Vatican News

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 19, 2024 / 15:25 pm (CNA).

“Martyred” Ukraine has occupied a special place in Pope Francis’ heart since the Russian army invaded the country in February 2022.

The pontiff has regularly called for prayer for the Ukrainian people and appealed for peace. But not only that, the Holy Father has also made concrete gestures of solidarity with the victims of the conflict.

The latest is a special gift as Christmas draws near: a vehicle converted into a small mobile hospital to care for the inhabitants of this country devastated by war.

The person in charge of delivering the vehicle where the injured can be operated on will be the pope’s almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajweski.

In addition, the Holy Father is sending six ultrasound machines that will be donated to destroyed and bombed hospitals.

During his trip to Ukraine, Krajewski will visit several communities to meet the suffering people, to bring them hope and the closeness of Pope Francis.

The cardinal has already visited the most affected areas on at least eight occasions at the request of the Holy Father.

In June, donated by the pope to Ukraine. On that occasion, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity visited the district of Zboriv ​​in the Ternopil region.

He also brought with him a large quantity of essential medicines from the Vatican Pharmacy and the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic Pharmacy.

Vatican City, Dec 18, 2024 / 11:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis on Wednesday prayed especially for Cyclone Chido victims in the French territory of Mayotte during his weekly general audience.

Before greeting thousands of pilgrims crowded inside the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father paused to pray before the relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux brought to Rome by French pilgrims attending the pope’s Wednesday audience.

“I express my concern for all the inhabitants of the Mayotte archipelago devastated by a cyclone and I assure them of my prayers,” the pope shared with pilgrims. 

“May God grant rest to those who lost their lives, the necessary help to all those in need, and comfort to the bereaved families,” he continued.

Mayotte, France’s poorest overseas territory located in the Indian Ocean between Madagascar and Mozambique, was hit by its worst tropical cyclone in 90 years with wind speeds at more than 124 mph, the reported.

Though official tolls are unclear and continue to rise, thousands are feared dead or injured. According to , French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou stated on Tuesday more than 1,500 people were injured as a result of Cyclone Chido.

Pope Francis this week introduced a new catechesis series, titled “Jesus Christ Our Hope,” that he said will continue for the entirety of the 2025 Jubilee Year.

Starting the series with reflections on Jesus’ genealogy and childhood, the Holy Father told his listeners that the “infancy Gospels” of St. Matthew and St. Luke, recorded in the New Testament, are in fact told through the perspectives of Jesus’ parents on earth, the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph.

“We are presented with an infant child and adolescent Jesus submissive to his parents and, at the same time, aware that he is wholly devoted to the Father and his kingdom,” he said.

“The difference between the two evangelists is that while Luke recounts the events through the eyes of Mary, Matthew does so through those of Joseph, insisting on such an unprecedented paternity.”

The Holy Father also drew attention to the women mentioned in Jesus’ ancestry and of their importance in salvation history.

“The first four women are united not by the fact of being sinners, as is sometimes said, but by being foreigners to the people of Israel,” he said.

“What Matthew brings out is that, as Benedict XVI wrote, ‘through them the world of the Gentiles enters ... into the genealogy of Jesus — his mission toward Jews and pagans is made visible.’”

Before imparting his paternal blessings, the Holy Father asked international pilgrims to spiritually prepare for Christmas.

“Christmas is now here and I’d like to think that there is a Nativity scene in your homes,” he said. “This important element of our spirituality and culture is a wonderful, wonderful way to remember Jesus, who came to dwell among us.”

Praying alongside pilgrims crowded inside the hall, Pope Francis asked the “Prince of Peace” for his grace and peace to fill the world. 

“Let us not forget all those who suffer because of war. Palestine, Israel, and all those who are suffering in Ukraine, in Myanmar. Let us not forget to pray for peace [and] for wars to end,” he said.

Vatican City, Dec 18, 2024 / 11:17 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has officially declared the 16 Discalced Carmelite nuns of Compiègne, executed during the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution, as saints through the rare procedure of “equipollent canonization.”

Mother Teresa of St. Augustine and her 15 companions, who were guillotined in Paris as they sang hymns of praise, can immediately be venerated worldwide as saints in the Catholic Church.

The equipollent, or “equivalent” canonization, announced by the Vatican on Wednesday, recognizes the long-standing veneration of the Carmelite martyrs, who met their deaths with unwavering faith on July 17, 1794. 

Their final act of courage and faith inspired Francis Poulenc’s well-known 1957 opera “Dialogue of the Carmelites,” based on the book of the same name written by famous Catholic novelist and essayist Georges Bernanos.

Like the usual canonization process, equipollent canonization is an invocation of papal infallibility in which the pope declares that a person is among the saints in heaven. It avoids the formal process of canonization as well as the ceremony, since it occurs by the publication of a papal bull. 

Longtime veneration of the saint and demonstrated heroic virtue are still required, and though no modern miracle is necessary, the fame of miracles that occurred before or after a saint’s death are also taken into account after a study is made by the historical section of the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

Though the process is rare, Pope Francis has declared others saints through equipollent canonization, such as St. Peter Faber and St. Margaret of Costello, something that Pope Benedict XVI also did for St. Hildegard of Bingen and which Pope Pius XI granted for St. Albert the Great.

The martyrs, comprising 11 nuns, three lay sisters, and two externs, were arrested during a time of fierce anti-Catholic persecution. The French Revolution’s Civil Constitution of the Clergy had outlawed religious life, and the Carmelites of Compiègne were expelled from their monastery in 1792. 

Despite being forced into hiding, the sisters secretly maintained their communal life of prayer and penance. At the suggestion of the convent prioress Mother Teresa of St. Augustine, the sisters made an additional vow: to offer their lives in exchange for an end to the French Revolution and for the Catholic Church in France.

On the day of their execution, the sisters were transported through the streets of Paris in open carts, enduring insults from the gathered crowd. Undeterred, they sang the “Miserere,” “Salve Regina,” and “Veni Creator Spiritus” as they approached the scaffold. 

Before meeting her death, each sister knelt before their prioress, who gave them permission to die. The prioress was the last to be executed, her hymn continuing until the blade fell.

Within the following few days, Maximilien Robespierre himself was executed, bringing an end to the bloody Reign of Terror. 

The bodies of the 16 martyrs were buried in a mass grave at Picpus Cemetery, where a tombstone commemorates their martyrdom. Beatified in 1906 by Pope Pius X, their story has since inspired books, films, and operas.

The feast day of the Martyrs of Compiègne will remain July 17, commemorating the date of their martyrdom. 

In addition to the equipollent canonization, Pope Francis also approved decrees advancing other sainthood causes, including the beatifications of two 20th-century martyrs: Archbishop Eduard Profittlich, who died under communist persecution, and Father Elia Comini, a victim of Nazi fascism.

Profittlich, a German Jesuit and archbishop, died in a Soviet prison in 1942 after enduring torture for refusing to abandon his flock in Soviet-occupied Estonia. 

Comini, a Salesian priest, was executed by Nazis in 1944 for aiding villagers and offering spiritual support during massacres in northern Italy. 

Pope Francis also recognized the heroic virtues of three servants of God: Hungarian Archbishop Áron Márton (1896–1980), Italian priest Father Giuseppe Maria Leone (1829–1902), and French layman Pietro Goursat (1914–1991), who founded the Emmanuel Community.

Márton, a bishop who stood against both Nazi and communist oppression in Romania, defended religious freedom and aided the persecuted before being sentenced to life imprisonment and forced labor by the communists in 1951. He was later released and died of cancer in 1980.

Leone, an Italian Redemptorist priest, dedicated his life to preaching, spiritual direction, and aiding communities ravaged by epidemics. Renowned as a confessor and spiritual guide, he helped renew religious life and inspire lay faithful in post-unification Italy.

French layman Goursat founded the Emmanuel Community, a movement promoting prayer and evangelization, particularly among marginalized youth. Despite personal hardships, he transformed the Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart in Paray-le-Monial into a spiritual hub and lived his final years in quiet devotion.

With the decree, the three servants of God now have the title of  “venerable” in the Catholic Church.

National Catholic Register, Dec 18, 2024 / 11:00 am (CNA).

Around this time last year, a Vatican document authorizing priests to provide nonliturgical blessings for same-sex couples led to headlines around the world in the secular and Catholic presses. Some bishops from Africa rejected the pronouncement, some in Europe celebrated it, and bishops in various places issued guidelines explaining it. 

One year later, what has been the document’s effect on the Catholic Church in the United States? How common — or uncommon — are blessings of people in same-sex relationships in parishes? 

To try to find out, the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, earlier this month contacted all 177 Latin-rite dioceses in the United States asking for their experiences with implementing the document, , which allowed what the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith called “the possibility of blessings for couples … of the same sex,” providing the blessings be short, follow no liturgy to avoid looking like a wedding, and “not claim to sanction or legitimize anything.” 

Twenty-one dioceses responded. Some of those declined to comment. All who provided information said they don’t track blessings offered by priests; virtually none reported receiving either complaints or comments from priests or other people regarding practices stemming from the document. 

A year ago, supporters saw the document (which was followed by a two and a half weeks later) either as a useful pastoral approach to people in what the Church considers objectively sinful situations, or a step toward full endorsement of same-sex sexual relationships, which they welcomed. Some critics said it undermined Church teachings on marriage and sexuality; other opponents said that it didn’t go far enough. 

Father Darrin Connall told the Register that as vicar general of the Diocese of Spokane, Washington, he speaks with many priests regularly and that not one has told him about a same-sex couple asking for a blessing. 

“I’m unaware of one case where that’s happened,” Connall said by telephone. “I haven’t heard a priest talk about it since last December, last January.” 

Bishop David O’Connell of the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey, said he isn’t aware of any blessings of same-sex couples by priests in his diocese. 

“I don’t have any sense that it happened at all. It may have. But if it’s been done, it has been done clandestinely, and done without my knowledge,” O’Connell said. 

“I’m certainly aware of what the document says. I’m aware of the boundaries, and I have no problem discussing them, but it just doesn’t come up,” he said, adding that he hasn’t been asked personally to do such blessings.

In the Diocese of Buffalo, New York, discussion about the document quickly died down after its release, said Father Peter Karalus, vicar general of the diocese.

“There was initial discussion at the Presbyteral Council and other consultative bodies when the document was first issued but there have not been any follow-up discussions or requests for discussion,” Karalus told the Register by email through a spokesman for the diocese.

That mirrors the experiences of almost all other dioceses that provided comment to the Register. 

An exception is the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The city of San Francisco has the highest percentage of same-sex couples in the United States. 

“We have had some issues over the past year with people trying to insist they be blessed in an illegitimate manner,” said Peter Marlow, a representative of Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, by email. 

Marlow shared with the Register excerpts from a memo Cordileone sent priests of the archdiocese a few days after the Vatican document was released. 

In it, the archbishop said that such blessings must be “spontaneous” and not “pre-planned, pre-scheduled, or ritualistically celebrated.” 

He noted in the memo to priests that priests and bishops “are frequently asked by people to give them a blessing.” 

“I’m sure you, as I, never ask information about their moral lives or how they are living out their intimate relationships. We simply bless them,” Cordileone wrote. “Consequently, in the case of two people who present themselves as a couple in a marriage or marriage-like relationship, but it is evident that they are not in the bond of a valid marriage, it is always licit to bless them as two separate individuals.” 

But such blessings shouldn’t be given, he said, “if it would be a cause of scandal, that is, if it would mislead either the persons themselves or others into believing that there may be contexts other than marriage in which ‘sexual relations find their natural, proper, and fully human meaning.’” 

The last phrase in quotation marks is taken from (No. 4). 

“As a consequence, any priest has the right to deny such blessings if, in his judgment, doing so would be a source of scandal in any way,” Cordileone wrote. 

Connall, of the Diocese of Spokane, told the Register that priests make judgment calls about blessings and many other things all the time. 

“There are all kinds of pastoral decisions that we make on any one day that the bishop respects,” Connall said. 

shifted the approach of a previous Vatican policy as stated in a released in February 2021, which said that the Church can offer blessings “to individual persons with homosexual inclinations” but not to unions of same-sex couples, because God “does not and cannot bless sin.” 

Vatican officials have said the December 2023 document does not alter Church teaching that sexual activity is moral only if engaged in by a man and woman married to each other who are open to the possibility of procreating new life. 

“The real novelty of this declaration,” wrote Cardinal Víctor Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, in a January , “… is not the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations.” 

Instead, he said, “it is the invitation to distinguish between two different forms of blessings” — what he called “liturgical or ritualized” on the one hand and “spontaneous or pastoral” on the other. 

That distinction is clear to priests in the Diocese of Buffalo, said Karalus, the vicar general there. 

He said: “Priests understand that it is not a blessing of a couple or a relationship but a blessing upon the individuals.” 

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 18, 2024 / 10:15 am (CNA).

In a message addressed to young people entering the workforce, Pope Francis, alluding to bosses, advised them not to “give in to requests that humiliate you or cause you discomfort, to ways of proceeding and demands that tarnish your authenticity.” 

Pope Francis sent this to Italian teenagers and young people participating in LaborDì, a day of reflection to promote decent work organized by the Christian Association of Italian Workers.

The Holy Father began his talk with an invitation to hope, reminding them that they are “made for the light.” After adolescence, the pope continued, “the world scene opens up.” Faced with this challenge, he assured the youth that with their contribution “the world can be improved” and that “everything, really everything, can change.”

He urged young people to maintain the awareness of their uniqueness, “which transcends any success or failure,” and to establish sincere relationships with others, paying attention to the quality of human life.

The Holy Father invited young people to “guard your heart,” especially when they reach the age of taking on their first job. Faced with the demands and “too many directions and recommendations” that they can experience in the world of work, he asked young people to “remain at peace and free.”

“Don’t give in to requests that humiliate you and cause you discomfort, to ways of proceeding and demands that tarnish your authenticity. In fact, to make your contribution, you don’t have to accept just anything, or even bad things,” Pope Francis warned. 

The pontiff counseled them to “not conform to models you don’t believe in, perhaps to gain social prestige or more money since “evil alienates us, extinguishes dreams, makes us lonely and resigned. The heart knows how to notice it and, when this is the case, we must ask for help and team up with those who know us and care about us.” 

The pope emphasized that “results are not everything,” explaining that machines are already there for that.” Human, on the other hand, is “the intelligence of the heart, the reason that understands the reasons of others, the imagination that creates what is not yet.” We are all “unique pieces,” the Holy Father emphasized.

He then asked the adults who accompany them to not force them into conformity with the status quo or corrupt the young people: “Let us trust in what is planted in their hearts.”

Pope Francis concluded by encouraging young people to join forces and “build networks” to repair our common home and rebuild human fraternity. “The human heart knows how to hope. Work that does not alienate, but liberates, begins in the heart,” he concluded.

Vatican City, Dec 17, 2024 / 09:20 am (CNA).

Pope Francis, who celebrates his 88th birthday today, has become one of the oldest-serving popes in the Catholic Church’s 2,000-year history.

Having instituted the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly in 2021, the Holy Father is keeping true to his inaugural message dedicated to older Catholics: “There is no retirement age from the work of proclaiming the Gospel.”  

Just this past Sunday, Dec. 15, he completed his to the French region of Corsica to spend a full day with the Catholic faithful and take part in their cultural and pious traditions.

In the wake of the opening of the Jubilee Year of Hope on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, the pope has not put a pause in his work schedule.

In December alone, Pope Francis has met with country leaders, dicastery prefects, and even smaller delegations of Catholic communities who have come to visit him in the Vatican.   

According to Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, the pope makes the effort to call the Holy Family Church in Gaza every evening and has become of the parish who eagerly await his 7 p.m. call.    

“Think about it: What is our vocation today, at our age?” the pope asked grandparents and elderly in his 2021 message for the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly. 

The answer? “To preserve our roots, to pass on the faith to the young, and to care for the little ones. Never forget this.”

Since the early days of his pontificate the Holy Father has often highlighted the need to connect the old and the young through “intergenerational dialogue” in order to advance peace within families, the Church, and wider society.

Just months after his papal election, Pope Francis embarked upon one of his first apostolic journeys to take part in the 2013 World Youth Day festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and asked the millions of young pilgrims to thank their grandparents “for the ongoing witness of their wisdom.”

“How important grandparents are for family life, for passing on the human and religious heritage which is so essential for each and every society!” he said during his Angelus address on the July 26 feast day of Sts. Joachim and Anne.

