Pope Leo XIV on Monday approved the advancement of the beatification cause for Boys Town founder Father Edward J. Flanagan, declaring him “venerable.”
The Irish-born priest, revered for his revolutionary approach to caring for homeless and impoverished children in the 20th century, famously said there was “no such thing as a bad boy, only bad environment, bad modeling, and bad teaching.”
His life and legacy were immortalized in the 1938 movie “Boys Town,” starring Spencer Tracy, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of the priest.
Thanks to his ministry to young boys in Omaha, Nebraska, Flanagan was invited to review the child welfare conditions in Japan and Korea in 1947, and the following year in Austria and Germany.
The other sainthood causes advanced Monday are French diocesan priest Henri Caffarel (1903–1996), founder of Équipes Notre-Dame; visionary and Polish Sister Barbara Stanisława Samulowska, who served for five decades as a missionary in Guatemala (1865–1950); Spanish Sister Maria Dolores Romero Algarín (Mother Belén) (1916–1977); and Italian husband and father of 12 Giuseppe Castagnetti (1909–1965).
NAGPUR, India — Catholic leaders in one of India’s most populous states are demanding the repeal of a new law that criminalizes religious conversion — the 13th such measure enacted across the country under the ruling Hindu-nationalist government.
“We protest this move. We have urged the government to repeal this law. Copies of our [Western Regional Bishops’ Council] statement have been sent to the chief minister and governor of the state,” Archbishop Elias Gonsalves of Nagpur, chairman of the Western Regional Bishops’ Council, told EWTN News on March 23.
“Far from safeguarding religious freedom, this law, in its present form, effectively undermines the very right it claims to protect, i.e., the freedom to choose and profess one’s religion, as guaranteed under Articles 19, 21, and 25 of the Constitution of India,” the Western Regional Bishops’ Council said in its March 19 statement.
Expressing “deep disappointment and strong protest” against the bill, the bishops’ council said sections of the legislation “amount to a direct and unjustified interference in the legitimate religious practices of the Catholic Church, particularly its Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program. It is equally disheartening that the ruling party has passed this bill [on March 16] without adequate consultation with the communities most affected by it.”
A threat to conscience
The statement pointed out that sections of the legislation “mandate that any individual intending to convert must submit a notice 60 days in advance to the competent authority. … This provision intrudes deeply into the personal domain of conscience and belief, opening the door to scrutiny, suspicion, and harassment.”
“This section, like most sections in the bill, is manifestly arbitrary and violative of individual’s right to privacy protected by Article 21 [under Fundamental Rights],” the statement cautioned.
Given the serious concern, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India distributed the statement to media across the country.
Laity and civil society
“We are very disappointed that the Maharashtra Freedom of Religion Bill was passed in haste and rammed through the Assembly owing to the brute majority of the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] government,” said Dolphy D’Souza, spokesperson of the Bombay Catholic Sabha — a lay forum of the Archdiocese of Bombay.
“One of our demands was to give opportunity to discuss the provisions of the bill, some of which are draconian, which has the propensity to be misused against minorities, women, and interfaith marriages, as is evident from states where this law has been implemented,” D’Souza said in a March 21 statement.
“This law will be a tool used to harass minorities, women, and interfaith marriages and those who want to convert out of their personal choice voluntarily. While the bill is titled Freedom of Religion Act, it curtails this fundamental right,” D’Souza told EWTN News.
“This bill also criminalizes all charitable works including imparting education under the vague terms of ‘allurement.’ It will give unbridled power to [Hindu] vigilante groups and ‘suo motu’ powers to police to harass and intimidate citizens, encouraging violence and attacks,” he cautioned.
A week before the legislation was passed, a coalition of 35 civil rights, social action, Muslim, and Christian groups had condemned the bill as a “threat to constitutional freedom.”
“Article 25 guarantees the freedom to profess, practice, and propagate religion, which includes the right to adopt and change one’s faith,” the groups asserted.
