Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 6, 2025 / 18:13 pm
Bishop Thomas John Paprocki and other figures emphasized the importance of faith formation for Catholic lawyers and the role that Catholic law schools have in helping shape perspectives of soon-to-be lawyers.
“Law certainly follows values,” Paprocki said in a panel discussion at an Ave Maria School of Law conference on Oct. 3, hosted at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.
Paprocki — the bishop of Springfield, Illinois, and an adjunct professor at Ave Maria School of Law — said a person’s values, whether they come from theology or a secular notion of virtue, influence the way laws are crafted for all issues, including marriage or abortion.
For Catholic law schools, he said Scripture and doctrine “should be the basis for what we’re teaching” about values. He said values consistent with Church teaching should “influence the way we go about” addressing those issues.
Paprocki said he’s heard Catholics say they are “personally opposed to abortion” yet support legalized abortion. But he said he has never heard a person say he is “for open borders, but I don’t want to impose that belief on others.”
The bishop said faith formation for Catholic lawyers should ensure they have “a more robust understanding of the natural law,” as understood through Catholic social teaching. He said Christ instructs us to “go out and make disciples” and “not to be bashful about [our faith].”
Paprocki told CNA that in some contexts “you don’t necessarily have the opportunity to be very explicit” about matters of faith when employed as a lawyer, but “you should still be informed by your faith life.” Regarding lawmaking, he said “[you should] have religious principles that inform your [views] … and help shape what a policy should be.”
According to Paprocki, the nation’s founders saw the United States as a “religious country” to be informed by religious beliefs. He said that views informed by faith pose no threat to the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which prohibits “an establishment of religion.” The clause, he said, prohibits “an official church of the government.”
“That has been misinterpreted by some people to mean that you can’t mention God at all,” the bishop said.
Gerard Bradley, a retired Notre Dame law professor, said at the conference that the distinction between a secular law school and a Catholic law school ought to be that a Catholic school is “wed … not just to this truth or that truth, but the whole concept of truth.” He said a Catholic law school must reflect the view that Catholic doctrines “are truths that permeate everything we do.”
Lee Strang, executive director of Ohio State University’s Salmon P. Chase Center, spoke earlier in the day about the history of Catholic law schools in the United States, noting that they were initially created to advance the upward mobility of Catholic immigrants, bolster university reputations, and establish a culturally distinct law school.
Over time, he said some schools began to teach a more intellectually Catholic understanding of law rooted in Catholic law tradition, which is focused on “a Catholic theory of the human person within the context of law.”
Retired Loyola University Chicago law professor John Breen said modern Catholic law schools ought to ultimately be “directed toward worship of the Holy Trinity” with an understanding of human anthropology “that comes to us through the Church: the ‘imago Dei.’”
“You can’t understand the human person if you don’t also contemplate God,” Breen said.
He said alternative anthropologies lack an understanding of human exceptionalism and the soul, which distorts the understanding of law and emphasize an “atomized self” focused solely on “desire” or “choice.”
Ave Maria law professor Ligia Castaldi noted an understanding of natural law rooted in Catholic doctrine is important for discussions about the sanctity of life from the moment of conception until natural death.
Richard Myers, another law professor at the university, noted the importance of Catholic legal thought on the issue of same-sex civil marriage. He said in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, “[most] advocacy scholarship [was] on the wrong side of the issue.”
Catholic legal thought, he said, “served an important function, a corrective function … [that was] important to the debate on those issues at that time.”
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This is fine.
But, from where I sit, it seems like what we really need is a conference to discuss the faith formation of bishops.
Because we clearly have a crisis in the Church of prelates who do not believe in what the Church actually teaches.
I have also heard Baptized Catholics claim that we have been born equal, and not created equal as if our inherent equal Dignity does not exist from the moment of our creation at our conception and that The Right To Life is a “State’s Right” issue and not a Right that belongs to all Human Persons, as if it is possible for a man and woman to conceive a son or daughter who is not, in essence, a Human Person, and our inherent unalienable Rights are endowed to us from The State and not God, a denial of both The Spirit Of Divine Law and The Spirit of our Constitution.
“You cannot be My Disciples if you do not Abide In My Word.”-The Charitable Anathema Of Jesus Christ, no longer recognized after Vatican II, which most definitely changed The Deposit Of Faith permitting an erroneous development of a false magisterium which is a development of a false doctrine that in denying The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, denies The Divinity Of The Most Holy Blessed Trinity, Father, Son, And Holy Ghost, and has yet to be charitably anathema, even though it renders onto Caesar, or themselves, what belongs to God, The Most Holy Blessed Trinity, The Author Of Love, Of Life, And Of Marriage, In The Unity Of The Holy Ghost, The Spirit Of Perfect Divine Eternal Love Between The Father And His Only Begotten Son, Jesus The Christ, Who Proceeds From Both The Father And His Only Begotten Son,Jesus The Christ, denying The Deposit of Faith, Christ Has Entrusted To His Church For The Salvation Of Souls, and thus denying Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and The Magisterium Of The Catholic Church.
How can any Baptized Catholic claim a defense of The Papacy while claiming “Who do you say that I Am “, is no longer the question that is necessary to be answered correctly to have Sacramental Communion?
“Penance, Penance, Penance.”
At the heart of Liberty Is Christ, “4For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5Have moreover tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come…”, to not believe that Christ’s Sacrifice On The Cross will lead us to Salvation, but we must desire forgiveness for our sins, and accept Salvational Love, God’s Gift Of Grace And Mercy; believe in The Power And The Glory Of Salvation Love, and rejoice in the fact that No Greater Love Is There Than This, To Desire Salvation For One’s Beloved.
“Hail The Cross, Our Only Hope.”
“Blessed are they who are Called to The Marriage Supper Of The Lamb.”
“For where your treasure is there will your heart be also.”
“Behold your Mother.” – Christ On The Cross