“How important it is to have intergenerational exchanges and dialogue, especially within the context of the family,” he added.

Throughout his pontificate, the Holy Father has never shied away from sharing candid stories and memories from his own childhood in his homilies and public audiences. 

Even his third and latest encyclical includes seeds of practical faith and wisdom learned from his grandmother who tells him that lies — just like the carnival pastries whose Spanish name, “mentiras,” means the same thing — “look big but are empty inside.”

While continuing to draw inspiration from his grandparents to guide the world’s approximately 1.4 billion Catholics, Pope Francis also expressed his respect and gratitude for having his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI — whom in 2014 he affectionately called the wise — live at home with him in the Vatican for many years.    

“I have said many times that it gives me great pleasure that he lives here in the Vatican, because it is like having a wise grandfather at home,” he said at the time. “Thank you!"

Vatican City, Dec 16, 2024 / 09:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis welcomed members of a Filipino community living in Spain to the Vatican on Monday, reminding them that they have a home in every country where the Catholic Church is present.

“It is a great joy for me to welcome you to the house of St. Peter, to the home of the Church,” the pope shared with the Filipino delegation. “You have wanted to call your mission in Madrid: ‘Tahanan,’ a beautiful word that we can translate as ‘home.’”

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the parish of Immaculate Conception and St. Lorenzo Ruiz in Barcelona, Spain, the Holy Father told his listeners: “It is true that the Church wherever we go is a warm and welcoming home for us, and today Peter’s house is that home for you. Welcome!”

The Immaculate Conception and St. Lorenzo Ruiz Parish was established in 1999 to serve Filipino Catholics living and working in Barcelona. It is a personal parish connected to the Philippine Diocese of Imus.

Acknowledging the difficulties many migrants face when settling in new countries, the Holy Father told members of the Filipino diaspora living in Spain that Our Lady is close to them and not indifferent to their many needs and concerns.

“It is on these thorns that our Blessed Mother presents herself to us, so that we do not lose hope and are able to face problems, trusting in her protection and shelter,” the pope shared with the Barcelona parish representatives.

Turning to the example of St. Lorenzo Ruiz — patron saint of Filipino migrants, youth, and altar servers — the Holy Father said the saint represents a beautiful “integration of cultures” who is also an inspiring role model of faith and mission.

“His family, like that of Cardinal [Luis Antonio] Tagle, had Chinese and Filipino ancestry and, together with the Spanish who gave him faith, they created an excellent mix,” the pope said. 

“Finally, upon reaching the land that should have welcomed him, God asked him to bear witness to his faith with the greatest proof of love, giving his life,” he added.

Toward the conclusion of the private audience held in the Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father also expressed his particular regard for Tagle, prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization.

Tagle is also a member of several Vatican dicasteries including the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

“Let us imitate [Ruiz and Tagle],” the Holy Father said. “Both had to leave their land, but both did so embracing Jesus. Trusting in him, both faced difficulties without ever losing hope and both are examples of a life dedicated to serving God in their brothers.”

“In this way we will be able to build our ‘tahanan,’ that welcoming and warm home that, like a mother, must be our Church. May the Child God bless you and the Holy Virgin keep you always,” he said.

CNA Newsroom, Dec 14, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Pope Francis called on musicians and artists to serve as “angels of peace” during his address to participants of the 2024 Vatican Christmas concert on Saturday.

Speaking in the Clementine Hall, the pope emphasized the unique power of music to foster unity and communion, drawing parallels to the first Christmas.

“It is moving to think, here in the company of artists and musicians, that when Jesus was born in the silence of the night, a hymn of peace, sung by ’a multitude of the heavenly host,’ suddenly filled the heavens with joy,” the pontiff said.

The annual Christmas concert, which features both established and emerging artists, is supported by the Pontifical Foundation Culture for Education and the Salesian Missions.

The pope focused his remarks on two themes he called “vocal lines” — peace and hope — which he encouraged participants to “take up and make heard on the streets of today’s world, in order to pass it on to future generations.”

“Music speaks directly to the human heart in a unique way; it possesses an extraordinary ability to create unity and to foster communion,” Francis said, encouraging participants to invest their “talents, your artistry, and your lives, as best you can and wherever you find yourselves, in promoting that culture of fraternity and reconciliation our world today needs more than ever.”

The pontiff particularly noted the concert’s theme of hope, connecting it to the upcoming jubilee year. He reminded participants that hope is “founded on faith and nurtured by charity,” quoting from the bull of indiction for the 2025 Jubilee.

“Friends, the world and the Church need your talents, your creative ideals; they need your generosity and your passion for justice and fraternity,” the pope concluded, requesting prayers from those present.

Vatican City, Dec 13, 2024 / 16:35 pm (CNA).

Despite former speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent statement that she has appealed to the Vatican to overturn the Communion ban imposed on her because of her position on abortion, such recourse is no longer likely to be available to her, a canon law professor told CNA.

Pelosi would have needed to bring her case to Pope Francis within 30 days of San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s initial imposition of the ban in 2022, said Father Stefan Mückl, an ecclesiastical law professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.  

In an interview with the National Catholic Reporter published this week, Pelosi said she had sought intervention at the Vatican to get the ban overturned.

“My understanding, as long as Rome has the case, it hasn’t been resolved,” Pelosi told the National Catholic Reporter. “I’ve never been denied. I’ve been to Catholic churches all over the country, and I’ve never been denied.”

It is not clear when Pelosi appealed to the Vatican. The National Catholic Reporter said “she did not respond to a request to speak with her canon lawyer” and that “her spokesmen declined to comment on a personal matter.”

In a 2022  addressed to the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Cordileone prohibited Pelosi from receiving holy Communion because of her public position on abortion. He cited Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law as applying to her case.

According to Mückl, if Pelosi made an appeal under canon law to the Vatican, she would have needed to have done so within a specific time frame.

“If Mrs. Pelosi has now lodged an ‘appeal’ with the Holy See, this will hardly be a recourse in the canonical sense because such a recourse [would] clearly be out of time,” Mückl told CNA.

“At best it can be assumed that it is a ‘political appeal,’” he said. “A recourse in the technical sense would be time-barred.”

Referring to Canons 1734 and 1735 of the Code of Canon Law, Mückl explained that Pelosi would have had “10 days to seek revocation of a decree by the author [Cordileone], then 30 days for proposing recourse to the hierarchical superior [Pope Francis].”

In response to Pelosi’s comments in the National Catholic Reporter, the archbishop of San Francisco issued a  expressing his desire to speak with the politician.  

“As a pastor of souls, my overriding concern and chief responsibility is the salvation of souls. And as Ezekiel reminds us, for a pastor to fulfill his calling, he has the duty not only to teach, console, heal, and forgive but also, when necessary, to correct, admonish, and call to conversion,“ Cordileone wrote.

“I therefore earnestly repeat once again my plea to Speaker Pelosi to allow this kind of dialogue to happen,” he added.

According to Mückl, if Pelosi refuses to engage in dialogue with Cordileone, “juridically speaking she has not fulfilled her duty to cooperate.”

However, Pope Francis is “free to take the matter to himself,” Mückl told CNA. “Whether he would actually do so is difficult to predict.”

Vatican City, Dec 13, 2024 / 16:05 pm (CNA).

The employees who work behind the walls of the smallest country in the world will now have a day care center for their children.

According to the Vatican Governorate, this initiative represents a new stage in support for families, which responds to the needs of employees and provides them with “a safe and enriching environment for their children.”

The Vatican’s first day care center is slated to begin operating next spring and will serve up to 30 children ages 3 months to 3 years.

The aim of the new center is to help families with the growth and comprehensive education of their children. Parents will be able to leave their children with an educational team that “will help stimulate knowledge, skills, and autonomy appropriate to each stage of their development,” the statement said.

The center will be called “Sts. Francis and Clare” and will be located in a building on Via San Luca, inside the Vatican. It will be open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and activities will be held in Italian and English.

At the Vatican, more than 4,000 are employed in various functions, including religious staff, administrative employees in the dicasteries of the Roman Curia, and members of the Swiss Guard as well as workers in finance, landscaping, food service, maintenance, and health care, among other areas.

During the Christmas audience with Vatican employees last year, Pope Francis expressed his gratitude for the work of all these employees, highlighting in particular the effort they make “in the obscurity of everyday life,” carrying out tasks that, although they may seem insignificant, “contribute to offering a service to the Church and to society.”

Vatican City, Dec 13, 2024 / 15:35 pm (CNA).

On the feast day of , Dec. 13, Pope Francis said that “we need women’s work and their word in a Church that reaches out that it may be leaven and light in the culture and in our lives together.”

The pontiff addressed a message to the Church in Syracuse, Italy, on the occasion of the feast of its patron saint, the Roman martyr who, according to tradition, the Lord allowed to continue seeing despite her eyes being torn out before she was killed out of hatred for the faith during the persecution unleashed by the Emperor Diocletian at the beginning of the fourth century.

As part of the Year of St. Lucy, the city of Syracuse is preparing to receive the remains of this saint, the patron saint of sight, which are currently in Venice. St. Lucy was buried in Syracuse, her hometown. However, her remains were stolen and transferred to Constantinople and, finally, after the sacking of the city in 1204, they were taken to Venice to the Church of Sts. Jeremiah and Lucy.

The relics of the saint can be venerated in Syracuse Dec. 14–26. This is the third time that her remains have been temporarily transferred. The first time was in 2004, on the occasion of the 17th centenary of her martyrdom. The second, in 2014, following an agreement with the Archdiocese of Venice that establishes this exchange every 10 years.

In his message Friday, the Holy Father celebrated this pilgrimage, “from the city that has kept her body for eight centuries to the one where her witness first shone forth, spreading light throughout the world.”

The Holy Father noted that “Lucy is a woman” and that her holiness shows the Catholic Church “how unique are the ways in which women follow the Lord.”

“From the Gospel accounts, the women disciples of Jesus are witnesses of an understanding and a love without which the message of the Resurrection could not reach us.” For this reason, Pope Francis affirmed that “we need women’s work and word in a Church that reaches out, that it may be leaven and light in the culture and in our lives together,” especially “in the heart of the Mediterranean.”

Pope Francis also highlighted the compassion and tenderness of St. Lucy, “virtues not only Christian but that are also political.” For the pontiff, these virtues “represent the true strength that builds the city. They give us back eyes to see, that vision that insensitivity makes us lose in a dramatic way. And how important it is to pray for our eyes to be healed!” he exclaimed.

Being on the side of light, he added, “also exposes us to martyrdom. Perhaps they will not lay hands on us, but choosing which side to be on will take away some of our tranquility.”

“There are forms of tranquillity, in fact, that resemble the peace of the cemetery. Absent, as if we were already dead; or present, but like tombs: beautiful on the outside, but empty on the inside. Instead, we choose life,” he said.

Pope Francis also explained that “choosing light” means “being clean, transparent, sincere people; communicating with others in an open, clear, respectful way; getting away from the ambiguities of life and from criminal connivances; not being afraid of difficulties.”

“Choosing this is the incandescent core of every vocation, the personal response to the call that the saints represent on our journey,” he said.

Finally, Pope Francis asked the faithful of Syracuse not to forget to “bring spiritually to their feast day “the sisters and brothers who throughout the world suffer from persecution and injustice,” including migrants, refugees, and the poor among them.

Vatican City, Dec 13, 2024 / 12:50 pm (CNA).

A Nativity scene made by artisans from Bethlehem was the source of controversy this week for including a Palestinian keffiyeh with the child Jesus in the manger — but according to the project’s organizer, the headscarf was a last-minute decision meant only to represent Palestinians.

The keffiyeh was visible during the presentation of the Bethlehem Nativity to Pope Francis in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Dec. 7. By Dec. 11, four days later, the headscarf, manger, and Jesus sculpture had been removed from the scene without explanation.

Amid the Israel-Hamas war, the black-and-white checkered keffiyeh has become a symbol for the Palestinian cause. But Johny Andonia, a 39-year-old artist from Bethlehem who led the project, said it is just a symbol to represent or show the “existence” of Palestinians.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, told CNA the Vatican follows the tradition of placing the infant Jesus in the Nativity scene on the night of Christmas Eve. It is typical for the whole scene to be first presented to the pope before the Jesus statue is then removed, leaving behind the empty manger until the official start of Christmas. 

Speaking to CNA by phone from Cyprus, where he has an art residency until May, Andonia said he did not expect the scale of the reaction to the keffiyeh, which he also signed off on, after it was approved by people at the Vatican during the Nativity’s installation on Dec. 5.

“It came about in a spontaneous way, actually, because we learned that the child baby Jesus has to be covered or even absent until the 24th of December, and [the on-the-ground coordinator] suggested to cover it with a keffiyeh,” the artist said on Dec. 13. 

“And they said no, no, not to cover him. And then he asked, can I put it then under [the child Jesus] and the people … in charge at that time accepted laying the keffiyeh under the baby Jesus, and this is how it came about.”

Andonia said he does not agree with commentary from some quarters that the keffiyeh indicates violence or the eradication of others. “It’s only about recognition,” he said. “This keffiyeh represents the people who had presented the Nativity scene.”

He added that he does not think the Vatican will put the keffiyeh back when the manger and child Jesus are returned on Christmas Eve.

The Associated Press reported that the Israeli Embassy to the Holy See had declined to comment on whether it had complained about the keffiyeh or had asked for it to be removed.

Andonia, who is a physical artist and painter, was born in Jerusalem but has lived all his life in Bethlehem. He is a teacher at Dar al-Kalima University College of Art and Culture in Bethlehem.

After being contacted in April 2023 by the Palestinian Embassy to the Holy See in Rome about the idea for a Nativity from Bethlehem to be featured at the Vatican, Andonia said he decided to reach out to local artisans to create the structure from traditional materials, which he said have deep roots in the area, especially olive wood and mother-of-pearl. 

The round, almost 10-foot-high installation, the work of over 30 artisans from Bethlehem, also incorporates stone, ceramics, glass, felt, and fabric.

Some evidence shows that the use of olive wood in Bethlehem dates back to the fourth century during the construction of the Basilica of the Nativity, Adonia said. And Franciscan monks introduced the use of mother-of-pearl in craftmaking to the area in the 17th century.

The Nativity is “a gift from the Bethlehemites,” he said.

Though not a religious person himself, the artist said being the bridge between the Vatican and the Bethlehem artisans has, nonetheless, been deeply meaningful for him. 

“Most of [the people involved] were people of faith, and having their work at the Vatican with the pope, that was something [significant] for them,” he said.

“I’ve lived my life looking at people creating Nativity scenes, and they are proud of it, so it also meant something to me to be a part of it and give that opportunity to the individuals, and to support them even financially. The project was funded by the Palestinian Authorities, so it was also kind of a [financial] help, in this current situation, for them.”

Rome Newsroom, Dec 13, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

On Dec. 15, Pope Francis will travel to Ajaccio, the capital of the French island of Corsica, for a less than nine-hour visit.

Part of the pope’s itinerary for the short trip is to speak at the closing of a conference on popular piety in the Mediterranean region.

Here are some answers to questions about the pope’s very brief international trip:

Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is situated west of the mainland of Italy and north of the Italian island of Sardinia, the nearest land mass.

The island was annexed by France in 1769, the year after Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was born in the region’s capital city of Ajaccio.

French is the most widely spoken language on the island, together with Corsican. Some areas also speak a regional Italo-Dalmatian language.

Corsica’s population is estimated to be 355,528, according to data from January.

The island region has a strong autonomy movement steeped in national identity and pride, which aims to achieve the further political autonomy of Corsica from France.

Pope Francis’ first appointment in Corsica after landing around 9 a.m. will be at Ajaccio’s conference center, where he will deliver the closing speech following on Dec. 14 about popular piety in the Mediterranean region.

The pope will then address local clergy and religious at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Assumption, where he will also lead the Angelus, a traditional Marian prayer.

After lunch and some time to rest, Francis will preside at Mass with local Catholics at Place d’Austerlitz, a park memorializing the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte, before his last stop — a private meeting with France’s President Emmanuel Macron.

Pope Francis is expected to arrive back in Rome around 7 p.m.

“It will be important to hear Pope Francis’ words at the conclusion of the conference [on popular piety in the Mediterranean],” an Italian archbishop who will present a paper at the conference told CNA’s Italian-language news partner, ACI Stampa. “He is very sensitive to the theme of popular piety.”

