminarians at Mount St. Mary’s University, he argued that the principles of doctrinal development could allow for a radical revision of hell, making it temporary and its punishments remedial. 

Critics say that making hell temporary would lessen the gravity of human freedom, threaten the missionary impulse, and contradict Christ's teaching on judgment, but Wood demurs.

"I think it could do nothing but good for the church to come to a clarity, to hold out the Gospel and put its money where its mouth is, so to speak, and say: 'The only reason why we preach the Gospel to you is because we really believe it will fulfill you and satisfy you in a way nothing else can,'" Wood said.

"There's no shadow of hell whose gravity God himself might not be able to compete with," he said.

Wood is writing a book defending universalism with theologian Roberto De La Noval of Boston College.

"We really want to engage in a good faith dialogue with those who really also want to make the best sense of the tradition that we can, and ask about where it might be going," De La Noval said. 

De La Noval and Wood say the current iteration of the debate began with the 2019 publication of Eastern Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart's "That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation," which made a case for universalism.

"Part of the reason it was a watershed was it was able to put into words what a lot of people had felt about their experience of growing up with the doctrine of hell," De La Noval said.

"What David Hart's book was able to do was to crystallize a lot of those felt tensions and give them a logical exposition, a scriptural exposition, and a philosophical and theological exposition," he said.

For his part, Hart said he thinks the debate will go on for some time.

"Right now, the debate has picked up," Hart said. "I like to think that my book, slim though it was, added some dialectical tools to the kit."

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Correction: An earlier version of this story and video referred to Mount St. Mary’s University as the oldest Catholic seminary in the United States. The oldest Catholic seminary in the United States is St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore, founded in 1791. The story and video have been corrected, and we apologize for the error.

Raising hell: Catholics debate eternal punishment

A look into the currently hot debate over whether hell is eternal or God's love and mercy mean everyone will be saved in the end.