In recent decades, the state has increasingly inserted itself into domains once reserved for parents, often overriding parental judgment and values. Schools, social-service agencies, and an elaborate therapeutic bureaucracy have weakened the ability of parents—especially Catholic parents—to raise their own children according to their faith.
The 2026 case of Joseph and Arlene Kutzko in Massachusetts illustrates this problem.
Their daughter Sophie was socially “transitioned” to a male gender at school without the parents’ knowledge. She was 15 years old when she was counseled secretly at school about her gender dysphoria—without her parents’ knowledge—by school counselors. Those counselors supported Sophie’s gender transition even though they knew that her Catholic parents opposed gender ideology on religious grounds. When Sophie told her school counselors that her parents were against her gender transitioning, school officials apparently redefined any such reluctance to allow gender transitioning as a form of abuse.
They contacted the state authorities, who then removed Sophie from the parents’ home and placed her in state custody.
Once Sophie was in state custody, her state placement encouraged gender transition, sought judicial approval to administer testosterone over the parents’ objection, and then placed Sophie, a biological female, in a boys’ dormitory. There, she was denied religious accommodations—even though Sophie had been, in her father’s words, “the devoutest of devout Catholics before they got ahold of her.”
The Kutzko case is not an isolated tragedy but a revealing example of a governing philosophy in which the state assumes the role once held by the family, imposing the state’s answers to the most important questions about personhood and meaning.
Over the past two years, the State of Massachusetts has been facilitating Sophie’s “gender transitioning” without her parents’ permission. Claiming that Sophie felt “unsafe in her home,” the Massachusetts Department of Children Youth Service in Massachusetts removed her from the home, claiming an abusive household. According to Vernadette Broyles, the parents’ attorney, the “state can retain custody pending a hearing on whether there’s unfitness, but they have long overshot the deadline for having a hearing; this case is going way over time.”
Broyles, the president and general counsel of the Child and Parental Rights Campaign, told reporters, “DCF, for whatever reason, has taken the position that they have total authority over this child even while the parents’ rights have not been terminated,” Broyles said. “There has never been a finding of unfitness against these parents.”
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey attempted to deflect the state’s role in gender transitioning by telling reporters that Sophie was removed from the Kutzko home because of “criminal charges”—not for gender transitioning. Healey was referring to allegations that Sophie had told her school counselor she felt “unsafe” in her home. State custody has continued, and the gender transitioning has proceeded despite the fact that the parents were thoroughly investigated and have not been found to be unfit or given permission for their daughter to change her gender.
This kind of transfer of parental authority emerged from a deliberate ideological shift in how modern institutions understand their roles. Beginning in the late twentieth century, the state shifted to a more intrusive model of governance—one that assumed that educated bureaucrats, counselors, teachers, and social service providers understood children’s needs better than families. In fact, parents began to be viewed as potential obstacles to a child’s authentic selves, while public schools and social service agencies were viewed as neutral experts ready to intervene for a child’s best interests.
This new mindset eventually evolved into federal policy through the passage of the Mondale Act, formally called the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) in 1974, which transformed these assumptions into the governing framework of the child‑protection system. Sponsored by Senator Walter Mondale, the act created a federal grant-in-aid system that required states to adopt mandates about child abuse reporting and enforcement measures in order to receive federal funding.
Lawmakers may have had the best intentions in attempting to protect children from abuse and neglect, but they also embraced an emerging ideology that trusted state and federal institutions over families. This set the stage for systemic intrusion. The Act required mandatory reporting of suspected abuse and opened the door to anonymous reporting. There was complete immunity for those who reported abuse, regardless of error, strict confidentiality rules, and the appointment of guardians ad litem. Most importantly, CAPTA never defined “abuse” or “neglect” and left it up to the states to operate with vague and open-ended categories, so that having a messy house or too much junk food given to children could be defined as neglect, thus opening the door to investigation.
Stephen Krason, Franciscan University Political Science Professor Emeritus, has spent more than 30 years documenting the problems of the current CAPTA system. He estimates that because of the vagueness in the definition of abuse, combined with mandatory reporting and legal immunity for false or even vindictive reports, there has been an explosion of false or trivial reports, with 80% of all reports unfounded.
Krason, who is also an attorney, has documented dozens of instances of innocent families that have been harmed by what he has called a “runaway, abusive system” that routinely harms the innocent. He has written that the reporting system is a “structurally unsound and deeply unjust” institution, one that routinely harms the innocent under the guise of protecting children. Because anyone can file a report anonymously and without evidence, and because investigators face no meaningful accountability for overreach, the system incentivizes suspicion rather than discernment.
Krason argues that these dynamics have produced a massive number of false allegations, turning child protection into a mechanism that destabilizes families, undermines parental rights, and often traumatizes the children who the Mondale Act was meant to protect.
He also asserts that failure is inherent in the design of the Mondale Act. The cultural shift toward state-centered child-rearing, combined with bureaucratic incentives to expand caseloads to inflate child protection budgets, has created what he sees as a sociological crisis. He has documented a flawed system that presumes parental guilt and treats ordinary family life as suspect, especially family life in religious families.
