The EWTN News portal reports that the U.S. Department of Justice has intervened in a lawsuit filed by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne against the state of New York, which is attempting to force their nursing home to accommodate biological males who claim a female gender identity. The sisters, who have provided free palliative care to indigent cancer patients for 125 years, face the revocation of their license if they refuse to comply with regulations mandating that they house transgender women in female wards, allow them access to female restrooms, and use preferred pronouns. The DOJ asserts that New York’s law violates the sisters’ First Amendment rights to free exercise of religion and equal protection. This case exposes the fundamental incompatibility between the natural law, which the Church has always taught, and the totalitarian demands of the modern secular state, which seeks to compel even religious communities to affirm objective falsehoods under threat of legal punishment.
The Primacy of Natural Law Over Positive Law
The conflict between the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne and the state of New York is not merely a legal dispute over regulatory compliance; it is a collision between the immutable order established by God and the arbitrary decrees of a state that has severed itself from any transcendent moral foundation. The natural law, which is the eternal law of God written into the very fabric of creation, dictates that human beings are created male and female, and that this sexual dimorphism is not a social construct but a biological and metaphysical reality ordered toward the procreation and education of offspring. As Pope Pius XI taught in the encyclical Casti Connubii (1930), the family is the fundamental unit of society, and the marital act is ordered by its nature toward the generation of children. To compel individuals or institutions to deny this reality is to force them to participate in a lie, which is contrary to the virtue of truthfulness and the common good.
The state of New York, by enacting and enforcing regulations that require the accommodation of transgender individuals in sex-segregated spaces, is not merely exercising a neutral administrative function. It is actively promoting a ideology that denies the natural law and seeks to redefine the human person according to subjective feelings and desires. This is a direct consequence of the errors condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors, particularly proposition 58, which states: “No other forces are to be recognized except those which reside in matter, and all the rectitude and excellence of morality ought to be placed in the accumulation and increase of riches by every possible means, and the gratification of pleasure.” The modern state, having rejected the authority of God and the Church, has elevated individual autonomy and the pursuit of pleasure to the highest goods, and now seeks to impose this vision on all of society, including those who profess the Catholic faith.
The Right of Religious Communities to Operate According to Their Faith
The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne are not merely a social service organization; they are a religious community whose mission is rooted in the Catholic faith and the charism of their founder, Mother Mary Alphonsa. Their nursing home, Rosary Hill Home, is an extension of their religious life and their witness to the Gospel. To force them to comply with regulations that contradict their faith is to violate their right to the free exercise of religion, which is not merely a constitutional guarantee but a natural right derived from the dignity of the human person and the obligation to serve God according to one’s conscience.
The Church has always taught that the state does not have absolute authority over all aspects of human life. As Pope Leo XIII explained in the encyclical Immortale Dei (1885), the state is a natural society, but it is not the only society, and it must recognize the existence and rights of other societies, including the Church and religious communities. The state’s authority is limited by the natural law and the divine law, and it cannot legitimately command anything that is contrary to these laws. When the state exceeds its proper limits and attempts to compel religious communities to act against their faith, it becomes tyrannical and loses its moral authority.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the free exercise of religion, is a recognition of this natural right. However, the modern state, under the influence of secularism and relativism, has increasingly sought to limit this right, particularly when it comes into conflict with the prevailing ideology of the day. The case of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne is a clear example of this trend, as the state of New York is attempting to force them to choose between their faith and their ability to continue their mission of caring for the dying.
The Duty of Catholics to Resist Unjust Laws
The Catholic Church has always taught that there is a moral obligation to resist unjust laws. As St. Thomas Aquinas explained in the Summa Theologiae (I-II, q. 96, a. 4), human laws that are contrary to the natural law or the divine law do not bind in conscience, and Catholics have a duty to resist them. This principle was affirmed by the martyrs of the early Church, who refused to obey the commands of the Roman Empire when they contradicted the law of God, and it has been upheld by the Church throughout the centuries.
The regulations imposed by the state of New York on the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne are unjust because they compel the sisters to deny the natural law and to participate in a lie. The sisters have a moral obligation to resist these regulations, even if it means facing legal consequences. Their witness to the truth is more important than their institutional survival, and their fidelity to God is more important than their compliance with the state.
The intervention of the Department of Justice in this case is a welcome development, as it recognizes the constitutional rights of the sisters and the unjust nature of the state’s actions. However, Catholics should not place their ultimate trust in the state or in legal mechanisms, but in God and in the Church. The state is a fallen institution, and its laws are often contrary to the natural law and the divine law. Catholics must be prepared to suffer persecution for the sake of the truth, as the martyrs did, and to trust in God’s providence to sustain them in their trials.