The pope’s remarks “will be an invitation to all, bishops, priests, and laity, to value this journey of faith, listening carefully when it is lived in communities. It will also be a commitment to further formation and evangelization of those areas that need ... to be purified and clarified,” Archbishop Roberto Carboni of the Italian Dioceses of Oristano and Ales-Terralba said.

Also sometimes called “popular religiosity,” acts of popular piety are expressions of the faith apart from the liturgy.

In the published by the then-Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2001, the Vatican described popular piety as “diverse cultic expressions of a private or community nature which, in the context of the Christian faith, are inspired predominantly not by the sacred liturgy but by forms deriving from a particular nation or people or from their culture.”

Some examples of popular piety are the rosary, religious processions for holy days and saints’ days, and Eucharistic processions. 

St. John Paul II, in a 1982 speech to the bishops of France, said popular piety is simply “faith deeply rooted in a particular culture, immersed in the very fiber of hearts and ideas. Above all, it is generally shared by people at large who are then a people of God.”

Pope Benedict XVI, in an address , called popular piety “a precious treasure of the Catholic Church in Latin America” that “must be protected, promoted, and, when necessary, purified.”

Popular piety in the Mediterranean is often closely linked to Catholic fraternities and confraternities — associations of laypeople dedicated to charitable work and religious devotions.

The island region of Corsica has a strong tradition of confraternities, Father Juan Miguel Ferrer Grenesche, an expert in popular piety, told CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, ACI Prensa. 

The confraternities in Corsica include influences from Italy and the south of France, brought there by “the Dominicans and Franciscans who preached and cared for these areas of the Mediterranean,” the Spanish priest said.

Over the years, “people followed it as something very much their own and very particular, and the singing, which is very important in Corsica, has also been preserved,” Ferrer explained. The Corsican singing is characterized by being “very peculiar, nasal, and attention-grabbing.”

Pope Francis has spoken often in support of popular piety among religious people — calling it a “jewel” — and the power of pious devotions to evangelize.

In , Francis’ 2013 apostolic exhortation, there is a chapter on “the evangelizing power of popular piety” in which the pope said “popular piety enables us to see how the faith, once received, becomes embodied in a culture and is constantly passed on.”

“Expressions of popular piety have much to teach us; for those who are capable of reading them, they are a locus theologicus which demands our attention, especially at a time when we are looking to the new evangelization,” the pope wrote.

In his recent encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, , Francis asked people to take seriously the “fervent devotion” of those who seek to console Christ through acts of popular piety.

“I also encourage everyone to consider whether there might be greater reasonableness, truth, and wisdom in certain demonstrations of love that seek to console the Lord than in the cold, distant, calculated and nominal acts of love that are at times practiced by those who claim to possess a more reflective, sophisticated, and mature faith,” he added.

Pope Francis has also how to outsiders, the demonstrations of those who participate in religious processions (one common form of popular piety) may seem “crazy” — “But they are mad with love for God.”

In a message to a conference on religious fraternities and popular piety in Seville, Spain, Dec. 4–8, : “Above all, it is the beauty of Christ that summons us, calls us to be brothers and sisters, and urges us to take Christ out into the streets, to bring him to the people, so that everyone can contemplate his beauty.”

Two bishops and a priest scheduled to speak at the explained that popular piety is an important link to transcendence and faith in an increasingly secular Mediterranean region.

Bishop Calogero Peri of Caltagirone, Sicily, told CNA that religious celebrations surrounding Holy Week, Marian feast days such as the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception, and local patronal feast days are still very important in the hearts and lives of many Sicilians.

Of course, he noted, “some people have become more spectators than participants” in the celebrations, which commonly include both penitential and jubilant processions.

Archbishop Carboni of the Italian dioceses of Oristano and Ales-Terralba also affirmed the popularity of religious processions in Italy and told ACI Stampa that popular piety is “a prayer with the heart made action.”

Carboni and Peri both praised the ability of these people’s movements with their sounds, sights, and smells to affect people beyond a rational level, touching their hearts, minds, and souls.

They are a great legacy worth preserving and a “very valid way of [practicing the] faith,” Peri added.

Spanish Father Ferrer said popular piety, for many people, is “the last lifeline to connect with transcendence and to avoid breaking completely with the Christian religious tradition.”

In evangelization, popular piety also makes it possible to reach those who do not know the depth and richness of formal liturgy and, through “a cultural adaptation,” is able to “preserve the link between the thirst for God of the human heart and the sources of revelation: the word of God, the life of Christ, the sacraments, the Church itself,” he said.

“On the contrary,” he added, “where all manifestations of popular religiosity or popular piety have been eliminated, we could say that people’s souls have dried up.”

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 12, 2024 / 17:50 pm (CNA).

“Do not be afraid, am I not here, I who am your mother?” This is the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe that Pope Francis encouraged Catholics to keep in mind and listen to throughout their lives, whether in happy or sad situations.

The pope emphasized these words of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Juan Diego during the Mass celebrated Dec. 12 in St. Peter’s Basilica in honor of the feast of .

Dec. 12 marks the last day on which Mary appeared to in 1531. On that same date, as proof for Juan de Zumárraga, the first bishop of Mexico, the image of the Virgin miraculously appeared on the tilma or cloak of St. Juan Diego.

In an improvised entirely in Spanish, the Holy Father highlighted the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe: “pregnant, announcing the birth of the Savior. A pregnant mother.”

“With what tenderness she said to the Indian: ‘Do not be afraid, am I not here, I who am your mother?’” the pope said, noting that in this message “the motherhood of Mary is revealed.”

These are the same words that Our Lady of Guadalupe addressed to St. Juan Diego, who, according to the — a historical document that narrates the apparitions of the Virgin — was worried about the serious illness of his uncle, Juan Bernardino. Faced with the urgency of caring for his relative, Juan Diego decided to attend to him before fulfilling the Virgin’s command to speak with the bishop. 

The pontiff lamented that “so many ideologies have tried to derive ideological advantage from the mystery of Guadalupe” and then highlighted “three things” that come to mind when contemplating the Virgin.

“The tilma, the mother, and the rose. Very simple things. Mary’s motherhood is engraved on that tilma, on that simple tilma. Mary’s motherhood is shown with the beauty of the roses that the Indian finds and brings. And Mary’s motherhood works the miracle of bringing faith to the somewhat incredulous hearts of the prelates,” he said.

“The tilma, the rose, the Indian,” he continued. “Everything that is said about the mystery of Guadalupe beyond this is a lie, it is an attempt to use it for ideologies,” he warned.

The Holy Father emphasized that “the mystery of Guadalupe is to venerate her and to hear in our ears: ‘Am I not here, I who am your mother? ’”

“And to hear this in the moments of life, the various difficult moments of life, the happy moments of life, the daily moments of life."

In conclusion, the pope said: “We go forth with the image of the Lady on the Indian’s tilma. And listening to how in a melodious voice, she tells us over and over: ‘Do not be afraid, am I not here, I who am your mother?’”

Vatican City, Dec 12, 2024 / 14:30 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Thursday released his for the 58th World Day of Peace, commemorated annually on Jan. 1, with three concrete proposals for people to embark upon a profound “journey of hope” in the 2025 Jubilee Year.

According to the pope, the path toward “a true and lasting peace” in the world is rooted in the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer and requires a desire for change on a personal, cultural, and structural level “in order to confront the present state of injustice and inequality.”

Renewing the appeals for peace of his predecessors St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and St. Paul VI, the Holy Father called for the development of a new financial framework based on solidarity; the elimination of the death penalty in all nations; and, using a fixed percentage of money “earmarked for armaments,” to establish a global fund to sustainably eradicate hunger and promote education in poorer countries.

“If we take to heart these much-needed changes, the Jubilee Year of Grace can serve to set each of us on a renewed journey of hope, born of the experience of God’s unlimited mercy,” the pope wrote in his Dec. 12 message on peace.

Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development Cardinal Michael Czerny, SJ, told journalists on Thursday that a “constant renewal of mind and heart” is needed to bring about future changes to improve the lives of the world’s most vulnerable. 

“The Holy Father speaks about the poor countries. In our time, he says this must include the conversion of hearts,” he shared. “Conversion is a path traced by love for Christ that inspires, transforms, orients, and energizes us.”

“‘Love is patient’ says St. Paul (1 Cor 13:14) because it moves us from immediate needs and consumption and a logic of waste and self interest to seeking authentic communion, service, the common good, the gift of oneself, ‘integral human development,’” he continued.

During the press conference, Italian engineer Vito Alfieri Fontana shared with journalists about his humanitarian work dedicated to eliminating land mines following a personal conversion experience in the early 1990s.

“When I was an arms manufacturer I thought that war was a part of the human soul,” he said. “Those who work in the armaments industry go out of the way to offer customers products that ensure quick and effective solutions to face a war.”

“[Political] tensions kept our activities stable,” he said. “Then somehow a mechanism becomes jammed. The questions from your children asking you what you do as a job and why you do it; pressure from public opinion on the problem of land mines… asked me to think about my life, if not, to change it.”

Addressing Pope Francis and St. John Paul II’s call to overturn “structures of sin,” Executive Director of Catholic Mobilizing Network Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy said this year’s theme “Forgive Us Our Trespasses: Grant Us Your Peace” affirms the American organization’s work dedicated to end to the death penalty, advance mercy, and achieve “restorative justice.”

“My friends Vicki and Syl Schieber lost their daughter, Shannon, in 1998,” Murphy told journalists on Thursday. “Their suffering was unimaginable yet they chose to respond in a restorative way. They fought to spare the life of the man who took their daughter’s life from a death sentence.”  

“In the spirit of reconciliation, the Schiebers took courageous steps to ensure their pain did not result in more suffering or feed into a sinful social structure,” she shared. “Forgiveness is a long journey. Dare I say, countercultural.”

“The Holy Father reminds us that the path toward peace needs graced hope to light our way,” she added.

Coinciding with the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, the World Day of Peace was in 1968 and has since been observed “as a hope and as a promise” each year “to give to the history of the world a more happy, ordered, and civilized development.”

CNA Newsroom, Dec 12, 2024 / 11:55 am (CNA).

Pope Francis received Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Vatican on Thursday for discussions focused on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and prospects for peace in the Holy Land.

During the 30-minute audience, which was followed by meetings with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary for relations with states, the leaders emphasized the importance of reaching a solution for “the two states only through dialogue and diplomacy,” according to a Vatican statement.

The Holy See said the talks also highlighted “the important contribution of the Catholic Church to Palestinian society” and its role in providing humanitarian assistance in Gaza, where officials called for “a ceasefire and the release of all hostages as soon as possible.”

The meeting marked Abbas’ first visit to the Vatican since 2021.

According to the Vatican, the 89-year-old Palestinian leader, who has been in office for about 20 years, has spoken with Pope Francis several times by phone since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by the Islamist terror group Hamas.

During the “cordial talks,” both parties “reiterated the condemnation of all forms of terrorism” while emphasizing the importance of protecting Jerusalem’s special status as “a place of encounter and friendship between the three great monotheistic religions.”

The Vatican expressed hope that the upcoming 2025 Jubilee Year would see the return of pilgrims to the Holy Land, “which longs so much for peace.”

Abbas’ visit to the Vatican in June 2014 included a peace prayer with then-Israeli President Shimon Peres, during which the leaders planted an olive tree together and embraced in a gesture of peace.

The Palestinian president’s visit comes one day before Lebanese interim Prime Minister Najib Mikati is scheduled to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican.

National Catholic Register, Dec 11, 2024 / 17:35 pm (CNA).

An Italian association of LGBT Christians has it has received official Vatican approval to make a pilgrimage to next year’s jubilee in Rome, although the Vatican’s jubilee organizers say they are neither supporting nor opposing the event while the figures behind it are declining to comment. 

The association called La Tenda di Gionata (“Jonathan’s Tent”) to “save the date” — Sept. 6, 2025, at 3 p.m. — and invited “all associations and groups dedicated to supporting LGBT+ individuals and their families to join us as we officially cross the Holy Door of the jubilee at St. Peter’s Basilica.”

In the evening, the LGBT pilgrims, their parents, and pastoral workers have been invited to a Mass at the Jesuit Church of the Gesù, the historic baroque church in central Rome, celebrated by the vice president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Francesco Savino. The Gesù will also host a prayer vigil for the pilgrims the evening before. 

Jubilee 2025, which begins with the opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 24 and runs until Jan. 6, 2026, is expected to attract 32 million pilgrims to Rome from around the world who will be able to and attend a variety of spiritual and cultural events. 

Agnese Palmucci, an official spokesman for the jubilee, told the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, that the La Tenda di Gionata association proposed making a pilgrimage to the Holy Door and so it has been “included in the general calendar as a pilgrimage, along with all the other pilgrimages that other dioceses will make.” 

“It is not a jubilee event sponsored or organized by us,” Palmucci continued. “It is a pilgrimage organized by this association which, like the other dioceses, bodies, and associations, will make the pilgrimage as they wish.”

The Italian daily Il Messaggero the planned event an “absolute novelty, unthinkable until a few years ago, the fruit of pastoral care that extends to groups usually considered on the margins.” 

Francis DeBernardo, editor of the LGBT advocacy website New Ways Ministry, said the news touched his heart “deeply” as he remembered the resistance to homosexuality in Rome during the 2000 jubilee. “While 2025’s event may seem like a small step, when compared with how the Vatican reacted to the presence of gay people in Rome during 2000, we can see what a sea change has taken place in terms of responding to LGBTQ+ people,” he on New Ways’ website. “This development did not happen overnight but has many small steps which paved the way for it.” New Ways has been denounced by both the U.S. bishops’ conference and the Vatican’s doctrinal office for causing confusion on sexual morality among the Catholic faithful.

Writing in the Catholic daily La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, Luisella Scrosati the planned events a “defeat not only of the moral doctrine of the Church but also of its pastoral activity” and noted that these associations that promote homosexuality as an identity and won’t tolerate being corrected “will enter St. Peter’s.” 

Scrosati further noted that members of these associations “were created by God male or female” but are being “told the great lie that their tendency, completely disharmonious with what is expressed by their body, is not disordered.” 

Il Messaggero reported that the proposal was met with “internal resistance” but that Pope Francis had “accepted the idea of ​​Father Pino Piva, a Jesuit from Bologna, who has always been dedicated to the rainbow world.” 

The Register asked Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni if the pope was supporting the association’s planned events, but he did not respond. 

Italian media also said Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, the archbishop of Bologna and head of Italy’s bishops; Archbishop Rino Fisichella, organizer of the holy year; and the superior general of the Jesuits, Father Arturo Sosa, have all given the initiative their positive support. 

Asked by the Register via email to confirm that he supported the event and whether he was concerned it would further deepen divisions in the Church, Zuppi said: “The question should be put to the organizers of the jubilee at the Holy See.” When asked again whether or not he supported the initiative, he did not reply.

The rector of the Church of the Gesù was also approached for comment, but he said he would not give interviews over the telephone. The Register then emailed him a set of questions to which he did not answer. 

La Tenda di Gionata also did not reply to general questions about the event, including the pressing question of whether same-sex couples will receive nonliturgical blessings in the Church of the Gesù, as allowed by the 2023 Vatican declaration

Asked whether or not the jubilee organizers were nevertheless supporting the event, Palmucci said: “In reality, we do not support every association or entity that proposes and makes its pilgrimage. It’s not a matter of supporting or not. We do not give our support to anyone; we do not give an approval; we do not give a judgment on an event. So each diocese, each association, each entity that wants to pass through the Holy Door asks us, and we put it in the calendar; but it is an event that’s, let’s say, autonomous.” 

He continued: “Since as a dicastery we manage the entrances to the Holy Doors, if an association comes to us and asks to be able to pass through the Holy Door on that date, what we do is simply see if that date is free.” If it is free, he said they register the group and its numbers of pilgrims so they “can pass through the Holy Door on that day. That’s all we do.” 

Palmucci said the jubilee office only really manages “the big jubilee events,” which number 36 in total, and “those are the ones that are in the [main] calendar.” As a follow-up, the Register asked Palmucci if there are any groups the organizers would not permit to pass through the Holy Door, but he did not respond.  

Scrosati said that with this jubilee event, “false mercy will enter triumphantly into St. Peter’s, with the blessing of the pope, the cardinals, and the bishops.” 

Quoting Matthew 24:15, she asked: “Could this be the new ‘abomination of desolation’ standing in a holy place?”