“The political agenda behind this legislation is to polarize and divide communities on religious lines,” said Irfan Engineer, who heads the Center for Study of Society and Secularism, one of the groups that signed the statement.
Hindu nationalists, Engineer said, are using the propaganda of “love jihad” — marriage for the purpose of conversion — to defend the legislation. He pointed out, however, that “the committee appointed by the state government studied 152 interreligious marriages and found no conversion motive.”
“After the tragic experiences of the 20th century, aerial bombardment should have been banished forever!” Pope Leo XIV said Monday during an audience with airline executives and staff.
“Instead, as we know, it still exists, and technological development, which is positive in itself, is being put at the service of war. This is not progress, it is regression!” he added.
The pope, speaking to representatives of Italy’s national airline, ITA Airways, along with a delegation from the Lufthansa Group, emphasized that aviation must serve peace rather than conflict.
“Aircraft should always be vehicles of peace, never of war! No one should fear that threats of death and destruction will come from the sky,” he said.
Leo XIV also underscored the importance of fostering peace through global travel and cooperation.
“In this context, it becomes even more important to chart courses of peace in the skies,” he said.
The audience highlighted the long-standing relationship between the papacy and Italy’s national airline, dating back to St. Paul VI’s historic 1964 pilgrimage to the Holy Land — the first papal journey by air. Since then, successive popes have continued the tradition of international apostolic travel.
The pope noted that he himself plans to rely on ITA Airways for his upcoming trip to Africa in about 20 days.
Reflecting on papal travel more broadly, Leo XIV described such journeys as a visible expression of the Church’s mission.
“The papal flights are one of the most eloquent symbols of the mission of the successors of Peter in the contemporary age,” he said. “In a particular way, in his apostolic journeys, the pope appears to everyone as a messenger of peace: His routes are what they should always be, namely bridges of dialogue, of encounter, and of brotherhood.”
He also praised airline personnel for their professionalism and spirit of service.
“My predecessors and the collaborators who accompanied them on their international journeys found in the personnel of Alitalia and ITA not only qualified and experienced professionals, but also people capable of creating a serene, I would say almost family-like, atmosphere, where respect goes hand in hand with devotion,” he said.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Questions about whether Pope Leo XIV must vote in Peru or pay taxes in the United States remain unresolved, with one canon law expert arguing that the pope’s unique status as a sovereign head of state likely exempts him in practice — even if the legal picture is not entirely settled.
The debate has gained attention following Leo XIV’s election, given that he holds both U.S. and Peruvian citizenship. In Peru, voting is mandatory, with elections scheduled for April 13. In the United States, citizens — including those living abroad — are generally required to file tax returns, including disclosures of foreign income.
The Holy See Press Office did not immediately respond to questions about whether the pope will vote in Peru or in the United States or file U.S. income tax returns.
According to Professor Antonio G. Chizzoniti, a canon law scholar at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, these questions arise from treating the pope as an ordinary dual citizen — an assumption he argues is incomplete.
“The issue of the pope’s citizenship lies at the intersection of distinct legal systems,” Chizzoniti told ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News, referring to canon law, Vatican law, and the laws of the countries from which popes originate. “None of these systems establishes uniform rules,” he said, noting that the pope’s legal status is the result of a “complex layering of norms” that has led to different outcomes in modern history.
Chizzoniti emphasized that canon law does not require a pope to renounce prior citizenship, nor does it forbid retaining it. He described this as an intentional gap, reflecting the Church’s focus on the pope’s spiritual and ecclesial role rather than his civil status.
At the same time, Vatican law grants the pope citizenship of Vatican City automatically upon his election. This “functional citizenship,” tied to office rather than birth or descent, exists alongside any prior nationality, which may still be retained depending on the laws of the country of origin.
As a result, modern popes have typically held multiple citizenships. Historical examples include St. John Paul II retaining Polish citizenship and Pope Francis maintaining Argentine nationality.
