In a frescoed hall of a building housing the Catholic Church's highest courts, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. spoke about faith, mercy, tradition and hope. Laurence Spiteri, a priest of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and a judge on the Roman Rota, a Vatican court. The justice quoted Pope Francis who would often talk about how there are more martyrs today than in the first centuries of Christianity. Alito was asked about the current composition of the Supreme Court and the frequently floated idea of changing the number of justices from its current nine members. "The authority of the church comes from God through the Apostles," he said, "while the authority of the Supreme Court has a secular source, it comes through our Constitution."