The Register asked Cardinal Gerhard Müller as well as two African bishops opposed to such events — Archbishop Andrew Nkea of Bamenda, Cameroon, and Bishop Emmanuel Badejo of Oyo, Nigeria — if they would like to comment on the plans but they had not responded by press time. 

Vatican City, Dec 11, 2024 / 10:25 am (CNA).

Pope Francis told thousands of pilgrims attending his general audience on Wednesday that “the strength of arguments” is not enough to convince people about Jesus Christ and his Church.

Concluding his 17-part catechetical series on “The Spirit and the Bride” this week, the Holy Father said “the first and most effective form of evangelization” is the love we show others. 

“The apostle Peter exhorted the first Christians with these words: ‘Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you’ (cf. 1 Pt 3:15),” the pope told his listeners gathered inside the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall.

“But he added a recommendation,” he continued. “‘Do it with gentleness and respect.’”

During this week’s catechesis, the Holy Father explained that Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are inseparable “in the economy of salvation.”

Describing the Holy Spirit as “the ever-springing source of Christian hope,” the pope added that the theological virtue of hope “is the most beautiful gift that the Church can give to all humanity.” 

Using the analogy of the Church as a boat, the Holy Father described the Holy Spirit as the “sail that propels it forward through the sea of history today as in the past.” 

“Hope is not an empty word or a vague wish that things will turn out well,” the pope told his listeners on Wednesday. “No, hope is a certainty because it is founded on God’s faithfulness to his promises.

“That is why it is called a theological virtue, because it is infused by God and has God as a guarantor,” he added. 

Following the recent developments in Syria with the fall of the five-decade-long Assad regime in the country on Dec. 8, Pope Francis invited his audience to pray for the intercession of Our Lady to bring peace in the Middle East. 

“I follow what’s happening in Syria at this delicate moment in our history,” he said. “I hope that we will reach a political solution that will not add to the division and conflict but will establish stability in the country.”

“I pray for the intercession of Our Lady that the Syrian population will live in peace, in security in their homeland and [that] the different religions can walk together in friendship in mutual respect for the good of the nation, afflicted by so many years of war,” he continued.

Before imparting his papal blessing to the thousands of international pilgrims inside the hall, the pope also asked for prayers for those suffering injustice in Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, and Myanmar. 

“War is always a defeat. Let us pray for peace,” he said. 

Vatican City, Dec 11, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), the Vatican body responsible for questions of doctrinal orthodoxy in the Catholic Church, has a group of outside consultants. What is the role of these experts in one of the Roman Curia’s most prominent dicasteries?

This past September, Pope Francis for the dicastery, headed since July 2023 by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández.

The majority of the latest crop of DDF consultants are Italian priests-theologians, experts in canon law and Scripture, as well as six women — two religious and four lay theologians — and two lay male theologians. Among those appointed is a Jesuit priest who holds a doctorate in sacred Scripture, Father Juan Manuel Granados Rojas.

Speaking with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Granados, a Colombian, explained the details of the new role that he is taking up as “a humble service” to the Catholic Church and the Holy Father.

Granados explained that on Dec. 2, he and his fellow recently appointed consultors took the oath for their new service in a “simple ceremony” where they committed themselves “to safeguard the faith received from the apostles and to keep the pontifical secret.” 

The event, said the professor at the Pontifical Biblical Institute and member of the Catholic Biblical Association, was presided over by the cardinal prefect (Fernández) and took place in a private chapel of the dicastery. Pope Francis was not present.

During the ceremony, the experts recited the Creed in Latin and read “a series of personal commitments to the Catholic Church,” added the Jesuit priest, who is also a member of the team of translators of the Bible of the Church in America (BIA, by its Spanish acronym).

“Consultants are appointed for a period of six years,” Granados explained, “and our role is to respond as quickly as possible to the questions that the dicastery sends us. The questions are asked ad hoc according to the competencies of each consultant.”

In this context, he noted that there are two branches in the DDF: the disciplinary and the doctrinal. He added that most of the new consultants have been appointed for consultations related to the dicastery’s disciplinary role.

In the case of Granados, he said he can expect “consultations that involve biblical material or where the doctrinal statements have to do with the holy Scriptures.”

He received the news of his new role, which he assures will be carried out with “due scientific rigor,” from the undersecretary of the DDF, Archbishop Philippe Curbelié.

“When I asked if I could decline the appointment, he respectfully informed me that by virtue of my fourth vow of obedience I could not do so,” the religious explained, in reference to the commitment of obedience to the pope that Jesuits make.

Granados also noted that almost all of the consultants are professors of ecclesiastical faculties and that the number of laypeople “is greater than in previous years.”

“During the explanation of our responsibilities, the cardinal prefect made us understand that the new group reflects, or is intended to reflect, the initiative of the Holy Father in favor of the synodal character of the Church,” he said.

Granados also emphasized that “the personal opinion of the consultants does not influence either the decisions or the documents issued by the DDF” and that their collaboration is done anonymously.

“We help the cardinal prefect and the other officials stay up to date on academic theological discussions. They will eventually ask us for summaries or opinions on the questions that other dicasteries or bishops address to the DDF,” the Jesuit explained.

In that case, he added, “we will have to give our professional opinion.”

“That doesn’t mean that it coincides or has to coincide with the opinion of the DDF, nor with the decision or document that the DDF subsequently works up. It’s a humble and anonymous service,” he said.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 10, 2024 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

The Papal Foundation, a U.S.-based organization that provides funding for Catholic projects around the world, recently announced that it has awarded $800,000 to recipients of its scholarship fund.

The awards were distributed across 42 countries and helped enable 110 priests, brothers, sisters, and laypeople to pursue their studies at 14 pontifical universities in Rome as participants in the foundation’s St. John Paul II Scholarship Program. 

“Since its founding, the program has provided nearly $14 million in scholarships to more than 1,700 individuals, known as Saeman Scholars, to advance their education and prepare them to return home and serve in leadership positions in their own countries,” the foundation stated in a recent . 

Eustace Mita, president of the Papal Foundation’s board of trustees, in the release invoked the foundation’s establishment at the request of Pope John Paul II.

“We are inspired by, and committed to, St. John Paul II’s vision to prepare Catholic leaders and educators for service,” she said. “These scholarships help train those called to lead in developing nations, where resources for ongoing leadership formation are limited.”

Dec. 5 marked  since the foundation launched its John Paul II Scholarship Fund after John and Carol Saeman — a couple from Denver — made a gift of $5 million that was matched by the Papal Foundation. 

The Papal Foundation is “the only charitable organization in the United States that is exclusively dedicated to fulfilling the requests of the Holy Father for the needs of the Church” and has dedicated more than $225 million to causes designated by popes since its inception. 

The foundation  from personal money donated by its Stewards of St. Peter, while the Holy Father designates the use of funds based on recommendations from his nuncios or ambassadors around the world. 

Cardinal Seán O’Malley, chairman of the foundation’s board of trustees, praised the foundation’s stewards, stating that “in a society where the gap between rich and poor continues to grow,” they “recognize their responsibility to prioritize the needs of the poor and vulnerable.” 

“These grants, scholarships, and charitable initiatives are our organization’s gift to the Catholic Church,” the foundation’s executive director, David Savage, stated. 

In the past year alone, the foundation has successfully supported 118 projects in over 60 countries and announced in April that it would distribute nearly $10 million in 2024. Among the beneficiaries include efforts at “providing for basic needs such as access to clean water,” “constructing schools and renovating classrooms,” and “translating Church teachings for evangelization.”

One scholarship recipient, Sister Anna Kapounamai of India, is quoted in the release stating that her studies in Rome are aiding her efforts to help guide young people toward healthy use of social media.

“Today, the influence of social media is growing among youth and children ... My vision is to help young people become literate and responsible social media users while preserving their personal and social values,” she said, thanking the Papal Foundation for its support.

During an audience with Pope Francis in April, the Holy Father commended the foundation for “enhanc[ing] the integral development of so many, including the poor, refugees, immigrants, and nowadays the increasingly large numbers of those affected by war and violence.”

“Through these various worthy initiatives,” Francis addressed the group, “you continue to help the successors of Peter to build up many local Churches and care for large numbers of the less fortunate, thus fulfilling the mandates entrusted to the apostle by Our Lord.”

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 10, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Among the new crop of cardinals created by Pope Francis on Dec. 7, Cardinal Mykola Bychok, CSSR, stands out. He is the bishop of the Eparchy of Sts. Peter and Paul in Melbourne for Ukrainian Catholics in Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania, and at age 44, he has become the youngest cardinal in the world. 

The of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Australia explains that the new cardinal belongs to an Eastern-rite church, so for the Dec. 7 occasion he wore “a purple robe according to the old Kyivan tradition” that was “adorned with embroidered images of Sts. Peter and Paul.”

“On his head he wore a black koukoul [or koukoulion] in accordance with the Ukrainian monastic tradition, styled after the 17th-century Brest Union and trimmed with a thin red border.” Bychok also wore on his chest a medallion with an image of the Virgin Mary.

During the ceremony, Pope Francis placed a red skullcap and biretta on the heads of all the other cardinals whereas on Bychok he placed the koukoulion.

The 1596 Union of Brest (or Brześć) united Orthodox Christians in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the Holy See, leading to what is now the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

The of Ukrainian Catholics in Australia explains that “the Ukrainian Catholic Church (UCC) is an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Apostolic See.”

“With more than 5.5 million faithful, it is the largest of all 23 Eastern Churches in the global Catholic community, second in number after the Latin (Roman Catholic) Church. The UCC is headed by the major archbishop of Kyiv and Halych, His Beatitude Sviatoslav [Shevchuk],” the site notes.

This church has “its own rite, which originates in the Constantinopolitan tradition, and preserves its liturgical, theological, spiritual, and disciplinary heritage in the cultural and historical circumstances of its people.”

The majority of Catholics in the Western world belong to the Latin rite.

“We have a special title in the Church, but we must remember who we are: human beings, dependent on God,” said the new cardinal following Saturday’s consistory, according to

After saying that he has not forgotten his native country, now ravaged by war, the 44-year-old cardinal said: “I am a bishop in Australia, a cardinal of the universal Church, but Ukraine is in my heart,” and he asked for prayers for Ukrainians.

Bychok was born on Feb. 13, 1980, in Ternopil, Ukraine. He was ordained a priest in 2005.

In 2020, he was appointed bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Sts. Peter and Paul in Melbourne. On June 7, 2020, the feast of Pentecost according to the Julian calendar, he was consecrated bishop in St. George’s Cathedral in Lviv, Ukraine.

His episcopal motto is Пресвятая Богородице, спаси нас (“Holy Mother of God, save us”). St. Sophia on Via Boccea was designated yesterday as his titular church as a cardinal.

Vatican City, Dec 10, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

On Dec. 7, in the 10th consistory of his pontificate, Pope Francis created 21 new cardinals. In addition to giving each new cardinal a scarlet zucchetto and biretta, and the traditional cardinalatial ring, the Holy Father assigned to each new cardinal a church of Rome — either a presbyteral title or deaconry — as a sign of the pontiff’s pastoral solicitude over the city and in keeping with the very old custom that cardinals are considered titular or honorary members of the clergy of Rome. 

In doing so, Francis also continued a trend of establishing new titular churches — nine this time — from among the more than 900 churches in the Diocese of Rome.

At the time of their official entry into the College of Cardinals, both cardinal priests and cardinal deacons are assigned a titular church in Rome, although the cardinals have no rights of governance over their titular church and may not interfere in its proper administration.

Instead, they may assist their church with counsel, financial support, or some other form of patronage. Cardinals take formal possession of their church after they become cardinals in a consistory, and they might visit their church, hear confessions, say Mass there, and even lead pilgrimages in coordination with the church or parish staff.

There are two types of titular churches (Italian, “titoli cardinalizi”) for cardinals: titles and deaconries. A title (Latin, “titulus,” Italian, “titolo”) is typically assigned to cardinal priests and a deaconry (Latin and Italian, “diaconia”) is assigned to cardinal deacons.

By custom, each cardinal is appointed to a rank within the college: cardinal bishop, cardinal priest, or cardinal deacon. Each cardinal receives a titular church according to the rank he possesses. Cardinal bishops are the most senior members of the college, hold the most important offices in the Roman Curia, or are Eastern patriarchs. With the exception of the patriarchs, cardinal bishops receive the title of one of the suburbicarian sees surrounding Rome. 

The largest group of cardinals are those belonging to the second rank — cardinal priests. They are mostly bishops and archbishops who head dioceses and archdioceses all over the world (such as New York, Tokyo, or Madrid) or officials of long service in the Roman Curia who have chosen to be promoted from the ranks of cardinal deacons after 10 years. 

Cardinal deacons are primarily officials of the Roman Curia and other priests and bishops who are honored for their service to the Church with elevation to the cardinalate. 

If, however, a cardinal deacon moves from the ranks of the cardinal deacons to cardinal priests he will customarily receive a new title appropriate for a cardinal priest or possibly request that his deaconry be elevated to a title for the time he holds it. Should a cardinal priest be elevated to the rank of cardinal bishop, he will customarily receive a title to a suburbicarian see.

With the creation of the 21 new cardinals, Pope Francis assigned each a new title or deaconry. The list of new cardinals and their titular churches is as follows:

• Cardinal Angelo Acerbi, former nuncio: Ss. Angeli Custodi a Città Giardino (deaconry)

• Cardinal Carlos Gustavo Castillo Mattasoglio of Lima, Peru: S. Maria delle Grazie a Casal Boccone (title)

• Cardinal Vicente Bokalic Iglic, CM, of Santiago del Estero, Argentina: S. Maria Maddalena in Campo Marzio (title)

• Cardinal Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera, OFM, of Guayaquil, Ecuador: Sacra Famiglia di Nazareth a Centocelle (title)

• Cardinal Fernando Natalio Chomalí Garib of Santiago, Chile: S. Mauro Abate (title)

• Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, SVD, of Tokyo: S. Giovanni Leonardi (title)

• Cardinal Pablo Virgilio Siongco David of Kalookan, Philippines: Trasfigurazione di Nostro Signore Gesù Cristo (title)

• Cardinal Ladislav Nemet, SVD, of Belgrade, Serbia: S. Maria Stella Maris (title)

• Cardinal Jaime Spengler, OFM, of Porto Alegre, Brazil: S. Gregorio Magno alla Magliana Nuova (title)

• Cardinal Ignace Bessi Dogbo of Abidjan, Ivory Coast: Ss. Mario e Compagni Martiri (title)

• Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, OP, of Algiers, Algeria: S. Cuore di Gesù agonizzante a Vitinia (title)

• Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu, OFM Conv, of Tehran and Isfahan, Iran: S. Giovanna Antida Thouret (title)

• Cardinal Roberto Repole of Turin, Italy: Gesù Divino Maestro alla Pineta Sacchetti (title)

• Cardinal Baldassare Reina, vicar for the Diocese of Rome: S. Maria Assunta e S. Giuseppe a Primavalle (title)

• Cardinal Francis Leo of Toronto: S. Maria della Salute a Primavalle (title)

• Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, coadjutor archpriest of Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major: S. Eustachio (deaconry)

• Cardinal Mykola Bychok, CSSR, Eparch of Sts. Peter and Paul of Melbourne of the Ukrainians (Ukrainian bishop in Australia) Australia: S. Sofia a Via Boccea (title)

• Cardinal Father Timothy Radcliffe, OP, theologian: Ss. Nomi di Gesù e Maria in via Lata (deaconry)

• Cardinal Father Fabio Baggio, CS, undersecretary and head of the section for migrants and refugees at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development: S. Filippo Neri in Eurosia (deaconry)

• Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, organizer of papal trips: Diaconia S. Antonio di Padova a Circonvallazione Appia (deaconry)

• Cardinal Domenico Battaglia, archbishop of Naples: San Marco in Agro Laurentino (title)

Normally, new cardinals are appointed to titular churches that had fallen vacant either by the death or transfer of the previous holder. At the time of the consistory on Dec. 7, there were12 vacant titles and nine vacant deaconries. Francis filled seven of the vacant titles and five of the vacant deaconries. The remaining nine were entirely new, constituted on the very day of the consistory by Pope Francis, marking the continuation of a trend of the last years. 

It must be remembered, of course, that the pope does not have to assign cardinals to vacant presbyteral titles and deaconries; he is entirely free to institute new ones, and that is what he chose to do again for this consistory.