In principle, Chizzoniti said, obligations tied to original citizenship — such as taxes or voting — could still apply. However, he argued that the pope’s status as a foreign head of state introduces a decisive complication.
“It will be necessary to verify the applicability of such obligations to a foreign head of state,” he said, pointing to the well-established principle in international law that grants heads of state immunity from the jurisdiction of other countries.
This immunity, he explained, generally covers both official and private acts and prevents enforcement of civil or administrative obligations by foreign states.
For that reason, while the pope’s dual citizenship is not merely theoretical, “there are multiple reasons to consider these obligations not applicable or no longer enforceable” in his case, Chizzoniti said.
Still, his analysis reflects a legal interpretation rather than a definitive resolution. The interaction between citizenship obligations and head-of-state immunity — especially in cases as unique as the papacy — remains a matter of ongoing discussion rather than settled law.
Leo XIV’s situation is particularly notable because he holds three citizenships: U.S. citizenship by birth, Peruvian citizenship acquired in 2015 when he became bishop of Chiclayo, and Vatican citizenship by virtue of his election as pope.
Ultimately, Chizzoniti argues that the pope’s identity as both the Holy See and the sovereign of Vatican City distinguishes him fundamentally from ordinary citizens — even those with dual nationality.
But the broader questions — whether and how civil obligations tied to citizenship apply to a reigning pope — remain open, highlighting the unusual intersection of international law, state sovereignty, and the unique nature of the papal office.
A version of this story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Pope Leo XIV on Sunday voiced dismay over ongoing conflicts around the world, saying the suffering of innocent victims “hurts all of humanity” and urging an end to hostilities grounded in dialogue and respect for human dignity.
“We cannot remain silent in the face of the suffering of so many defenseless people who are victims of these conflicts. What hurts them hurts all of humanity,” the pope said after praying the Angelus on March 22.
“The death and pain caused by these wars is a scandal for the entire human family and a cry that rises to God,” he continued. “I strongly renew my appeal to persevere in prayer, so that hostilities may cease and paths to peace may finally open up, based on sincere dialogue and respect for the dignity of every human person.”
Earlier, in his reflection before the Angelus, the pope focused on the Gospel account of the raising of Lazarus, describing it as a sign of Christ’s victory over death and the promise of eternal life received through baptism.
“The account of the resurrection of Lazarus, then, invites us to listen to this profound need and, with the power of the Holy Spirit, to free our hearts from habits, conditioning, and ways of thinking which, like boulders, shut us away in the tomb of selfishness, materialism, violence, and superficiality,” he said.
“In these places there is no life but only confusion, dissatisfaction, and loneliness.”
Quoting Jesus’ command in the Gospel — “Come out!” — the pope said Christ calls believers to emerge from such “cramped spaces,” renewed by his grace, and to “walk in the light of love, as new women and men, capable of hoping and loving, without calculation and without measure, according to the model of his infinite charity.”
He also warned that the world seems “to constantly search for novelty and change, even at the cost of sacrificing important things — time, energy, values, affections,” as though “fame, material goods, entertainment, and fleeting relationships could fill our hearts or make us immortal.”
“It is a symptom of a longing for the infinite that each of us carries within us, a need that cannot be satisfied by passing things,” he said. “Nothing finite can quench our inner thirst, for we are made for God, and we find no peace until we rest in him.”
The pope concluded by entrusting the faithful to the Virgin Mary, praying that the experience of encountering the risen Christ may be renewed in them each day.
This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
On their first day at LifeCampUSA, middle-school-aged campers are taught how to use a map and a compass to learn how to find their way around. Then they’re given a Bible — for many, their first time having one — and shown how to find the different books of the Bible, after which there’s a discussion about how God’s word can serve as a map and compass in life.
For boys and girls who have lost their dads in military service, as first responders, or in law enforcement, LifeCampUSA and its Bible-based curriculum can be a life-changing summer experience where they forge new friendships and find a relationship with God.
