U.S. Bishops Release 2026 Religious Liberty Report Listing Six Areas of Critical Concern, Led by Political Violence
WASHINGTON — The Committee for Religious Liberty of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued its annual report, The State of Religious Liberty in the United States, summarizing 2025 developments in federal policy, legislation and Supreme Court cases affecting religious freedom and identifying six areas of critical concern for 2026. The 62-page report puts political and anti-religious violence first.
The six areas, in order, are: political and anti-religious violence; unjust terms and conditions on federal grants and the unreliability of government; access to the sacraments for ICE detainees and immigration enforcement at houses of worship; school choice and the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit; repeal of provisions that prevent religious organizations from participating in government programs; and further repudiation of gender ideology. Archbishop Alexander K. Sample of Portland, chairman of the committee, wrote in the report's foreword that the ongoing rise in political violence is perhaps the most concerning development, warning of a cycle of attack and retribution.
"All of these developments in religious liberty are taking place as Americans prepare to celebrate two hundred fifty years as an independent nation," Archbishop Sample said in his introduction to the report. "It is a fitting time to reflect on the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence, and how those ideals have shaped the unique culture that has grown over the past two-and-a-half centuries." He also cited the bishops' consecration of the nation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in June.
The report also credits steps taken under the current administration, including the Religious Liberty Commission, on which several bishops serve as members or advisors, and executive orders repealing rules that hindered religious organizations. It further records that after Washington state amended its mandatory-reporting law in 2025 to eliminate the clergy-penitent privilege for information learned in confession, a federal district court found the law likely violates the Free Exercise Clause and issued a preliminary injunction, and the state then agreed to a permanent injunction covering the sacrament of confession and similar practices in other faiths.
Separately, ahead of International Religious Freedom Day on October 27, which commemorates the 1998 signing of the International Religious Freedom Act, Archbishop Sample and Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace, issued a statement emphasizing that respect for human dignity must remain the foundation of efforts to defend religious freedom, and warning that super intelligence and other emerging technologies could enable more extensive surveillance and persecution of religious communities.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于 Washington 的圣母无玷始胎国家朝圣地圣殿外景（资料图）。照片：AgnosticPreachersKid，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Exterior of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington (file photo). Photo by AgnosticPreachersKid, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