The Broader Context of the Sexual Revolution and the Apostasy of the Modern World
The case of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne is not an isolated incident, but part of a broader pattern of persecution and coercion that has been unleashed by the sexual revolution and the apostasy of the modern world. Since the 1960s, the Western world has undergone a profound moral and cultural transformation, as the errors of liberalism, rationalism, and modernism have taken root in every aspect of society. The sexual revolution, which began with the widespread acceptance of contraception and abortion, has now evolved into a full-scale assault on the natural law and the very definition of the human person.
The ideology of gender, which holds that sexual identity is a matter of subjective feeling rather than biological reality, is the logical culmination of the errors condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors and by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907). It is a form of subjectivism and relativism that denies the objective order of creation and the authority of God over human life. It is also a form of Gnosticism, which holds that the body is a mere accident and that the true self is defined by the mind or the will.
The Catholic Church has always taught that the human person is a unity of body and soul, and that the body is not a mere instrument of the soul but an integral part of the human person. As the Catechism of the Council of Trent teaches, “the body is not the prison of the soul, but its companion and its instrument.” The ideology of gender denies this teaching and reduces the human person to a disembodied will, free to define itself according to its desires. This is a grave error that leads to the destruction of the human person and of society.
The Failure of the Post-Conciliar Church to Defend the Natural Law
In this crisis, the post-conciliar Church has largely failed to defend the natural law and to resist the errors of the sexual revolution. The conciliar and post-conciliar authorities, beginning with John XXIII and continuing through Leo XIV, have adopted a posture of dialogue and accommodation with the modern world, rather than one of prophetic witness and resistance. The documents of the Second Vatican Council, particularly Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae, have been interpreted in a way that undermines the Church’s traditional teaching on the natural law, the authority of the state, and the duty of Catholics to resist unjust laws.
The result has been a widespread confusion and demoralization among the faithful, as many Catholics have been led to believe that the Church’s teaching on sexual morality is open to revision or that the state’s authority in matters of gender identity is legitimate. The case of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne is a rare example of a religious community that has refused to comply with the demands of the modern state, but it is an exception rather than the rule. Most Catholic institutions, including hospitals, schools, and universities, have either capitulated to the demands of the state or have been silent in the face of persecution.
This failure is a direct consequence of the modernist apostasy that has infected the post-conciliar Church. The modernists, as St. Pius X explained in Pascendi Dominici Gregis, seek to reconcile the Church with the modern world by adapting its teachings to the prevailing opinions of the age. This has led to a systematic undermining of the Church’s traditional teaching on the natural law, the sacraments, and the authority of the Magisterium. The result is a Church that is no longer capable of resisting the errors of the modern world and that has become, in the words of Our Lord, “salt that has lost its savor” (Matthew 5:13).
The Witness of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne as a Call to Fidelity
In this context, the witness of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne is a beacon of hope and a call to fidelity for all Catholics who seek to remain faithful to the teachings of the Church. The sisters have refused to comply with the unjust demands of the state, even at the risk of losing their license and their ability to continue their mission. Their courage and fidelity are an inspiration to all who are struggling to resist the errors of the modern world and to remain faithful to the natural law and the divine law.
Catholics must support the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne in their struggle, both through prayer and through practical assistance. They must also learn from their example and be prepared to resist the unjust demands of the state in their own lives and communities. The time for dialogue and accommodation is over; the time for resistance and witness has come.
As Pope Pius XI taught in the encyclical Quas Primas (1925), the reign of Christ the King extends over all aspects of human life, including the state and its laws. Catholics have a duty to recognize and obey the authority of Christ the King, even when it conflicts with the commands of the state. The case of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne is a reminder of this duty and a call to fidelity in a time of crisis and persecution.
The state of New York, by attempting to force the sisters to deny the natural law, is not merely violating their constitutional rights; it is waging war against the order established by God. Catholics must resist this war, not with violence or hatred, but with the weapons of truth, prayer, and sacrifice. As St. Paul exhorts us, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). The struggle of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne is a spiritual battle, and it can only be won through the grace of God and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
In conclusion, the case of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne against the state of New York is a microcosm of the larger struggle between the City of God and the City of Man. The state, having rejected the authority of God and the natural law, seeks to impose its own vision of reality on all of society, including religious communities. The sisters, by refusing to comply with this vision, are bearing witness to the truth and fulfilling their duty to God and to the Church. Catholics must support them in their struggle and be prepared to follow their example in resisting the unjust demands of the modern state. The reign of Christ the King must be proclaimed and defended, even in the face of persecution and coercion. As Our Lord Himself declared, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). The fidelity of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne is a sign of contradiction in a world that has rejected the truth, and it is a call to all Catholics to remain faithful to the end.
Source:
Justice Department joins Catholic nuns’ lawsuit against New York’s housing rule (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 19.06.2026