Founded by married couple Mark and Jane Neumann, the camp — which, according to its website, is “a Christian ministry unassociated with a specific church or religious denomination” — first opened in the summer of 2021 after the Neumanns met a group of middle schoolers from military families and heard about the struggles they faced in the aftermath of losing their fathers. Having experience working with middle schoolers in youth ministry at their church, the Neumanns felt called to help these children and “become fathers to the fatherless.”
Despite neither one growing up in a typical military family, both Jane and Mark grew up with a “general sense of patriotism,” Jane told EWTN News in an interview.
The Neumanns emphasized that they start the week at camp with the map and compass lesson because they want the children to leave knowing that “just like with the compass you’re not going to get lost if you follow the Bible’s lessons and what this book has for you; it’s going to give you direction in life,” Mark said.
Middle-school-aged girls attend LifeCampUSA. | Credit: Photo courtesy of LifeCampUSA
LifeCampUSA offers their summer camp program in several different states across the United States including Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Each camp has spaces for 10 boys and 10 girls. Each boy is assigned his own male mentor, while five couples serve as mentors for the girls’ camp.
“We have five couples for the girls so that the men can speak into the girls’ lives safely there and that the girls can see father figures [and] hear the things that a dad would want to tell their daughters, but also see the healthy marriages,” Mark explained.
Additionally, all expenses — including airfare — are completely covered by LifeCampUSA for the campers who attend. Also, all campers can take part in a 12-month program called LifeCare after their week at camp to continue their mentorship.
Mark and Jane also highlighted the way in which they’ve seen young boys in particular grow into young men during their time at camp. Jane shared that much of the feedback she receives from moms once their sons get back home is how much more respectful they are and how they begin to take more initiative in helping around the house.
One of Mark’s favorite stories was from a mom who shared with him that her son began leading his family in prayer before every meal after getting back home from camp.
“I mean there’s countless stories — it’s been such a blessing,” Mark said.
The Neumanns also pointed out the impact camp has on the many children who have lost their fathers due to suicide after serving the country. They shared that out of the 100 children who are signed up to attend camp this summer, 80% have lost their dads from suicide.
“Moms will tell us that they didn’t mean for this to happen, but they feel a sense of shame when their husbands have taken their own lives, and they didn’t even want necessarily that sense of shame, but it just naturally happens and they don’t mean to project that onto their kids, but it just has,” Jane explained.
She added that these children also face bullying in school after kids find out the manner in which they lost their fathers.
A group of campers and their mentors at LifeCampUSA. | Credit: Photo courtesy of LifeCampUSA
“Their dads are our nation’s heroes. [Yet] somebody finds out that that dad had an injury to their mind, they don’t understand that, but they have no problem bullying our kids, teasing them that their dads took their own lives. And so they don’t want anybody to know,” she shared. “… And now these kids — they’re almost suppressing their patriotism, putting shame into their lives. So our kids come to camp with that stigmatism.”
However, many of the mothers of these children have shared that after they attend camp they witness a “change in their hearts and their heads and it puts more confidence in them, it puts a pride in there for their dad, it puts pride back in for our nation,” Jane said.
Most importantly, the children are introduced to Jesus, which Mark and Jane believe is the greatest reason for the success seen during their summer camps.
“So, [when] you put the Creator in the heart and you know who your creator is, so many things get worked out. … We recognize the fact that Jesus is the one — when we can put Jesus into the program, we’re going to have the best success for these kiddos and families,” Jane said.
“We know that really we have the answer to the healing for these kids. That’s it. And so we want to tell them about Jesus because that’s the real solution,” Mark added.
Mark shared that their main hope for children who attend LifeCampUSA is to give them “hope, to be honest, because a lot of them are pretty hopeless,” and to “change the direction of their life.”