In the last consistory, for example, in 2023, the pope established seven new titles for cardinal priests: St. Bernadette Soubiros to Cardinal Angel Sixto Rossi, archbishop of Cordoba; Santi Cirillo e Metodio to Cardinal Grzegorz Rys, archbishop of Lodz; Santa Gemma Galgani to Cardinal Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla, archbishop of Juba; Santa Maria in Montesanto to Cardinal Protase Rugambwa, archbishop of Tabora; Santa Maria Causa Nostrae Letitiae to Cardinal Sebastan Francis, bishop of Penang; San Giovanni Battista de La Salle to Cardinal Stephen Chow Sau-yan, bishop of Hong Kong; and San Gaetano to Cardinal Diego Rafael Padron Sanchez, archbishop Emeritus of Cumaná.

At the same time, the Holy Father instituted two new deaconries: Santa Monica in Ostia and Sant’Ambrogio della Massima, assigning them to Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, and Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for the Oriental Churches, respectively.

For his 10th consistory, Francis assigned nine new titles: S. Maria delle Grazie a Casal Boccone to Cardinal Carlos Castillo Mattasoglio; S. Maria Maddalena in Campo Marzio to Cardinal Vicente Bokalic Iglic; Sacra Famiglia di Nazareth a Centocelle to Cardinal Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera; S. Mauro Abate to Cardinal Fernando Natalio Chomalí Garib; S. Giovanni Leonardi to Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi; S. Maria Stella Maris to Cardinal Ladislav Nemet; Ss. Mario e Compagni Martiri to Cardinal Ignace Bessi Dogbo; S. Giovanni Antida Thouret to Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu; and S. Maria Assunta e St. Giuseppe a Primavalle to Cardinal Baldassare Reina.  

Most of the new titular churches are situated in the suburban municipalities that ring the center of Rome, while Santa Maria Stella Maris is all the way out in Ostia on the coast. 

Francis clearly wants his new cardinals to have their churches in every corner of the sprawling Roman diocese. 

To drive this point home, only one new title, Santa Maria Maddalena in Campo Marzio, is located in the historic center of the Eternal City, and he deliberately left unfilled several very prominent but currently vacant titles, including the truly historic Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill, which has been vacant since 2022. 

In total, since the beginning of his pontificate and in 10 different consistories Pope Francis has instituted 41 new presbyteral titles and four new diaconal titles. To date, there are 184 existing presbyteral titles and 71 deaconries.

Using AI, the Vatican recently launched of the College of Cardinals. Users can sort the cardinals by age, country of origin, electoral status, and religious order.

Vatican City, Dec 9, 2024 / 12:10 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Monday spoke of his desire for theology courses to be “accessible to all,” particularly for men and women wanting to deepen their faith and pursue further educational opportunities later in life.

Meeting with academic staff participating in the International Congress on the Future of Theology’s “Heritage and Imagination” conference taking place Dec. 9–10, the Holy Father insisted that universities and theological schools should be open to people who “knock at the doors” of their institutions.

“Be prepared for this. Make imaginative adjustments to your programs of study so that theology can be accessible to all,” the pope told congress participants at a private audience held in the Vatican Apostolic Palace on Monday.

Noting the “growing phenomenon” of more men and women enrolling in university programs as mature students, Pope Francis said theology can be a “guide on the journey” for people searching for meaning in life.

“Middle age is a special time in life,” he said. “It is a time when one usually enjoys a certain professional security and emotional stability, but also a time when failures are painfully felt and new questions arise as youthful dreams fade.”

“When this happens, people can feel abandoned or even at an impasse — a midlife crisis,” the pope continued. “Then they sense a need to renew their quest, however tentatively, perhaps even with a helping hand. Theology can be that guide on the journey!”

“Make sure that these women and men find in theology an open house, a place where they can resume their journey, a place where they can seek, find, and seek again,” the Holy Father added. 

Promoted by the Dicastery for Culture and Education, the two-day congress aims to “reflect on how to appropriate the great theological patrimony of generations past and to imagine its future.” This year the Church celebrates the 750th death anniversaries of both St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure.

Drawing upon the teachings of these two celebrated medieval Catholic theologians, Pope Francis said: “All theology is born of friendship with Christ and love for his brothers, his sisters, and his world.” 

“Thomas tells us that we do not have a single sense, but multiple and different senses, so that reality does not escape us,” he said. “Bonaventure states that to the extent that one ‘believes, hopes, and loves Jesus Christ’ one ‘regains hearing and sight ..., smell ..., taste, and touch.’” 

During the audience, the Holy Father said combining theology with other disciplines — including philosophy, literature, the arts, mathematics, history, law, politics, and economics — is necessary to ensure that the discipline does not “flatten reality” into a single idea or ideology. 

“Reality is complex; challenges are varied; history is full of beauty and at the same time marred by evil,” the pope said. 

“These disciplines ought to ferment, because, like the senses of the body, each has its own specific function, yet they need each other, for, as the Apostle Paul points out: ‘If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?’ (cf. 1 Cor 12:17),” he continued.

Thanking theologians for their discreet and humble work so that “the light of Christ and his Gospel can emerge” during the meeting, the pope also emphasized the significant role women have in further developing theological thought.

“This is a journey you are called to undertake together as theologians of both sexes,” he told deans, professors, and researchers present at the audience.

“There are things that only women understand and theology needs their contribution. An all-male theology is an incomplete theology. We still have a long way to go in this direction.”

Rome Newsroom, Dec 8, 2024 / 18:36 pm (CNA).

A record 140 cardinals may attend an eventual conclave in the Sistine Chapel. There would have been 141, but Cardinal Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot’s death on Nov. 25 reduced the number by one. In all, the Sacred College of Cardinals now has 255 members.

The number of cardinal electors is the most critical data point to emerge from this weekend’s consistory. Of the 140 cardinal electors, 110 have been created by Pope Francis, 24 by Pope Benedict XVI, and six by St. John Paul II. At the end of the year, on Dec. 24, Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias, created cardinal by Benedict XVI in 2007, will reach 80 years of age and will, therefore, no longer be able to participate in a conclave.

Another 14 cardinals will turn 80 in 2025. They are Cardinals Christoph Schöenborn, Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, Celestino Aós Braco, George Alencherry, Carlos Osoro Sierra, Robert Sarah, Stanisław Ryłko, Joseph Coutts, Vinko Puljić, Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Vincent Nichols, Jean-Pierre Kutwa, Nakellentuba Ouédraogo, and Timothy Radcliffe.

Two of these were created by St. John Paul II, four by Benedict XVI, and eight by Pope Francis.

However, it will be necessary to wait until May 2026 to return to the figure of 120 cardinal electors established by St. Paul VI and never abrogated.

For the first time, there is now a cardinal in Iran, Archbishop Dominique Matthieu of Tehran-Ispahan, a Belgian missionary. It is also the first time there is a cardinal in Serbia, with Archbishop Ladislav Nemet of Belgrade receiving the red hat.

Pope Francis has created cardinals from 72 different nations, and 24 of those nations have never had a cardinal before.

Pope Francis has also shown that he does not choose based on the traditional seats of cardinals. For example, there are no cardinals to lead the two historic European patriarchates of Lisbon and Venice, nor in Milan, Florence, or Paris.

There are exceptions, however. In this consistory, Pope Francis created cardinals in the archbishops of Turin and Naples in Italy; Lima, Peru; Santiago de Chile; Toronto; and the vicar general of the Diocese of Rome.

Naples entered the list somewhat surprisingly, with the pope’s decision communicated in a statement from the Holy See Press Office on Nov. 4. Archbishop Domenico Battaglia of Naples replaced Bishop Paskalis Bruno Syukur of Bogor, Indonesia, who had asked Pope Francis to remove him from the list of new cardinals for unspecified personal reasons.

The pope did not decide to replace a possible Indonesian cardinal with another cardinal from Asia.

Meanwhile, the percentage of Italian cardinals in the College of Cardinals is the lowest ever, at least in modern times. Only during the so-called Avignon Captivity (1309–1377) was the percentage of Italian cardinals so low.

However, to Italy’s 17 must be added Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, who is included in the quota of Asia, and Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, ordinary of Mongolia, also in Asia.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu is instead considered a non-elector, but this status is still being determined. Pope Francis had asked him to renounce his prerogatives as a cardinal but has continued to invite him to consistories and Masses, where he has always sat among the cardinals. If a decision is not made before then, the College of Cardinals, with a majority vote, will decide whether or not Becciu will be admitted to the conclave.

The balance crucially stays the same. Europe has received three more cardinals, in addition to the four Italians with the right to vote: Nemet of Belgrade, 58; Archbishop Rolandas Makrickas, 52, coadjutor archpriest of the papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore since March; and Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe, 79. Europe now has 55 cardinals.

Latin America has received five new cardinals. The purple has arrived in dioceses that have received it several times — with Archbishop Carlos Gustavo Castillo Mattasoglio, 74, in Lima, Peru, and Archbishop Fernando N. Chomali Garib, 67, in Santiago de Chile — or only once — with Archbishop Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera, 69, in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and Archbishop Jaime Spengler, 64, who is also president of CELAM (the Episcopal Conference of Latin America), in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

The red birretta to Archbishop Vicente Bokalic Iglic, 72, of Santiago del Estero, Argentina, is also a first. However, in this case, the ground had already been prepared by the recent decision to move the title of primate of Argentina from Buenos Aires to this seat. Overall, Latin America now has 24 cardinals (including Braco, emeritus of Santiago de Chile, born in Spain).

Asia has received four new cardinals. The pope gave the red hat to Archbishop Tarcisius Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo, 66, and to the bishops of two dioceses that have never had a cardinal at the helm: Bishop Pablo Virgilio Siongco David, 65, of Kalookan in the Philippines, and Archbishop Dominique Joseph Mathieu, 61, of Tehran.

Africa has received two new cardinals, bringing the continent’s total to 18. The two new ones are Archbishop Jean-Paul Vesco, 62, in Algiers, and Archbishop Ignace Bessi Dogbo, 63, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

North America now has 14 electors, with the addition of Toronto Archbishop Francis Leo, 53. Oceania has four electors, with the creation of Bishop Mykola Bychok of the eparchy of Saints Peter and Paul in Melbourne of the Ukrainians as cardinal. At 44, he has become the youngest member of the College of Cardinals.

Italy remains the most represented nation in the conclave, with 17 electors (plus two more in Asia). The United States has 10 cardinal electors, and Spain has seven (with another three in Morocco, Chile, and France).

Brazil has increased to seven electors, and India to six electors. France remains at five electors, to which Vesco in North Africa has been added. Cardinal François-Xavier Bustillo, bishop of Ajaccio, is anagraphically Spanish although naturalized French.

Argentina and Canada join Poland and Portugal with four cardinal electors, while Germany is tied with the Philippines and Great Britain with three.

The weight of cardinal electors engaged in the Curia, in other Roman roles or the nunciatures, has decreased, like that of the Italians. They will be 34 out of 140, a historic low.

Of the 21 new cardinals, 10 (all electors) belong to religious orders and congregations, another record. The number of religious electors in the sacred college has risen from 27 to 35. The Friars Minor joined the Salesians at five and surpassed the Jesuits, who remain at four. The Franciscan family grows to 10 electors (five Minors, three Conventuals, and two Capuchins). The Lazarists and Redemptorists rise to two.

As of Dec. 8, Pope Francis has created 78% of the cardinals who can vote in a conclave. This means that the cardinals created by Pope Francis far exceed the two-thirds majority needed to elect a pope.

This does not necessarily mean that the conclave will be “Francis-like.” Not only do the new cardinals all have very different profiles, but they have yet to have much opportunity to get to know each other. Popes have also used consistories to bring together cardinals to discuss issues of general interest.

Pope Francis had done so only three times: in 2014, when the family was discussed; in 2015, when the topic was the reform of the Curia; and in 2022, when the apostolic constitution , or the reform of the Curia now defined and promulgated, was discussed.

In this last meeting, the cardinals were divided into linguistic groups, with fewer opportunities to speak in the assembly together. This scenario makes the vote very uncertain.

Another fact that should be noted is that until St. John Paul II’s election, the cardinals gathered in the conclave were housed in makeshift accommodations in the Apostolic Palace near the Sistine Chapel. John Paul II had the Domus Sanctae Marthae (St. Martha House) renovated precisely to guarantee the cardinals who would elect his successor more adequate accommodations.

Today, however, Pope Francis lives in the Domus Sanctae Marthae. This means that, upon the pope’s death, at least the floor where the pontiff lives must be sealed, as the papal apartment is sealed. Sealing a floor of the Domus also means losing a considerable number of rooms. And with such a high number of voters, it also means risking not having enough rooms to accommodate all the cardinals.

The electors could be placed in vacant apartments within Vatican City State. This, however, would make them even more isolated. In practice, there is a risk that, during the conclave, the cardinals would not always be able to be together to discuss the election.

For these reasons, although Pope Francis has created more than two-thirds of the cardinal electors, it is by no means certain that the pope chosen in a future conclave will have the same profile as Pope Francis.

CNA Newsroom, Dec 8, 2024 / 15:33 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis marked the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception with a spiritual journey across Rome on Sunday, beginning at the Basilica of St. Mary Major and continuing to the Spanish Steps — where he reminded the faithful that “the true jubilee is inside” — before making an unexpected visit to a painting particularly dear to his heart.

Beginning his Marian devotions at Rome’s most important Marian basilica, the pope prayed before the ancient icon “Salus Populi Romani” (“Protectress of the Roman People”), echoing his cherished tradition of visiting this beloved image before and after his international trips.

Despite cold and rainy weather, thousands of faithful gathered in Rome’s historic center as the pope continued the long-standing papal tradition of paying homage to the Immaculate Conception at the foot of the Marian column near the Spanish Steps.

The statue of the Immaculate Conception, which sits atop a 39.4-foot-high column, was dedicated on Dec. 8, 1857, shortly after the Church proclaimed the doctrine of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. Since the 1950s, beginning with Pope Pius XII in 1953, it has been customary for popes to venerate the statue for the feast day.

At 7 a.m., Rome’s firefighters had continued their own decades-old tradition, ascending to the top of the statue to place a wreath of flowers on the Virgin’s arm. The gesture honors their 220 colleagues who participated in the monument’s inauguration over 166 years ago.

In his prayer at the Spanish Steps, Francis highlighted the significance of Rome’s preparation for the upcoming 2025 Jubilee Year, which he will inaugurate this Christmas Eve by opening the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica.

The pope noted that while Rome’s many construction projects preparing for the jubilee year cause “not a few inconveniences,” they are also “a sign that Rome is alive, renewing itself, trying to adapt to needs, to be more welcoming and functional.”

“Because, without meaning to,” Francis noted in his prayer, “we risk being totally taken up by organization, by things that need to be done, and then the grace of the holy year, which is a time of spiritual rebirth, of forgiveness and social liberation, this jubilee grace may not come well, may be a little suffocated.”

“But your maternal gaze sees beyond,” the pope prayed before the statue. “And I seem to hear your voice that with wisdom tells us: ‘My children, these works are good, but be attentive: Do not forget the construction sites of the soul! The true jubilee is not outside, it is inside: inside of you, inside hearts, inside family and social relationships.’”

The 2025 Jubilee Year, themed around hope, will begin Dec. 24 with the opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica.

Following the Marian celebration, Francis made an unexpected stop at the Museo del Corso, where he viewed Marc Chagall’s “White Crucifixion.”

The artwork, which depicts Christ’s crucifixion against a backdrop of Jewish suffering, combines religious imagery with historical context. On loan from the Art Institute of Chicago, it is currently on display as part of a range of cultural events leading up to the jubilee year.

CNA Newsroom, Dec 8, 2024 / 08:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis issued a heartfelt plea for peace during the Sunday Angelus on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, urging international leaders to broker ceasefires in conflict zones by Christmas.

“I appeal to governments and the international community that a ceasefire may be reached on all war fronts by the Christmas celebrations,” the pope said on Sunday from the window of the Apostolic Palace, addressing pilgrims and visitors gathered in St. Peter’s Square.

The pontiff specifically called for continued prayers for peace in “tormented Ukraine, in the Middle East — Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, and now Syria — in Myanmar, in Sudan, and wherever people suffer from war and violence.”

Pope Francis spoke about the Annunciation during his catechetical reflection on this , describing it as “one of the most important and beautiful moments in the history of humanity.”

Drawing a parallel to sacred art, he explained: “Just as in the scene of the creation of Adam painted by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, where the finger of the heavenly Father touches the finger of man, here too, the human and divine encounter each other.”