Because the harms are systemic rather than episodic, Krason concludes that the child-protective apparatus cannot be reformed. Instead, he calls for its replacement with a model that uses clear and objective definitions of abuse, while limiting state intervention. He also argues for holding officials accountable for negligence or misconduct.
The Massachusetts Kutzko family’s ordeal reveals how easily a system shaped by suspicion can ensnare faithful Catholic families. Their Catholic faith and desire to live faithfully to the unchanging teachings of the Church about sex and the dignity of the human person were treated as a threat to the state’s preferred vision of the child. They were targeted because their religious commitment placed them outside the cultural orthodoxy that now governs Massachusetts child-protection agencies. While the Trump administration has attempted to end the practice of providing gender-transition treatment to children and has already been successful in closing adolescent gender-transition clinics at six major hospitals in Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut, Massachusetts appears to be continuing.
The suffering of the Kutzko family—again, they have not seen their daughter in two years—is a reminder to all Catholics that fidelity to the Church’s teachings increasingly invites hostility from institutions that no longer recognize religious conviction or parental authority.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
“Because the harms are systemic rather than episodic, Krason concludes that the child-protective apparatus cannot be reformed.”
On the contrary. It is precisely this sort of situation the act of social justice is intended to address. “Episodic” harm is (or should be) addressed at the individual level by the presumably just operation of the system. It is when the entire system is flawed that social justice comes to the fore. As the virtue directed to the common good, social justice is not directly concerned with individual or episodic instances of injustice, but with the institutions facilitating or mandating the injustice. It is the institution, the system, that is in need of reform; social justice enables individual justice, it does not replace it or substitute for it. Thus, as Pope Pius XI declared in § 53 of Divini Redemptoris, using the wage system as an example,
“It happens all too frequently, however, under the salary system, that individual employers are helpless to ensure justice unless, with a view to its practice, they organize institutions the object of which is to prevent competition incompatible with fair treatment for the workers. Where this is true, it is the duty of contractors and employers to support and promote such necessary organizations as normal instruments enabling them to fulfill their obligations of justice.”
As Father William Ferree pointed out in his pamphlet, “Introduction to Social Justice” (1948), https://www.cesj.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/introtosocialjustice.pdf, many people will read this passage and conclude that the pope is commanding a living or just wage. He suggested that if they read it more carefully, they would see that what Pius Xi commanded is not payment of a just wage, but that the system be reformed so that payment of a just wage becomes possible — something completely different!
“On the contrary. It is precisely this sort of situation the act of social justice is intended to address.”
On the contrary, there is no such thing as “social justice.” There is only justice. The virtue of being just requires no additional qualification.
Very scary. Isn’t all of this unconstitutional?
Some friends had to suffer through a humiliating investigation by the Child Protectors because their young daughter had arrived at school one morning with her hair uncombed. Meanwhile how many children suffer horrendous, even fatal abuse that social workers deny is happening? Not every parent/ home gets the same scrutiny.
A community nearby had a 2 year old die from exposure to his mother’s fentanyl. He had previously overdosed the same way & Child Protective Services had then returned him to the home. It’s just hard to imagine how they justified that.
My initial thought as I read the headline to your article was that the state taking over the role of parent is what we have witnessed in recent decades in the communist governments. May our country not move further in that direction.
These are examples of the rampant creeping and not so creeping collectivism in our presumably free and free market society. The State (this actually means the presumably disinterested, fair, and unbiased public servants, experts, specialists, etc.) Knows Best and Will Act in the Best Interests of the Public Considering the Common Good First (etc. etc.). And many, including Catholics, sheepishly acquiesce. And gladly vote over and over again for the Party or Parties promoting this collectivism and obedience and power.
Not an isolated case of course. Catholics, please consider the best possible alternative in an imperfect world when voting.
The DEMOCRAT-DOMINATED MASSACHUSETTS STATE SENATE PASSED A LATE-TERM ABORTION BILL on Friday and sent it to Gov. Maura Healey’s (D) desk for approval.
The bill, called “An Act Prioritizing Patient Access to Care” or H.5595, would ultimately allow unborn babies to be aborted throughout pregnancy in the state and would strike down the state’s current 24-week limit, which has exceptions for the life of the mother and a deadly fetal diagnosis. Under the bill, doctors would have the discretion to decide whether or not to perform a late-term abortion, the Washington Post reported.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/07/31/massachusetts-senate-passes-bill-to-allow-late-term-abortions-sends-to-governors-desk/
Democrat Governor Maura Healey signs late-term abortion bill into law
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/6025901-maura-healey-signs-late-abortion-bill/
Democrat Michigan Senate candidate faces backlash for comparing sharia law to canon law
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2026/08/26/muslim-senate-candidate-faces-backlash-for-comparing-sharia-law-to-canon-law/
Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul Pardons Felon “Migrant” Convicted of Assault to Protect Him from Deportation
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2026/09/14/new-york-democrat-gov-kathy-hochul-pardons-convicted-felon-migrant-to-protect-him-from-deportation/
Democrat Governor Maura Healey proudly posed for photos with an illegal alien named as a person of interest in a sex crime investigation.