Christians in the West Bank continue to face an onslaught of aggressions by Israeli settlers, threatening their presence in the region, according to Auxiliary Bishop William Shomali of Jerusalem.
“The aggressions against Christians in the West Bank are multiplying,” Shomali said in a March 20 interview with “EWTN News Nightly.”
The situation for Palestinian Christians had been “calm” in the Bethlehem area, he said. “But now, there is more expansion of the settlements and more aggressions from the side of the settlers.”
Shomali said settlers have prevented Palestinian Christians from accessing their land through various threats, physical aggression, and property damage, including burning their cars.
“This happened mainly in the Christian village of Taybeh, and we communicated this news to all the world, even to the American ambassador in Tel Aviv, who came to visit the place, and he promised to do something, but not many things were done,” Shomali said.
In Birzeit, a Palestinian Christian town about six miles north of Ramallah in the West Bank, Shomali said settlers have been coming “almost every day to threaten people in their own homes or in their work.”
“This has become a real threat to Christian families,” he said, “because they lost their livelihood and their source of income.” The Church must intervene and provide aid for them to survive, the bishop said.
Shomali said Israeli settlers have also recently occupied land belonging to a convent of sisters in a village near Bethlehem called Urtas. The sisters “have a hill where they plant and grow olives and other things,” he said. “Settlers came to occupy this hill and to make it theirs, where they think of building a new settlement.”
He also noted a settlement to be built on the Shepherds’ Field of his own village, Beit Sahour, which he said is a piece of land that belongs to Christian families there.
“I heard just today, that a piece of land, one acre, was also entered by settlers who put an Israeli flag to mean that this land now is Israeli, while there is a deed of ownership to a Christian family that I know from Beit Sahour,” he said. “So slowly, slowly, the land of Palestine that Israels call now Judea and Samaria, the biblical name, is becoming less and less Palestinian and more and more settlers’ land.”
Sister Anna Maria of the Sacred Heart, an Italian nun, turned 106 on March 14 at her monastery near Milan, where she continues to serve her sick sisters and share reflections on the Gospel on YouTube.
Still lucid “in thought and word,” and with 36 years of life in cloister, the nun belongs to the Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament, the Italian newspaper Il Giorno reported. Despite her advanced age, she continues to participate daily in Eucharistic adoration even during the night and assists in the monastery’s infirmary, caring for elderly or ailing nuns.
Her birthday celebration took place with a Mass of Thanksgiving and a gathering with family members, experienced through the grilles of the cloister where Sister Anna Maria remains dedicated to prayer.
“I do this like so many other things, out of love for Jesus who continually asks me to love my neighbor,” the religious, whose name before entering the convent was Anna Perfumo, said in a video shared by her community.
“The years are many, but … with patience, God’s will shall be fulfilled. Pray for me, and I will always remember you on earth and in heaven,” she added.
According to Il Giorno, the nun’s life was marked by hardships from the very beginning. At 4 months old, she contracted bronchopneumonia — a condition that was practically fatal in 1920 — and at age 4 she came down with scurvy, a disease that was incurable at that time. “The doctor told my mother: ‘I won’t be coming back tomorrow, because the child will be dead.’ Yet I was miraculously healed,” she said.
Before entering the monastery, she worked for years as a governess and schoolteacher in addition to caring for elderly and infirm priests. Nevertheless, she always harbored in her heart the desire to consecrate herself to God in the contemplative life.
That longing was finally realized at the age of 70, following the death of her mother. After several attempts, she was admitted to the Adorers’ monastery in Genoa, from where she would be transferred years later to Seregno, where she currently lives.
In a video, Sister Anna Maria expressed her gratitude for the expressions of affection she had received and spoke about her late vocation: “It’s true; I had to wait quite a long time before fulfilling God’s will. But when it is God who desires something, it will always come to pass. That’s why one must have great confidence, great faith, great hope, and great patience.”
