Kudos to Texas Rep. James Frank for securing the right of faith-based entities to carry out their mission without undue encroachment by the government. Under his legislation, which passed the Texas House last month, these institutions can now proceed without fear of state pressure to compromise their doctrinal prerogatives.

Faith-based social service institutions exist to serve the welfare of those they represent. Catholics, Evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, and others all have organizations that provide services to the needy and the dispossessed within their communities. They should be encouraged by the public sector in this effort, facilitating their success whenever possible.

It is astonishing how many “progressive” activists seem not to care about the fundamental right of Mormon adoptive agencies to place children in their care with fellow Mormons. That the right of Mormons to do so needs to be explained suggests that their critics are out of touch with reality, or that they harbor a prejudice in need of serious correction.

The Dallas News ran a headline recently, “Texas Adoption Agencies Could ban Jews, gays, Muslims under House bill.” Why didn’t it mention Catholics? Is that because Catholics have been assigned the role of victimizer?

As a Catholic, Bill Donohue would hope that his Evangelical brothers and sisters would not hesitate to discriminate against Catholics by seeking to place children in their care with Evangelical adoptive parents. Children are best served when they are justly paired with adoptive parents who share their demographic and belief orientations.

President Trump said recently that he supports Black Colleges. Only an idiot would accuse him of fostering bigotry by showing preferential treatment for blacks. And only an idiot would accuse faith-based institutions of fostering bigotry by showing preferential treatment to their own.

We commend the logic and reasoning of Jennifer Allmon of the Texas Catholic Conference, and the sincerity and erudition of Rep. Frank. We hope this Texas bill becomes law and serves as a model to all states.

Under the guise of “anti-discrimination,” a pro-abortion California assemblywoman is pushing a bill that would bar faith-based codes of conduct for employees of religious organizations.

AB 569 specifically targets codes of conduct involving employees’ “reproductive health care decisions,” such as abortion and contraception. It would actually prohibit Catholic organizations from demanding fidelity to Catholic teachings on the part of their employees. Perversely, this grand assault on separation of church and state is being waged in the name of “rights.”

The background of the bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, leaves little doubt as to what her agenda is. Gonzalez Fletcher describes herself as a very religious Catholic who is personally pro-life, yet she proudly touts her 100 percent pro-abortion voting record. She cannot have it both ways: No one would believe her if she said she was opposed to racial discrimination yet voted to promote it.

Her bill is a poorly disguised effort to impose radical pro-abortion policies on religious organizations.

AB 569 passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee and now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee for a vote. Committee members should kill it, and protect religious freedom.

The star witness in the Philadelphia D.A.’s ongoing witch-hunt against the Catholic Church has been totally discredited.

The D.A.’s office had relied heavily on the incredulous claims of Danny Gallagher, a.k.a. “Billy Doe,” to send three priests and a Catholic school teacher to prison.

But retired Detective Joseph Walsh—the prosecution’s own lead investigator into Gallagher’s lurid tales of being violently sexually abused—has filed a 12 page affidavit exposing Gallagher’s claims as a pack of lies. Walsh recounts—as he has done before—how prosecutors repeatedly blew off his warnings about Gallagher’s credibility, such was their zeal to nail these men.

Walsh wrote his affidavit on behalf of Bernard Shero, the former Catholic school teacher now serving 8-16 years in jail based on Gallagher’s claims. But the affidavit is also being used by lawyers for Msgr. William Lynn, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia official convicted of endangering the welfare of a child (he was never accused of abusing anyone). Msgr. Lynn’s conviction has been overturned three times, but Philadelphia D.A. Seth Williams—who is on the verge of going to the slammer himself for bribery, extortion and fraud—continues to pursue the case against him.

It is time to end this travesty once and for all. Walsh’s affidavit has exposed not only the flagrant lies of the prosecution’s star witness, but also the depth of corruption in the Philadelphia judicial system.