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Response to Attack on Minnesota Lawmakers
The murder of Minnesota Speaker-Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and the attempted murder of Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, are a tragedy, not just for them and their families, but for our nation. Both families were attacked in their homes by the individual impersonating a police officer.
In a chilling update, there are reports that 11 Wisconsin lawmakers were on the killer’s target list. Political intimidation and violence is gravely contrary to human dignity and must be absolutely condemned in the strongest terms. There can be no justification for such political terror.
As Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis Bernard A. Hebda said in his statement, “It is wrong for our elected representatives to have to live in fear of violence and we must do everything in our power to regain a sense of civility in our discourse, especially when we disagree. We cannot maintain our representative republic if our lawmakers fear violence for themselves and their family members.”
May God rest the souls of Melissa and Mark Hortman and may the Hoffmans recover fully from their injuries. May God protect all who are called to public service. May we learn to settle our differences through rational discourse and peaceful persuasion. |
March for Life WI Rescheduled to July 26
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| Please join us at the March for Life Wisconsin on Saturday, July 26, 2025, from 2-4pm on the State Street steps at the State Capitol in Madison. The event was rescheduled to ensure the safety of our attendees, including families with children, due to other national mass demonstrations that took place on June 14. Please join us for this joyful and peaceful march to protect every human life on July 26! |
WCC Action at the Capitol
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School Safety Grants ▲ Registered in support
SB 41 (Jesse James, R-Thorp) / AB 40 (Joy Goeben, R-Hobart)
This bill requires the Office of School Safety in the Department of Justice to establish a competitive grant program that is open to public and private schools for grants to improve the safety of school buildings and to provide security training to school personnel. This bill is in accordance with the WCC’s Session Priorities, which asks the Legislature to prioritize school safety funding for all types of schools.
Status: The bill passed out of committee and awaits a Senate floor vote. Since the public hearing, the Assembly committee has taken no further action. |
Victory for Catholic Charities at the U.S. Supreme Court
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| On June 5, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Diocese of Superior Catholic Charities Bureau (CCB). The Court’s 9-0 decision in Catholic Charities Bureau v. Wisconsin Labor & Industry Review Commission reversed a ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court held that Wisconsin had violated the First Amendment when it determined that CCB was not operated “primarily for a religious purpose.”
Writing for the unanimous Court, Justice Sotomayor stressed that “Much like a law exempting only those religious organizations that perform baptisms or worship on Sundays, an exemption that requires proselytization or exclusive service of co-religionists establishes a preference for certain religions based on the commands of their religious doctrine.”
The Court reiterated that a rule of government neutrality between religions is “fundamental to our constitutional order.” The Court concluded that “There may be hard calls to make in policing that rule, but this is not one.” |
WCC Public Policy Positions: Support Clean Land, Air, and Water
Here we continue to elaborate on each of the WCC’s 2025 Public Policy Positions. You can learn more about Catholic Social Teaching on the USCCB website.
Support clean land, air, and water. The earth is our common home. Environmental toxins, such as lead, PCBs, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals, are especially a problem for children born and unborn. Wisconsin must make additional efforts to reduce toxins from our ground and water supply, as well as reduce carbon emissions. Mining activity should reflect sound stewardship of natural resources and the environment.
“The Church reminds us that the goods of the earth were created by God to be used wisely by all” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church 481).
As stewards of God’s creation, we are called to care for the earth as part of our common home with others. Thus, “Care for the environment represents a challenge for all of humanity. It is a matter of a common and universal duty, that of respecting a common good, destined for all” (Compendium 466).
Through this universal duty, the Church calls us to care not only for the needs of our brothers and sisters around the globe, but future generations. The Compendium states that “Responsibility for the environment, the common heritage of mankind, extends not only to the present needs but also to those of the future” (467).
The earth’s resources are common to all people and must be protected to ensure individuals can live safe and healthy lives. The Church specifically addresses the importance of clean water, emphasizing that, “the right to safe drinking water is a universal and inalienable right” (Compendium 485). Furthermore, “Satisfying the needs of all, especially of those who live in poverty, must guide the use of water and the services connected with it. Inadequate access to safe drinking water affects the well-being of a huge number of people and is often the cause of disease, suffering, conflicts, poverty, and even death” (484).
The Church recently celebrated the 10 year anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ in which he called the Church and the world to acknowledge the urgency of our environmental challenges: “The destruction of the human environment is extremely serious, not only because God has entrusted the world to us men and women, but because human life is itself a gift which must be defended from various forms of debasement.”
Though Laudato Si’ was the first encyclical to exclusively focus on the environment, it is rooted in Scripture and the Church’s longstanding teaching on the goodness of creation and our role as stewards of the Earth. As Pope Benedict XIV wrote in his encyclical Caritas in Veritate, “The Church has a responsibility towards creation and she must assert this responsibility in the public sphere. In so doing, she must defend not only earth, water and air as gifts of creation that belong to everyone.… Our duties towards the environment are linked to our duties towards the human person, considered in himself and in relation to others.” |
USCCB Action Alerts on Federal Budget Reconciliation
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| The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is asking Catholics to contact their Senators and advocate on provisions in the federal budget reconciliation bill.
Last month, the House passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which would extend certain tax cuts and add to the deficit, while also deeply cutting healthcare for people on limited incomes, food programs for hungry children, and more. You can read the recent USCCB letter responding to the House-passed “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” here.
Now, it’s the Senate’s turn to consider the bill. The USCCB is currently advocating for the Senate to do the following:
- Oppose cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and programs that help people with low incomes, keeping in mind how budget and tax decisions will impact families, especially those most vulnerable (Contact your Senators here)
- Include robust school choice provisions that will give millions of parents in all 50 states the ability to choose the best educational environment for their children (Contact your Senators here)
- Address unsustainable, enforcement-only immigration provisions which impose steep fees that prevent family reunification, bypass protections for unaccompanied children, make access to asylum dependent on ability to pay, and more (Contact your Senators here)
- Cut off Planned Parenthood and other big abortion businesses from taxpayer dollars to protect preborn children and their mothers (Contact your Senators here)
To take action on more of the USCCB’s current federal action alerts, click below. |
More Updates from the USCCB
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Legislative Resources
Find your legislators, committee assignments, session schedule, and more:
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