In her message, she also shared a reflection on the passage of time and on faithfulness: “My grandfather used to tell us that it’s faithfulness that keeps us young and that it’s necessary to keep our eyes and souls open to what is beautiful, good, and true; in this way, one will experience a serene old age. Love keeps the heart young.”
Finally, she extended a greeting for the Easter season: “Life is Christ — the Way, the Truth, and the Life. May the Lord grant you peace and joy… and also peace among peoples, for the sake of fraternity among nations.”
The Perpetual Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament are a contemplative, cloistered order of women whose life is centered on the continuous adoration of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. Their mission is to intercede for the Church and the world from the silence of the monastery, offering their lives as a constant prayer.
The congregation was founded in 1807 in Rome by Blessed Maria Magdalena of the Incarnation (Caterina Sordini) with the charism of Eucharistic adoration.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
Christian ministers including a Jesuit priest won a victory at federal court on March 20 when a U.S. district judge said the Department of Homeland Security must allow them formal pastoral access to detainees at a federal facility in Minneapolis.
Judge Jerry Blackwell said in his ruling that the government “may not impose an access protocol … that bars clergy visits in all circumstances” at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building on the outskirts of Minneapolis.
A group of Christian objectors, including Father Christopher Collins, SJ, had sued the government in late February, alleging that it was unlawfully “barring faith leaders from offering prayer, pastoral guidance, sacramental ministry, and spiritual comfort” to immigrants detained in the Whipple facility.
The government was unconstitutionally obstructing the plaintiffs' “sacred obligation to exercise their faith through ministry to community members in the greatest need of spiritual comfort,” the suit said.
In his ruling Blackwell said that his order allowing the ministers access to the facility would last “for the duration” of the lawsuit.
Erin Westbrook — an attorney with the law firm Saul Ewing which filed the suit on behalf of the ministers — said in a press release that the plaintiffs view their ministry work as “a core expression of their faith and a constitutionally protected exercise of religion.”
“It is vital that they be able to provide pastoral care at the Whipple building at a time when those detained are experiencing profound fear, uncertainty, and isolation,” she said.
Prior to the order the government had argued that heavy immigration enforcement in the area had already ended and that clergy had increasingly been allowed back into the building for ministry visits in recent weeks.
But Blackwellʼs order requires that officials develop a “written protocol” to ensure clergy access to the facility. The government must respond to requests for access “within a reasonable time,” the judge said, adding that such requests are subject to “reasonable” security measures.
The judge ordered the parties in the suit to file a joint status report by April 2 that includes proposed policies and disagreements from both sides.
In a fashion culture saturated with passing trends and corporate logos, a new Catholic menswear brand is making clothes that will stand the test of time and inspire its wearers to something deeper — a daily practice of identity, discipline, and faith.
Founded on the idea that what you wear can reflect what you live for, Shepherd’s offers an alternative vision of masculinity shaped not by excess but by purpose.
Launched in 2023 by Chris Cottrell, Nathan Price, Austin Wright, and football star Harrison Butker, the brand specializes in made-to-measure garments including jackets, outerwear, shirts, pants, suits, and tuxedos. For customers who cannot come to their Kansas City and Dallas stores, they offer video-based fittings and ship try-on garments.
Experiencing great success at their headquarters in Kansas City, the luxury brand recently opened a new store in Dallas on Feb. 28. Shepherd’s offers its customers advanced fitting methods that involve over 100 adjustments for a precise fit and uses premier fabrics from Europe, primarily Italy and the United Kingdom.
EWTN News spoke with Cottrell about the new brand and how it aims to play a role in the lives of Catholic men.
EWTN News: What inspired you to create Shepherd’s?
Chris Cottrell: I think a couple of us on the team had interest, generally, in menswear, but I think what we saw was an opportunity to build a brand that was elevating and refined and kind of inherently Catholic without being overtly Catholic. It’s not like we have a crucifix on the inside of our jacket or saints on our socks, but the values kind of just speak through it.