The pope encouraged everyone to “open our hearts and minds to the Lord Jesus, born of Mary Immaculate” as the Church prepares for Jubilee 2025, recommending confession as “the sacrament that can really help us open our hearts to the Lord who always, always forgives us.”

St. Peter’s Square is adorned with its annual Christmas decorations, including a towering, nearly 100-foot spruce tree from Ledro, Italy, and a Nativity scene from the town of Grado that incorporates elements of the Venetian lagoon’s traditional fishermen’s huts.

These symbols of the season were officially illuminated during a ceremony on Saturday evening.

According to recent Vatican custom, the Christmas tree and a large Nativity scene displayed beside it will remain in St. Peter’s Square through Jan. 12, 2025, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

CNA Newsroom, Dec 8, 2024 / 06:56 am (CNA).

Pope Francis celebrated Mass with the College of Cardinals in St. Peter’s Basilica on Sunday, marking the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and concluding a historic week in which 21 new cardinals were inducted into the Catholic Church’s most senior advisory body.

Hundreds of priests and bishops attended the celebration, and the new cardinals concelebrated their first papal Mass after at Saturday’s consistory.

The Mass honored one of the Church’s most significant Marian feasts, commemorating the dogma by Pope Pius IX in 1854 that the Blessed Virgin Mary was from the moment of her conception.

In his homily during the solemn liturgy, Pope Francis reflected on Mary’s “pure harmony, candor, and simplicity,” focusing on her roles as daughter, bride, and mother.

“‘Hail, full of grace,’” the pope began, quoting Luke 1:28. “With these words in the humble house of Nazareth, the Angel revealed to Mary the mystery of her immaculate heart, preserved free from all stain of original sin from the moment of her conception.”

Drawing parallels between the Virgin Mary and the Church, Pope Francis emphasized that Mary was a “handmaid” not in a servile sense but as one who was “trusted and esteemed” by God.

“There is no salvation without a woman, for the Church herself is also woman,” the pope said, highlighting Mary’s pivotal role in salvation history.

Francis also sharply critiqued contemporary materialism and individualism, warning against “hearts that remain cold, empty, and closed.” He challenged believers, asking: “What is the use of having a full bank account, a comfortable home, and virtual connections if they come at the cost of true love, solidarity, and care for others?”

Addressing the newly created cardinals — representing the universality of the Church across five continents — the pope urged them to be servants to the global Catholic community. “They bring great wisdom from many parts of the world to contribute to the growth and spread of the kingdom of God,” he said.

Concluding his homily, Pope Francis called for spiritual renewal. “Let us look to Mary Immaculate and ask her to conquer us through her loving heart. May she convert us and lead us to become a community where filial, spousal, and maternal love reign as the rule of life.”

CNA Newsroom, Dec 7, 2024 / 15:39 pm (CNA).

As the iconic Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris reopened its doors five years after a devastating fire, Pope Francis on Saturday called the church’s restoration a “prophetic sign” of the Church’s renewal in France.

In a message read by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the apostolic nuncio to France, during Saturday’s reopening ceremony, Pope Francis expressed his joy at joining “in spirit and prayer” with the faithful gathered for the historic occasion.

The pope recalled the “terrible fire” that severely damaged the cathedral in April 2019, saying: “Our hearts were heavy at the risk of seeing a masterpiece of Christian faith and architecture disappear, a millennial witness to your national history.”

“Today, sadness and mourning give way to joy, celebration, and praise,” the Holy Father wrote in his message, addressed to Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris.

The pope particularly praised the firefighters “who worked so courageously to save this historic monument from collapse” and acknowledged the “determined commitment of public authorities” along with the “great wave of international generosity” that made the restoration possible.

This outpouring of support, Francis noted, demonstrates not only an attachment to art and history but also “the symbolic and sacred value of such an edifice is still widely perceived, from the smallest to the greatest.”

Looking to the future, the pope emphasized the cathedral’s role as a beacon of faith: “Dear faithful of Paris and France, this house, which our Heavenly Father inhabits, is yours; you are its living stones.”

The pontiff expressed hope that Notre Dame would continue to welcome visitors from all backgrounds, noting it would soon “be visited and admired again by immense crowds of people of all conditions, origins, religions, languages, and cultures, many of them in search of the absolute and meaning in their lives.”

The message concluded with Pope Francis imparting his apostolic blessing and invoking “the protection of Notre Dame de Paris over the Church in France and the entire French nation.”

The marked the culmination of an intensive five-year restoration project following the April 2019 blaze that threatened to destroy the historic Gothic cathedral, which has stood as a symbol of French Catholicism for over 850 years.

Ahead of the event, Ulrich that the reopening of Notre Dame is “a renaissance, a rediscovery for the priests and faithful of Paris who have been waiting for this moment for five years.” On Saturday night, Ulrich commenced the reopening ceremony by striking the doors with his crozier three times.

The cathedral welcomed over 2,500 faithful and dignitaries on Saturday, including U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Britain’s Prince William, Tesla founder Elon Musk, and Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Outside, the word “merci” — thank you — was projected onto Notre Dame’s facade, honoring those who saved and restored the cathedral.

Sharing the image on X, Macron expressed his gratitude to “our firefighters and all the forces that saved Notre-Dame, to all the craftsmen and companions who have made it even more beautiful, to the patrons and generous donors from around the world, to all those who helped keep the promise.”

The inaugural Mass at Notre Dame will be celebrated on Dec. 8 at 10:30 a.m. local time. The new high altar designed by Guillaume Badet will be consecrated.

The Mass will be full of symbols: Holy water will be sprinkled on the people, then on the altar and the pulpit as a sign of purification of these elements intended for sacred use. 

Nearly 170 bishops from France and around the world will participate in the Mass, as will a priest from each of the 106 parishes of the Archdiocese of Paris and a priest from each of the seven Eastern-rite Catholic Churches.

CNA Newsroom, Dec 7, 2024 / 12:09 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis created 21 new cardinals in St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday, urging them to resist the “seduction of power” and instead follow “the path of Jesus.”

“In spiritual life as in pastoral life, we risk focusing on what is incidental and forgetting what is essential,” the pope cautioned. “Too often, secondary things replace what is necessary, external appearances overshadow what truly counts.”

Pope Francis, who was sporting visible bruising on his face after hitting his chin on a bedside table the previous morning, according to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, reminded the cardinals to stay rooted in Christ.

“We should constantly be returning to the center, to what is basic, and divest ourselves of all that is superfluous, in order to clothe ourselves in Christ.” 

The pope highlighted that the term “cardinal” symbolizes a “hinge,” emphasizing their vital role in holding the Church together.

The new cardinals include Archbishop Frank Leo of Toronto; Archbishop Dominique Joseph Mathieu of Tehran-Isfahan, Iran; and Archbishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo, reflecting Pope Francis’ emphasis on .

Ten of the new cardinals belong to religious orders, including Dominicans, Franciscans, and the Society of the Divine Word — a from consecrated life.

As tradition dictates, each new cardinal received a titular church in Rome, symbolizing their connection to the Diocese of Rome and the pope’s pastoral ministry. 

Archbishop Rolandas Makrickas of Lithuania was assigned the deaconry of Sant’Eustachio, a historically significant minor basilica near the Pantheon in Rome’s historic center, while Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe was given the deaconry of SS. Nomi di Gesù e Maria in via Lata, located on the Via del Corso, part of one of Rome’s most fashionable districts.

With these appointments, the College of Cardinals now includes 140 members eligible to vote in a future conclave. Of these, 110 — or 79% — were appointed by Pope Francis. 

Cardinal Angelo Acerbi, speaking on behalf of the new cardinals, reflected on the Synod on Synodality and Pope Francis’ latest encyclical, .

“We are united today by profound gratitude toward the supreme pontiff and by a sincere desire to serve in ecclesial unity,” he said. 

The 99-year-old cardinal described the pope’s recent encyclical — which explores the human and divine love of the Sacred Heart of Christ — as an inspiration for the pastoral missions entrusted to the new cardinals.

On Sunday, the new cardinals will concelebrate Mass with Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica for the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, marking their first liturgical act as members of the College of Cardinals. 

The liturgy will emphasize Mary’s purity and dedication, reflecting the themes of humility and service woven throughout the consistory.

Rome Newsroom, Dec 6, 2024 / 16:15 pm (CNA).

Out of the 21 cardinals who will be created Dec. 7 in Pope Francis’ 10th consistory at the Vatican, 10 new cardinals — almost half — are members of religious congregations or institutes.

Since the pope himself belongs to the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and has consistently considered the presence of men religious in the College of Cardinals during his consistories, it’s not surprising that he would choose new cardinals from among the Church’s many congregations and institutes for men religious. 

What is unusual, however, is the large number of cardinals from religious orders and institutes named in this latest consistory and the diversity of communities represented.

The 10 religious are divided as follows:

• Three are Franciscans (two are Friars Minor and one Conventual).

• Two are from the Society of the Divine Word (Verbiti).

• Two are Dominicans.

• There is one each from the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians), the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo (Scalabrinians), and the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists).

The new cardinals are:

• Archbishop Luis Gerardo Cabrera Herrera, OFM, metropolitan archbishop of Guayaquil, Ecuador (Franciscan)

• Archbishop Jaime Spengler, OFM, metropolitan archbishop of Porto Alegre, Brazil; president of the Brazilian Episcopal Conference; and president of Latin American Episcopal Council, CELAM (Franciscan)

• Archbishop Dominique Joseph Mathieu, OFM Conv, archbishop of Tehran-Ispahan, Iran (Conventual Franciscan)

• Archbishop Tarcisius Isao Kikuchi, SVD, metropolitan archbishop of Tokyo and president of Caritas Internationalis (Society of the Divine Word/Verbiti)

• Archbishop László Német, SVD, metropolitan archbishop of Belgrade, Serbia (Society of the Divine Word/Verbiti)

• Archbishop Jean-Paul Vesco, OP, metropolitan archbishop of Algiers, Algeria (Dominican)

• Archbishop Vicente Bokalic Iglic, CM, archbishop of Santiago del Estero, Argentina (Congregation of the Mission/Vincentians)

• Bishop Mykola Byčok, CSSR, eparch of St. Peter and Paul of Melbourne of the Ukrainians in Australia (Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer/Redemptorists)

• Father Timothy Radcliffe, OP, former master general of the Order of Preachers as well as current spiritual assistant of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (Dominican)

• Father Fabio Baggio, CS, undersecretary for the migrants and refugees section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo/Scalabrinians)

As noted, the new cardinals from religious communities make up almost half of the newest class and represent the largest group of men religious chosen in one consistory throughout Pope Francis’ nearly 12-year pontificate. The closest was in 2019, when eight of 13 new cardinals were men religious.

In all, out of the 163 cardinals created in the 10 consistories of his pontificate, Pope Francis has chosen 55 men religious from more than 20 religious communities. He has thus averaged between four and five men religious in each consistory.

Eight cardinals are Jesuits, including Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and two prominent figures of the pontificate: Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, who was also the relator general of the Synod on Synodality, and Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

Six are Salesians, including Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon, Myanmar, and Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero of Rabat, Morocco. The Capuchin Franciscans claim four members, including Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, who led the African bishops’ opposition to , which permitted blessings of same-sex couples; and Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, the longtime preacher of the Papal Household. 

Other notable cardinals on the list are: the Redemptorist Joseph William Tobin, metropolitan archbishop of Newark, New Jersey; the Discalced Carmelite Anders Arborelius, bishop of Stockholm, Sweden, and a convert to Catholicism; the late Comboni Missionary Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, one of the leading experts in interreligious dialogue, who died at the end of November; the Consolata Missionary Giorgio Marengo, apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, one of the youngest members of the College of Cardinals; and the American-born Augustinian Robert Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. 

After the latest consistory, among the living cardinals stretching back to the pontificate of St. John Paul II, there will be a total of 11 Salesians, nine Jesuits, five Capuchin Franciscans, five Friars Minor, four Dominicans, three Conventional Franciscan Friars, two Spiritans, two Claretians, two Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, two Missionaries of Africa (the White Fathers), two Redemptorists, two Society of the Divine Word (Verbites), and one from each of the following communities: Eudists, Schoenstatt Fathers, Cistercians, Augustinian Recollects, Congregation of Holy Cross, Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,  Discalced Carmelites, Sulpicians, Mariamite Maronites, Scalabrinians, Legionaries of Christ, Consolata Missionaries, and the Augustinians. There are also two members of Opus Dei. 

A question that will be asked, of course, is whether cardinals who belong to religious communities are more heavily represented in the College of Cardinals under Pope Francis than his immediate predecessors. 

Among the 140 cardinal-electors after the conclusion of this latest consistory, there are now 35 cardinals who are religious, meaning they represent nearly 25% of the total body of voters. By comparison, in 2005, at the time of John Paul II’s death, there were 117 cardinal-electors who were eligible to participate in the subsequent conclave (two ultimately did not take part). Of these 20 were men religious, meaning they comprised 17% of the voters. 

In 2013, there were 115 cardinal-electors eligible to take part in the election of Pope Benedict XVI’s successor after his resignation. There were 18 men religious among the electors, comprising 15.5% of the voters. One of them, of course, was elected pope — the Jesuit Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who took the name Francis. 

Vatican City, Dec 6, 2024 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

Several cardinal-designates set to receive their red hats from Pope Francis this weekend emphasized the importance of serving the Church’s universal mission while addressing contemporary challenges facing their local Churches.

“I am with my heart, and I would say with my whole body, for a synodal vision, because already in my country in 2017, the vision of the Church was one of communion, serving everyone,” Archbishop Ignace Bessi Dogbo of Abidjan told EWTN News on Dec. 6.

The Ivorian archbishop emphasized that his elevation reflects a broader recognition of the Church in Côte d’Ivoire.

“I think so, because personally I don’t feel so intellectual to receive the purple. It is the whole country that has had good relations with the Holy See, and then John Paul II went to Côte d’Ivoire three times,” he said.

At 44, Bishop Mykola Bychok, CSsR, will be among the youngest members ever elevated to the College of Cardinals.

“First of all, this is not my fault. I was called, and I was appointed by the Holy Father Francis. Why I was chosen? I don’t know. Maybe in future God will open or show me what was the main reason that actually I was appointed at age 44.”

The Ukrainian bishop pledged to use his new position to continue raising awareness about the ongoing war in his homeland. “Right now, Ukraine is at war. We are fighting for our independence, for religious freedom — for three years since the official invasion of the Russian Federation,” he said.

“Every night, drones and missiles are flying to Ukraine. In the last few days, my native city Ternopil, which is 250 kilometers from the border with Poland, was under attack, especially power plants, as well as some civilian buildings. That is the reality of the war,” he added.

Archbishop Rolandas Makrickas shared insights from his years of diplomatic service across several continents, emphasizing the Church’s fundamental missionary character.

“In every country I saw that the Church is so different, but that we have same roots, and we have the same tasks to do, and the task is always to remain missionary, in one country or in another country, on one continent or on another,” the Lithuanian prelate told CNA.

Archbishop Fernando Chomali of Santiago, Chile, stressed the need for Church leadership to face contemporary challenges with spiritual strength.

“I was delighted, I sensed a very great awareness of the responsibility of being a cardinal and especially thinking about those people who need a strong voice,” Chomali said.

“I have to think above all about the poor, those who are very much in need of someone to support them. Also, I have to take care especially of the young people who don’t have much hope right now in a very cold society.”

The Chilean prelate also addressed his country’s recent challenges. “We have worked strongly to end all forms of abuse — at the level of the parishes, at the level of the schools, university level, at the level of the dioceses, at all levels,” he said.

Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe connected his new role to Pope Francis’ encyclical .

“I look forward really to being of service to him [the Holy Father] in whatever way I can. Right at the beginning, I really don’t know what this will involve,” the English Dominican said. 

“I think for the Holy Father, his great encyclical , all brothers and sisters, and I am a brother, so I hope as a brother of St. Dominic, I hope maybe I have some understanding, some little understanding of what it means to live fraternity today,” he said.

The consistory for the creation of new cardinals will take place Dec. 7 at 4 p.m. in St. Peter’s Basilica. The new cardinals will concelebrate Mass with Pope Francis the following day, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

Vatican City, Dec 6, 2024 / 09:55 am (CNA).

The Vatican Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments is reportedly looking into enforcing restrictions on the Latin Mass at the annual Chartres pilgrimage, according to a French media outlet.

The three-day walking pilgrimage from Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris to the Chartres over Pentecost weekend culminates in a massive Latin Mass inside the Notre-Dame de Chartres Cathedral. The pilgrimage drew a record attendance of 18,000 people earlier this year.

