Carol Zimmermann

The Supreme Court Jan. 12 reinstated a federal requirement that women who are seeking abortion-inducing drugs must do so in person, not by mail, as a federal judge had allowed last year due to the pandemic and the high court had let stand.

Just days after the siege on the U.S. Capitol, several bishops, priests and deacons across the country used their pulpits during Jan. 9–10 weekend Masses in cathedrals, parishes and converted outdoor worship spaces to address what happened in Washington and how people of faith should respond.

This year, as tens of thousands of people nationwide protested racial injustices, Catholics similarly took to the streets and also joined in prayer services and discussions.

"We must stop the execution of Lisa Montgomery. Lisa was psychotic — unable to act rationally — when she committed a terrible crime. She desperately needed psychiatric care and instead she got a death sentence," said Sr. Helen Prejean in a Nov. 12 Facebook post.

The busy year for the Supreme Court had the attention of the Catholic Church from major decisions it announced this past summer to oral arguments this fall around key issues impacting church belief and practice.

Eight Catholic bishops serving Maryland dioceses urged President Donald Trump Dec. 22 to stop the planned federal execution of Dustin Higgs, a Maryland man on death row in Indiana.

Trump's order would exclude unauthorized immigrants from the 2020 census for redrawing congressional districts.

The Supreme Court, once again siding with houses of worship opposed to pandemic-related restrictions, ordered lower federal courts in Colorado and New Jersey Dec. 15 to reexamine state-imposed indoor worship restrictions.

Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York, said the program must be reopened for first-time applicants and the period of protection for DACA recipients must be reinstated to its initial two-year extension.

A move by the Department of Justice to expand how it carries out federal death sentences — to include electrocution, gas or firing squads along with lethal injections —was sharply criticized by Catholic anti-death penalty activists.

In oral arguments Nov. 30, the Supreme Court weighed in on President Donald Trump's order to exclude immigrants living in the country illegally from the 2020 census for purposes of redrawing congressional districts.

Longtime anti-death penalty activist Sr. Helen Prejean tweeted after Orlando Hall's execution by lethal injection that under Attorney General William Barr's leadership, "the Justice Department worked into the early morning hours filing reams of appeals, ultimately succeeding in gaining court approval to execute a Black man who was sentenced to death by an all-white jury. This is not 'Christlike behavior.'"

In response to the upcoming federal execution of Orlando Hall Nov. 19, and two more federal executions scheduled to take place in December, two U.S. bishops' committee chairmen called on the government to end this practice.

A federal judge ruled Nov. 14 that the suspension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, announced this past summer by the Department of Homeland Security, was invalid because the agency's top official, Chad Wolf, did not legally hold his position when he issued the order.

In Nov. 10 oral arguments, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kavanaugh stressed that they didn't see how it was necessary to strike down the entire health care law even if its individual mandate, requiring each person to buy health insurance, was invalidated.

The reprieve for Pervis Payne was granted "due to the challenges and disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic," Gov. Lee said. Payne, a 53-year-old Black man, has always claimed his innocence in the 1987 murder of a mother and daughter, for which he was convicted and sentenced to death.

When the death of Alex Trebek — beloved longtime host of "Jeopardy!" — was announced, celebrities and fans around the country took to social media to express their grief.

The Supreme Court seemed willing to find a compromise about a Catholic social service agency shut out from Philadelphia's foster care program for not accepting same-sex couples as foster parents. 

Tennessee's bishops have urged the state's Republican governor, Bill Lee, to stop the upcoming execution of a man on death row, saying: "Carrying out this execution does not serve the cause of justice."

The Supreme Court, with a full bench, will hear oral arguments by teleconference Nov. 4 about a Catholic social service agency that had been excluded from Philadelphia's foster care program for not accepting same-sex couples as foster parents.