I’m a convert and I actually met my first nun like four years ago at a conference. I had never met a nun before and she just had this glow about her. It comes from the amount of prayer, it comes from so much time in adoration, and she really was glowing. And you can look at her from across the room — I was lucky enough to have dinner with her — and it was just obvious that she was so close to the Lord.
That’s the kind of brand we wanted to create, where you didn’t have to say anything, it just felt different. And there’s no other brand that’s in the premium luxury space that has that. Everything else is so worldly, it doesn’t have the same values underneath it. And we wanted to create something special. And I think we’ve done that so far with Shepherd’s.
Can you speak a bit more about how the brand portrays Catholicism?
I often think of St. Paul’s letter … In one of his letters he says, old men do all these things, old women do all these things, young women do all these things, young men, self-control. That’s the only advice that he gives the young men: Be self-controlled. And for us, dressing well is a form of self-control. It’s a habit toward virtue.
Of course, it’s easier to wear a T-shirt and sweatpants or something, but we’re trying to help ourselves and our customers be both comfortable in the clothing but also own stuff that they’re proud of, that’s truly made for them, and is unique that they want to wear and it makes it easier to practice virtue by dressing well.
And then of course, you have the effect of wearing the clothes. Like the self-discipline of going to prayer regularly forms you in discipline, but then also you have the effect of prayer. So for us, we have the discipline of getting dressed well and then you have the effect of being well dressed. And every girl knows this too in a different way, but every guy knows the feeling of putting on [something] they feel really confident in and they just stand up a little straighter, right? They feel more like there’s a gravitas and they take their life a little more seriously and they kind of live up to an expectation to be their best version of themselves.
Why do you think a brand like Shepherd’s is needed right now in our culture?
I mean other than the Church, of course, the last great institution that is under attack right now is the family. It’s the concepts of men and women and it’s the concept of the family.
And Harrison [Butker] has been a great exemplar of putting family first and speaking out about Christ and speaking out about our values, but we wanted to build a brand that was pro-men — masculine and associated with masculine beauty and built for men. That’s one of the reasons we don’t do women’s tailoring.
A look inside the Shepherd’s store in Dallas. | Credit: Carlos Lima/Shepherd’s
The manufacturers we work with, the mills that we work with, most of our competitors would offer women’s wear as a way to grow your customer base and grow revenue, but we don’t simply because the values we’re trying to build, we view them as masculine values. And men are under attack everywhere. And so if you look especially for young men, like where are they getting advice? It’s kind of either like Andrew Tate or YouTube and that’s not great.
It’s not a great place for young men, for our next generation … to be formed as men. So we want to, obviously, do the clothing, but also build a brand around that and an ethos around that that is built to encourage men in the life that we view as good, which is a life centered on faith, family, friends, and work that matters.
What is your main goal or hope with Shepherd’s?
When we started the business, we as a founding team, the four of us committed to kind of have a double bottom line. One being we want to build a great business. I think this is part of doing good work — doing our work as unto the Lord — is that we build a business that’s successful, that’s sustainable, that’s profitable, that we have the money to offer benefits, we have good pay … So we want to build a successful business.
The other part is we want to influence the culture. We want someone to come as a young man, maybe a recent graduate, come to Shepherd’s and get a couple garments from us and bit by bit … being around our community that we’re really building, have that influence their life … Three to four degrees of change in your early 20s can lead to a very different life, can lead to a very different outcome.
The thing we want to see is people who have somehow in their life been affected positively by the brand or brought closer to their faith or been more successful in their career or carried themselves differently and had a better marriage for that. So really that’s the dream goal.
For me personally, I would love to in 10 years overhear somebody saying, “Oh, I went to this cool brand, Shepherd’s, and I read this great piece of content they had, and I bought a jacket and I just love their stuff. It really made me want to try harder and so I got this new job and then I met this girl.” That’s the kind of business that we want to build.