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2026/03/06/gov-maura-healey-posed-illegal-alien-named-person-interest-sex-assault-case/
Democrats Applaud as Gov. Tim Walz Promises to Welcome More Somali Migrants to Minnesota
https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2025/12/10/democrats-applaud-as-gov-tim-walz-promises-to-welcome-more-somali-migrants-to-minnesota/
Democrat Sen. Martin Heinrich Blocks House-Passed Bill to Force States to Hold Hearings on Making Data Centers Pay for Rising Electricity Costs
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2026/09/18/dem-sen-heinrich-blocks-house-passed-bill-to-force-states-to-hold-hearings-on-making-data-centers-pay-for-rising-electricity-costs/
Democrat Michigan U.S. Senate nominee Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed (aka Abdul El-Sayed) took to an epidemiological journal to rant against all the money that goes towards breast cancer research.
Why?
Because, he says, all that money reflects a lack of “equity in health research allocation” due to the sufferers of breast cancer enjoying an unfair amount of “social power and privilege.”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/09/18/nolte-abdul-el-sayed-angry-breast-cancer-funding
Journalist Sues Dearborn and Its Democrat Mayor for Anti-Christian, Anti-Jewish Discrimination
https://www.meforum.org/fwi/fwi-news/journalist-sues-dearborn-and-its-mayor-for-anti-christian-anti-jewish-discrimination
Persecution of Christians:
House Republicans led by Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Riley Moore (R-WV) introduced a bill on Monday calling for the State Department to offer comprehensive reports on American actions to protect Christians persecuted by a host of jihadist terror threats in Nigeria, as well as efforts to convince the Nigerian government to take the threat seriously.
https://www.breitbart.com/africa/2026/02/11/republicans-debut-nigeria-religious-freedom-act-demanding-report-on-u-s-support-for-persecuted-christians/
Florida GOP Pushes to Allow Churches to Use Volunteer Security Rather Than Pay for Licensed Guards
Florida GOP Pushes to Allow Churches to Use Volunteer Security Rather Than Pay for Licensed Guards
Florida State Sen. Don Gaetz (R) is pushing legislation to allow churches to use volunteer security rather than being required to pay to hire licensed security personnel.
FOX News reported that Gaetz’s legislation is Senate Bill 52, which has already passed the state’s Senate and will now be weighed by the House.
FOX 13 noted, “Supporters say…[the bill is] aimed at cutting costs while keeping people safe in places of worship.”
Triumph Church of Tampa pastor Elvis Piggott pointed out that “it can get very costly” under the current requirement for licensed security. He said, “Just for myself at an event could be roughly $900 to $1,000 for two hours.”
https://www.breitbart.com/2nd-amendment/2026/02/23/florida-gop-pushes-to-allow-churches-to-use-volunteer-security-rather-than-pay-for-licensed-guards/
Business Digest: Boosted by Tariffs, U.S. Manufacturing Enters a Renaissance
https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2026/08/06/breitbart-business-digest-boosted-by-tariffs-u-s-manufacturing-enters-a-renaissance/
Trump Effect: US Economy Outshines Advanced Nations, Poised to Defy Global Slowdown
https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2026/07/08/us-economy-outshines-advanced-nations-poised-to-defy-global-slowdown/
Business Digest: August 2026, The Trump Manufacturing Jobs Revival Is Accelerating
https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2026/08/10/breitbart-business-digest-the-trump-manufacturing-jobs-revival-is-accelerating/
Business Digest: June 2026 The Best Inflation Report in Modern History
A CPI Report for the Record Books
The June inflation report was even better than it looks.
Don’t get us wrong. The consumer price index fell by 0.4 percent for the month, the biggest decline since the big dips in March and April of 2020, when the economy was reeling from the pandemic shutdown. Prior to that, you have to go all the way back to January of 2015, when the CPI fell 0.7 percent.
https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2026/07/14/breitbart-business-digest-the-best-inflation-report-in-modern-history/
Trump Is Knocking Out the Middleman in Health Care
For decades, Washington promised to fix health care and delivered nothing but higher prices, more paperwork, and a maze of middlemen getting rich while patients paid the bill. President Trump is doing what career politicians like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris never would: cutting out the middlemen and putting patients back in charge.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/02/11/promises-made-promises-kept-trump-is-knocking-out-the-middleman/
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS GOT-AWAYS DROP BELOW 40 PER DAY, DOWN 98 PERCENT FROM PEAK DEMOCRAT ADMINISTRATION BORDER CRISIS LEVELS
https://www.breitbart.com/border/2026/09/19/exclusive-got-aways-drop-below-40-per-day-down-98-percent-from-peak-biden-border-crisis-levels/
White House touts list of victories for people of faith
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2026/09/18/white-house-touts-list-of-victories-for-people-of-faith/
Any sane person would move the hell out of Massachsetts.
To Michigan? To Minnesota? To New York? To Illnois…? To….
What have we become?
Even if half of this is “fake news” , God help us