The majority of Supreme Court justices seemed to side with a former high school football coach who said his postgame prayers on the field amounted to private speech.

If Catholics wanted to be tolerated in the early years of the Maryland Colony, they had to prove their loyalty—first to the Stuarts, then to Parliament, then the House of Hanover and then the fledgling American republic.

But the Congregation for Catholic Education also said that administrators should not be too quick to dismiss employees who are not “totally” Catholic.

In a video message released by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, Pope Francis offered his prayer intention for the month of January, which he dedicated to people who suffer from religious discrimination and persecution.

In oral arguments that took nearly two hours, several of the justices found fault with the state’s decision process in determining just how religious a school was to decide if it could participate or not.

A task force created by the Archdiocese of Seattle urges more pastoral outreach to L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics. But it declined to press for changes to employment provisions at Catholic institutions.