Citing anonymous sources in Paris and Rome, La Croix that Vatican officials are examining whether the Latin Mass offered in the Chartres cathedral at the conclusion of the popular pilgrimage is in accordance with the restrictions laid out in , the motu proprio Pope Francis issued in 2021 that sharply curtailed the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass worldwide.

In February 2023, Pope Francis issued a rescript that required bishops to seek specific approval from the Dicastery for Divine Worship before designating the use of additional parish churches for the Latin Mass.

Last year, the Vatican enforced restrictions on the , which was denied permission to celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass inside St. Peter’s Basilica.

The 2025 edition of the Chartres pilgrimage organized by the Notre-Dame de Chrétienne association is scheduled to take place from June 7–9, 2025.

The reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris this weekend would make it possible for the pilgrimage to begin inside of the Paris cathedral for the first time since the Notre Dame fire in 2019.

Vatican City, Dec 6, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

St. Nicholas, whose feast day is celebrated on Dec. 6, is known to possibly be the real-life inspiration for the beloved Christmas character of Santa Claus.

Not a lot is known about the historical Nicholas, who was bishop of Myra, a Greek city in modern-day Turkey, during the fourth century A.D.

But there are many stories and legends that explain his reputation as a just and upright man, charitable gift-giver, and miracle-worker.

Here are five things to know and share about St. Nicholas:

Many people know that St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children, but they may not know why he has that title.

There is a grisly legend that says that during a famine in Myra, three young boys were lured into a butcher’s shop, where they were killed and then brined in a wooden barrel with the intention of being sold as “ham.” The good bishop worked a miracle, bringing the pickled children back to life and saving them from a gruesome fate.

This story became the subject of many portrayals of Nicholas in art, especially during the Middle Ages. Some people believe depictions of Bishop Nicholas with the three boys led to his reputation as a protector of children.

The legend of the brining may explain how he also became, oddly, the patron saint of brewers and coopers (people who make wooden casks, barrels, vats, troughs, and similar containers from timber).

St. Nicholas is a unifying figure among Catholics and Orthodox Christians since both churches venerate him.

He is incredibly important in the Russian Orthodox Church, where he is known as St. Nicholas the Wonderworker for the many miracles attributed to him both during and after his life.

To the Orthodox, Nicholas is principally honored for his qualities as a holy bishop and a good shepherd of his people.

Also, in their weekly liturgical cycle, which dedicates different days of the week to Jesus Christ and other saints, only three are specifically named: Mary, the Mother of God, John the Forerunner (known to Catholics as St. John the Baptist), and St. Nicholas.

Nicholas did not leave behind any theological writings, but when he was made a bishop, he is credited with saying that “this dignity and this office demand different usage, in order that one should live no longer for oneself but for others.”

Because of his popularity among Orthodox Christians, St. Nicholas is a favorite subject in iconography.

But don’t be surprised if, among the depicting him, you don’t see any or a “round little belly.” He does have a , though.

One of the most popular legends about Nicholas is that the saint, who is said to have come from a wealthy family, secretly helped a poor man with three daughters.

The father could not provide proper dowries for the girls to marry, and without husbands to support them, they might have been forced to turn to prostitution.

After learning about the situation, Nicholas secretly slipped a bag of gold coins through the family’s window while they were sleeping. He later left a second bag of coins, and likewise, another bag for the third daughter, at which point, the legend says, the father, who had waited up all night, “caught” Nicholas red-handed in his gift-giving. But Nicholas made him promise to keep the secret.

The story is likely the explanation for why the modern Christmas character of Santa Claus brings his gifts for children under the cover of night.

In artworks referencing this legend, the three bags of coins are often depicted as three golden balls. Images of gold balls were also used to mark the shops of pawnbrokers, which is probably how Nicholas came to be their patron saint, too.

One of many miracles attributed to St. Nicholas happened at sea as he traveled aboard a boat to the Holy Land. Nicholas is a patron saint of sailors and travelers because he calmed the stormy waters that threatened their lives.

His patronage of the falsely accused can be attributed to an early story about his rescue of three innocent men moments before their execution. It is said that St. Nicholas, then bishop of Myra, boldly pushed away the executioner’s sword, released the men from their chains, and angrily reprimanded a juror who had taken a bribe to find them guilty.

Most people know that Nicholas’ feast day is celebrated on Dec. 6, the day he died in the year 343, but for East Slavs, as well as the people of Bari, Italy, May 9 is also an important day to celebrate the saint.

That date is the anniversary of the day that St. Nicholas’ relics were moved from Myra, in present-day Turkey, to Bari, not long after the Great Schism of Catholics and Orthodox in 1054 A.D.

Accounts differ over whether the transmission of the relics was theft or an attempt by Christian sailors to preserve the saint’s remains from destruction by the Turks. But whatever the real reason, the relics can still be venerated today in the Basilica of St. Nicholas in Bari.

Pope Francis has visited Bari, in Italy’s southern region of Puglia, two times during his papacy. During both the 2018 and 2020 visits, he stopped in the basilica’s crypt to venerate St. Nicholas’ relics.

The pontifical basilica is an important place of ecumenism, since the Catholic Church welcomes many Eastern Catholics and Orthodox Christians to the pilgrimage site. In the crypt, where St. Nicholas is buried, there is also an altar for the celebration of Orthodox and Eastern Catholic liturgies.

For Christians who follow the Julian calendar, as the Eastern Orthodox do, St. Nicholas’ principal feast day falls on Dec. 19. An Orthodox Divine Liturgy is usually celebrated at the Basilica of St. Nicholas that morning.

On Dec. 6, Catholics in Bari celebrate the beloved saint with Mass, concerts, and a procession of the saint’s statue through the city’s streets.

Vatican City, Dec 5, 2024 / 14:10 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis this week encouraged participants of the second International Congress of Confraternities and Brotherhoods to bring Christ “out into the streets so that he may enter into all hearts.”

In a message to nearly 2,000 people participating in this year’s conference on popular piety in Seville, Spain, from Dec. 4–8, the pope emphasized the significance of “beauty” in attracting others to faith in Jesus Christ and his Church. 

“Above all, it is the beauty of Christ that summons us, calls us to be brothers and sisters and urges us to take Christ out into the streets, to bring him to the people, so that everyone can contemplate his beauty,” the pope wrote in a Dec. 4 message to congress participants.

“Be crazy with love,” the pope added. “Crazy with love for God, so much so to touch the hearts of their people, to bring them to God.” 

Using the expression of Spanish saint Manuel Gonzalez, known for his devotion to the Eucharist and who describes life as a “round trip” that begins and ends in Christ, the Holy Father reminded the congress’ European and Latin American participants that the Church is a “people walking toward God” in the pilgrimage of life. 

“‘The people ... are hungry for truth, for affection, for well-being, for justice, for heaven, and, perhaps, without realizing it, for God and ‘the tears of his heart,’” the pope said, sharing the words of St. Manuel.

Besides elaborate acts of piety, such as processions and public liturgies, the pope highlighted the need for people to go “to the tabernacle where the Lord awaits us” to present one’s own and others’ prayers and petitions.   

“This living Bread is the only one that can satisfy the hunger of our society, a Bread that was born to be given, to be consumed, and that from the altar calls us to dialogue with him, to be our consolation and our rest,” the Holy Father wrote. 

This year’s International Congress of Confraternities and Brotherhoods includes separate presentations by the Vatican’s prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Archbishop Salvatore Rino Fisichella; prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life Cardinal Kevin Farrell; and Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education.

On Dec. 3, the evening before the five-day congress, Pope Francis gifted a golden rose to the image of Our Lady of Hope of Macarena.

Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute for general affairs of the Vatican Secretariat of State, was in charge of granting the golden rose to Our Lady in the Basilica of the Macarena in Seville.

In an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Archbishop José Ángel Saiz Meneses of Seville said the pope’s gesture “reinforces the Christian and Marian identity of the city and constitutes a call to spiritual renewal and commitment to the values ​​of the Gospel” and expresses a “deep recognition” of the popular piety found in southern Spain.

Vatican City, Dec 4, 2024 / 15:10 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis received the prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, at the Vatican on Wednesday.

The meeting, which Orbán described as “an opportunity for peace,” lasted 35 minutes and took place in a room near the Paul VI classroom in the Vatican and not in the Apostolic Palace, as is customary, because it preceded the pope’s general audience.

Just prior to his meeting with the Holy Father, Orbán, a Calvinist, attended a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.

In the traditional exchange of gifts, the Holy Father presented the Hungarian prime minister with a terra cotta work titled “Tenderness and Love” in addition to several volumes of papal documents, this year’s “,” and a book on the of 2020.

For his part, Orbán presented Pope Francis with a copy of “The Life of Jesus Christ,” written in 1896 by French Dominican friar Louis Henri Didon, creator of the motto of the modern Olympic Games, “Faster, higher, stronger.” He also gave him a map of the Holy Land dated 1700.

After the audience with the Holy Father, Orbán met with the secretary of state of the Holy See, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and with Monsignor Mirosław Wachowski, undersecretary for Relations with States.

According to the Holy See’s press office, the meeting took place “in a cordial atmosphere” of “solid and fruitful bilateral relations.”

During the meeting, “deep gratitude” was expressed for “the commitment of the Catholic Church in promoting the development and well-being of Hungarian society.” 

In addition, issues of international relevance were addressed, such as the war in Ukraine, with special emphasis on its humanitarian consequences and efforts to promote peace.

Other issues discussed in the conversations included the central role of the family and the protection of new generations. 

Since taking office in 2010, Orbán has promoted , which have contributed to an increase in the birth rate and a reduction in the number of abortions. 

Also addressed was Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the European Union, a position that the country assumed on July 1 and will maintain until Dec. 31. 

During this period, under Orbán’s leadership, Hungary has worked to strengthen the EU’s defense policy, contain illegal immigration, and address demographic challenges, among other .

The occasion marked the fifth time Pope Francis has met with Orbán. During a previous audience in April 2022, they also focused their conversations on the war in Ukraine and the Ukrainian refugees received in Hungary.

Vatican City, Dec 4, 2024 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis was handed the key to a new Mercedes-Benz “popemobile” on Wednesday by the CEO of the German luxury car brand.

Ola Källenius, the CEO of Mercedes-Benz, presented the pope with a white and chrome key fob inside a white box after showing off the new open-air vehicle in a parking lot inside Vatican City on Dec. 4.

The modified G-Wagon features a rotating heated seat and a heated hand rail to keep the pope warm while greeting pilgrims during winter rides around St. Peter’s Square.

The fully electric, white SUV is emblazoned with Francis’ coat of arms, has black detailing, and has chrome rims. Two small Holy See flags wave from the front hood.

The license plate of the papal ride is “SCV 1,” which is the Italian acronym for Vatican City State.

Mercedes-Benz has provided vehicles for the Vatican for 94 years. During the last 45 years, the pope has used “popemobiles” based on the Mercedes-Benz G-Class. 

“With the new popemobile, Pope Francis is the first pontiff to travel in an all-electric Mercedes-Benz during his public appearances. This is a great honor for our company and I would like to thank His Holiness for his trust,” Källenius said in a Dec. 4 press release.

Pope Francis has been using full or partially electric cars for several years. In 2023, the Vatican also announced a partnership with auto manufacturer Volkswagen to introduce an in the Vatican by 2030.

Vatican City, Dec 4, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis during his general audience at St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday said all evangelizing activity depends on the Holy Spirit and not on “pastoral initiatives promoted by us.”

Continuing his catechetical series on ”The Spirit and the Bride,” the Holy Father spoke about evangelization and the role of preaching in the Catholic Church. 

Stressing the importance of prayer, the pope said all Christians should ask for God’s intercession in the work of evangelization as it “does not depend on us but on the coming of the Holy Spirit.”  

“The Holy Spirit comes to those who pray because the heavenly Father — it is written — ‘give[s] the Holy Spirit to those who ask him’ (cf. Lk 11:13),” the pope told pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square. “Especially if we ask him in order to proclaim the Gospel of his Son!”

Pointing to the example of Jesus at the beginning of his public ministry, the Holy Father said it is necessary to imitate his example and prayer: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor” (cf. Lk 4:18). 

“Preaching with the anointing of the Holy Spirit means transmitting, together with the ideas and the doctrine, the life, and conviction of our faith,” he continued.

Emphasizing the need to prioritize prayer over “persuasive words of wisdom,” the Holy Father also told his listeners to be wary of the desire to “preach ourselves” instead of Jesus Christ.

“Not wanting to preach oneself also implies not always giving priority to pastoral initiatives promoted by us and linked to our own name,” he said.

Pope Francis also shared practical advice for preachers to “never go over 10 minutes” at the risk of their listeners losing interest in a sermon.

“Preachers must preach an idea, a feeling, and a call to action. Beyond eight minutes the preaching starts to fade, it is not understood,” Pope Francis said to applause from some pilgrims.    

In his final greetings to international pilgrims on Wednesday, the pope imparted his special Advent blessings. He encouraged the crowds to prepare well for the upcoming solemnity of the Immaculate Conception to be celebrated on Dec. 9 this year.

The Holy Father also extended his sincere greetings to Chinese pilgrims and their families at the general audience. Mandarin Chinese was today included among the official language translations of the pope’s weekly greetings and catechesis. 

Asking people to pray especially for the people of Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, and “the innocent killed in wars,” the pope implored: “Please let us continue to pray for peace, freedom.”

“War is a human defeat, a defeat of humanity. War does not solve problems. War is evil,” he said.

Vatican City, Dec 4, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

The 21 new cardinals to be created by Pope Francis at the Dec. 7 consistory reflect the pontiff’s vision for a missionary Church that reaches out to the world’s peripheries.

Following the 10th consistory of his pontificate, Pope Francis will have effectively cemented the expansive geographical diversity of the College of Cardinals as well as chosen approximately 60% of all its members and almost 80% of the cardinals who will choose his successor in a future conclave.

While the College of Cardinals will still largely be European — with a high proportion who are either representing Italian churches or are of Italian origin — after the Dec. 7 consistory more than 90 countries will be represented in the college responsible for advising the pope in the care of the universal Church.

The December consistory will also see the College of Cardinals expand to a total of 253 members. Though the vast majority of cardinals are usually secular clergy, this year’s consistory will bring the number of cardinals belonging to religious congregations and institutes to 68.  

The continued expansion of the college beyond traditionally Catholic Europe is also evident in the selection of cardinals belonging to missionary congregations in countries where Catholics are a minority.

Both Cardinals-elect Archbishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, SVD, of Tokyo and Archbishop Ladislav Nemet, SVD, of Belgrade-Smederevo, Serbia, belong to the Society of the Divine Word religious congregation and represent the Church in countries where the Catholic population is at 5% and below.

According to Canon 349 of the Code of Canon Law, cardinals hold the duty to act collegially in choosing a pope’s successor should a conclave be convoked. However, not all cardinals hold the right to cast a vote in a conclave.  

More than half of the college after the consistory is set to be “cardinal electors.” These cardinals are below the age of 80 and therefore eligible to vote for a new pope. 

Among the 140 cardinals with voting rights, the highest representation by country is Italy with 17 cardinal-electors, followed by the U.S. with 10 cardinal-electors, and then Spain with six cardinal-electors. 

The college’s remaining 113 “cardinal non-electors” are 80 years old and older. While they are eligible to participate in the meetings leading up to the start of a conclave, they do not have voting rights and so will not participate in the conclave itself. 

Both the eldest and youngest College of Cardinals members will be created at the Dec. 7 consistory. 

At 99, Italian Cardinal-elect Angelo Acerbi, the prelate emeritus of the Knights of Malta, will become the oldest member of the college. Having served the Catholic Church as a bishop for 50 years, he also has 40 years of experience working in the Holy See’s diplomatic corps. 

Between 1974 and 2001, he served as nuncio to New Zealand, Colombia, Hungary, Moldova, and the Netherlands.

Bishop Mykola Bychok of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Eparchy of Sts. Peter and Paul in Melbourne, Australia, will become the youngest cardinal at age 44. His elevation as cardinal will bring the total number of cardinals from the vast Oceania region to four.

In an Oct. 6 letter welcoming the new cardinals to the “Roman clergy,” Pope Francis said membership to the College of Cardinals “is an expression of the Church’s unity and of the bond that unites all the Churches with this Church of Rome.”

The consistory for the creation of the new cardinals will take place in the Papal Chapel of St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday afternoon.

Vatican City, Dec 4, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A small island town in northern Italy has put its heart into recreating a local lagoon in a Nativity scene for St. Peter’s Square — the first time the crèche will feature a large body of water.

“There’s not only the work behind it, but there’s the love, there’s the passion of everybody,” Andrea de Walderstein, the Nativity’s architect, designer, and construction manager, told CNA.

“We are the first to bring water to St. Peter’s [Square],” he said, explaining that the grandiose Nativity will feature the lagoon of Grado, a town of about 8,000 people located on an island and adjacent peninsula in the Adriatic Sea between Venice and Trieste.

De Walderstein said the ambitious display — which will be nearly 100 feet long and over 45 feet wide — is being assembled “like a Lego practically.” The embankment of the “lagoon” alone requires 102 Styrofoam bricks.

While not disclosing every surprise, de Walderstein and Antonio Boemo, the coordinator and leader of the project, told CNA that the replica lagoon will be set in the early 1900s and will feature a beach, islands, boats, animals, and representatives of the inhabitants of the town.

The scene, to be unveiled on Dec. 7, will also feature “casoneri,” the fishermen who used to live in huts on the islands of the Grado lagoon. According to information from the Vatican, the fishermen and women would traditionally only come into the village for three important holidays every year, including Easter and Christmas.

The traditional Nativity figures of Mary, Joseph, and the child Jesus will be inside one of the fishermen’s huts, called a “casone.”

“What we are interested in is that people will admire, become curious, and understand the feelings that we have when we go to the lagoon,” Boemo said.

But bringing a large body of water into St. Peter’s Square posed an important challenge — how to keep the seagulls of Rome from turning it into a giant birdbath. 

This was a big concern for the Vatican, de Walderstein said. “So we came up with a system with ultrasonic machines to keep them away.”

Boemo’s idea for a Nativity scene featuring the lagoon of Grado first came to him years ago. He told CNA a proposal was sent to the Vatican in 2016 and he is so happy to finally be seeing his dream become a reality.

He emphasized that this project has involved the whole community of Grado, with 40 people being physically involved in the construction and approximately 500 from the town expected to attend the unveiling.

The architect de Walderstein, too, said after being originally brought on just to design the project, will also “do the workmanship, because I really like to touch it with my own hands and build it with my own hands.”

“I have to thank Antonio, who involved me in this adventure. I am really happy,” he said.

Vatican City, Dec 3, 2024 / 17:55 pm (CNA).

On the evening Dec. 2, the rite of “recognitio”(Latin for “verification”) took place in St. Peter’s Basilica. This is a traditional ceremony to verify and ascertain that the Holy Door, closed during the last holy year, is intact, sealed, and ready to be reopened at the beginning of the new Jubilee 2025.

The pilgrimage to the Holy Doors is a central act of the jubilee. Passing through them during the holy year symbolizes entry into a new life in Christ and the beginning of a journey of conversion.

The ceremony began with a prayer led by the archpriest of the basilica, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti. Then the “sampietrini,” employees of the Fabric of St. Peter’s who are responsible for the oversight and maintenance of the Vatican basilica, tore down the wall that seals the Holy Door inside the church.

Once the wall protecting the Holy Door was demolished, the workers removed a metal box that had been kept inside it since the closing of the Jubilee of Mercy on Nov. 20, 2016.

The box contains the key with which the Holy Father will open the Holy Door on the evening of Dec. 24. It also contains the handles, the parchment of the act certifying its closure, four golden bricks, and some medals, including those of the pontificates of Francis, Benedict XVI, and St. John Paul II.

Gambetti was in charge of leading a procession, with the singing of the litanies of the saints, from the Holy Door to the Altar of Confession, where he paused for a moment in prayer.

The participants in the rite then proceeded to the Chapter House, where the metal box removed from the Holy Door was opened. Present were Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, and Archbishop Diego Ravelli, master of pontifical liturgical celebrations, who received the documents and objects of therecognitio, which will be given to Pope Francis.

On Tuesday afternoon, the same ceremony took place for the Holy Door of St. John Lateran basilica. On Dec. 5 the rite of recognitiowill take place in St. Paul Outside the Walls basilica and on Dec. 6 in St. Mary Major Basilica.

The jubilee year, one of the most anticipated and important events of the Catholic Church, is marked by different solemn ceremonies with centuries of tradition.

In 1499, Pope Alexander VI wanted to define the ceremonial norms of the jubilee. He entrusted this task to the then-master of ceremonies, Johannes Bruckard, who established different rites that continue to be celebrated today, although with some variations.

From the Jubilee of 1500 until the Jubilee of 1975, it was the pope who began the construction of the wall that enclosed the Holy Door. With a hammer, made of gold and later of silver, he would symbolically strike the wall three times. Later, the masons would take charge of demolishing it completely.

The wall was usually covered in turn by a simple wooden door, which was removed and replaced at the beginning and end of each holy year. However, on Dec. 24, 1949, it was replaced by a bronze door blessed by Pope Pius XII.

In 1975, the rite of closing the Holy Door was modified, as the trowel and bricks were no longer used, and the panels of the bronze door were simply closed, giving greater prominence to the door than to the wall. 

That same year, the tradition of including a metal chest inside the wall began, since previously symbolic elements such as golden bricks were inserted with the mortar with which the wall was rebuilt.

For the Jubilee of 1983, John Paul II did not use the hammer during the opening of the Holy Door.

During the jubilees of the 20th century, each of the steps that make up the rite ofrecognitiowere consolidated. These include the demolition of the wall, the recovery of the symbolic objects, and the solemn procession with liturgical chants.

CNA Staff, Dec 3, 2024 / 15:35 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of December is for pilgrims of hope.

“Christian hope is a gift from God that fills our lives with joy. And today, we need it a lot. The world really needs it a lot,” the Holy Father said in a video released Dec. 3.

Pope Francis pointed out that “when you don’t know if you’ll be able to feed your children tomorrow, or if what you’re studying will allow you to get a good job, it’s easy to get discouraged.”

“Where can we look for hope?” he asked.

“Hope is an anchor — an anchor that you cast over with a rope to be moored on the shore. We have to hold onto the rope of hope. Hold on tight.”

He encouraged the faithful to “help each other discover this encounter with Christ who gives us life, and let’s set out on a journey as pilgrims of hope to celebrate that life. And entering into the upcoming jubilee is the next stage within that life.”

“Day by day, let us fill our lives with the gift of hope that God gives us, and through us, let us allow it to reach everyone who is looking for it,” he said. “Don’t forget — hope never disappoints.”

He concluded with a prayer: “Let us pray that this upcoming jubilee strengthens us in our faith, helping us to recognize the risen Christ in the midst of our lives, transforming us into pilgrims of Christian hope.”

Pope Francis’ prayer video is promoted by the , which raises awareness of monthly papal prayer intentions.

Rome Newsroom, Dec 3, 2024 / 12:45 pm (CNA).

Cardinal-elect Dominique Mathieu, archbishop of Tehran-Isfahan and the highest-ranking Catholic authority in the Islamic Republic of Iran, discussed the situation of Christians in Iran, regional Middle East conflicts, and his personal life in a wide-ranging interview with EWTN News.

The 61-year-old Franciscan will be among the cardinals receiving their red hats from Pope Francis at St. Peter’s Basilica this Saturday, Dec. 7. The pope announced the names of 21 new cardinals from the Apostolic Palace window on Oct. 6 following the Angelus prayer.

“I trembled after the nomination,” Mathieu recalled. He was in a car in Rome with a fellow friar when the announcement came over the radio. Initially, he didn’t fully grasp the news until his companion’s phone began ringing with congratulations.

“I reacted with trembling at that moment. I’m diabetic, and I began turning completely white. It took some time to recover,” the cardinal-elect said.

“It was a surprise. But if you want, you could say that afterward, I realized there might have been signals from the Holy Father during some visits I had with him.”

When asked about his past life and why he spent several years as a Conventual Franciscan friar in Lebanon — becoming a missionary in the Middle East when many were leaving — Mathieu explained that he first visited the “country of cedars” for the ordination of a priest in 1993. He saw Beirut in its post-civil-war state but was deeply moved by people’s devotion to their saints and the Virgin Mary, and their determination to rebuild despite everything.

There are nearly 2,000 Latin-rite Catholics in Iran among a population of almost 89 million people, the vast majority of whom are Shia Muslim. These Catholic Christians “can gather in churches that are recognized by the state. Only they can enter these places of worship,” Mathieu explained. “Generally, they can do this during services or during times that have been announced to the authorities regarding the churches themselves.”

“Our doors exist and are open for these people but are closed to almost everyone else. We, as Latins, also keep the doors open to our Assyrian or Armenian Church brothers and sisters — they can come, it’s not a problem, because we are not an ethnic Church,” Mathieu said. “We maintain a door, praying from within, hoping that one day perhaps the door can open to others.”

“I am convinced, perhaps strengthened by the fact that I am Franciscan, of the importance of our witness, which is not verbal,” the Tehran archbishop said regarding Christians’ role in Iranian society. “Proselytism cannot be done, but we are not prevented from living in society and bearing witness.”

Unlike in Turkey, Christians in Iran can wear religious habits and pectoral crosses in public, Mathieu noted. He emphasized that he constantly reminds people: “The importance of our witness, of praying, of having a virtuous life, of working on our sanctification, because there we are truly also a leaven for the country. We can be that salt that gives life.”

The cardinal-elect also explained the openness toward Christianity from some Muslim study centers, such as the University of Qom. He noted that the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue maintains relations with Iranian state entities.

Describing signs of hope among Iranian Catholics today, Mathieu said: “There is a great thirst for spirituality.” He explained that besides himself, the apostolic nuncio, and the nuncio’s secretary, there are no Latin Catholic bishops or priests in the country. However, there are five Daughters of Charity sisters, two of whom have worked for many years in a leprosarium in northern Iran.

Regarding the direct and indirect conflict between Iran and Israel over the past year and its influence on Christians in Iran, the cardinal-elect said: “I don’t believe there is a direct influence on Christians and the population, because their concern is really about the sanctions and embargo.”

Finally, addressing how to achieve peace in the Middle East as Christmas approaches, the cardinal-elect expressed sadness that, apart from Vatican diplomacy, peace and dialogue diplomacy seemed to be often lacking and replaced by threats and retaliation.

Rome Newsroom, Dec 3, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Close to the Pantheon in the heart of Rome, one of the city’s oldest and most popular ecclesiastical tailors is ready for Saturday’s consistory for the creation of new cardinals.

It wasn’t long after Pope Francis announced that he would be making 21 new cardinals in December that the Gammarelli tailor adjusted its window to feature the traditional dress of cardinals.

“It’s a bit of a historical showcase because not all of these items are still used,” Gammarelli manager Alessia Gammarelli told EWTN News. Gammarelli, with her cousins Lorenzo and Massimiliano, are the sixth generation to run the family business.

Gammarelli explained that while the black cassock with the red piping is still worn by cardinals today, the mantelletta, or knee-length cloak, has fallen out of use.

The red shoes worn by Pope Benedict XVI during his pontificate are also no longer in fashion, but Gammarelli said she likes to include out-of-use clerical wear in the window for historical interest.

Gammarelli tailor shop has made the ecclesiastical garments of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of priests, bishops, and cardinals since it was opened in 1798 by Giovanni Antonio Gammarelli as a tailor for Roman clergy.

The tailor has also sewn the garments of the popes starting with Pope Pius XI in the 1920s.

Today, Gammarelli’s most famous client is Pope Francis, who has chosen to simplify papal garb. The shop receives orders for the pope from his secretaries and the new clothes are completed and delivered to the Vatican in about a week, Gammarelli said.

In a Dec. 7 ceremony at the Vatican, the new cardinals will dress for the first time in the scarlet red cassocks that characterize these special assistants and advisers of the pope.

The red cassock, used for important liturgies and ceremonies, is accompanied by a shoulder cape called a “mozzetta” and by a white linen vestment with lace borders called a “rochet.” A red zucchetto, which is a small, round skull cap, completes the look.

The cardinals will receive their biretta, which is a square, red hat, and a ring from Pope Francis at the consistory.

For more everyday occasions, cardinals wear a black cassock with red trimming and a red sash.

Meanwhile, Gammarelli is working hard to fulfill any garment orders it may have received from the new cardinals, most of whom only found out they would be joining the College of Cardinals two months before the ceremony.

“It is still an artisanal company. We make all these clothes, they are all made here in the workshop by us, as well as all the sacred vestments that we cut and make ourselves,” Gammarelli told EWTN News, explaining that it is not easy to find skilled seamsters and seamstresses today.

“We try to continue this beautiful tradition. It’s not easy, though we try to do what we can,” she said. 

Ditta Annibale Gammarelli, as the shop is formally called, was added to a list of historic shops in Rome in 2000. It is believed it may be the city’s oldest shop to still be managed by direct descendants of its founder.

Another important feature always displayed in the tailor shop’s window is a white papal zucchetto.

Gammarelli said “often people come here because they want to give the Holy Father a new zucchetto, to make an exchange with his [zucchetto]. And so they buy [one] from us, we put it in a nice little box and then they do it, always hoping to make an exchange with the pope when they meet him and get the one he was wearing.”

CNA Staff, Dec 3, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

On Dec. 3, the Roman Catholic Church honors St. Francis Xavier, one of the first Jesuits who evangelized vast portions of Asia.

Francis Xavier was born in 1506 in the Kingdom of Navarre, a region now divided between Spain and France. His mother was an esteemed heiress and his father an adviser to King John III. While his brothers entered the military, Francis followed an intellectual path to a college in Paris. There he studied philosophy and later taught it after earning his master’s degree.

In Paris, Francis would discover his destiny with the help of his longtime friend Peter Faber and an older student named Ignatius Loyola — who came to Paris in 1528 to finish a degree and brought together a group of men looking to glorify God with their lives.

At first, personal ambition kept Francis from heeding God’s call; Ignatius’ humble and austere lifestyle did not appeal to him. But the older student, who had undergone a dramatic conversion, often posed Christ’s question to Francis: “What will it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?”

Gradually, Ignatius convinced Francis to give up his plans and open his mind to God’s will. In 1534, Francis Xavier, Peter Faber, and four other men joined Ignatius in making a vow of poverty, chastity, and dedication to the spread of the Gospel through personal obedience to the pope.

Francis became a priest in 1537. Three years later, Pope Paul III confirmed Ignatius and his companions as a religious order: the Jesuits. During that year, the king of Portugal asked the pope to send missionaries to his newly acquired territories in India.

Together with another Jesuit, Simon Rodriguez, Francis first spent time in Portugal caring for the sick and giving instruction in the faith. Then on his 35th birthday, he set sail for Goa on India’s west coast. There, however, he found the Portuguese colonists causing disgrace to the Church through their bad behavior.

This situation spurred the Jesuit to action. He spent his days visiting prisoners and the sick, gathering groups of children together to teach them about God, and preaching to both Portuguese and Indians. Adopting the lifestyle of the common people, he lived on rice and water in a hut with a dirt floor.

His missionary efforts among them often succeeded, though he had more difficulty converting the upper classes and encountered opposition from both Hindus and Muslims. In 1545, he extended his efforts to Malaysia before moving on to Japan in 1549.

Becoming fluent in Japanese, Francis instructed the first generation of Japanese Catholic converts. Many said they were willing to suffer martyrdom rather than renounce the faith brought by the far-flung Jesuit.

Francis Xavier became ill and died on Dec. 3, 1552, while seeking a way to enter the closely guarded kingdom of China. In 1622, both St. Francis Xavier and St. Ignatius Loyola were canonized on the same day.

Rome Newsroom, Dec 2, 2024 / 17:45 pm (CNA).

For the English seminary in Rome, Dec. 1 is an important day: the commemoration of the martyrdom of some of the school’s former students — 44 priests who were killed during the English Reformation after returning to England to serve the persecuted Catholics.

During the dark days of the English Reformation in the 16th century, the Venerable English College was founded in Rome to form young English Catholic men discerning the priesthood.

Today, the seminary continues to educate English men studying to be priests. In 2024, the college’s commemoration of “Martyrs’ Day” was moved to Dec. 2 due to the first Sunday of Advent falling on Dec. 1.

In the 16th century, “the situation in England was grave for Catholics,” Father Christopher Warren, vice rector of the Venerable English College, told Bénédicte Cedergren of EWTN News on Nov. 27. “The Protestant Reformation, which we think of now very much as a historical fact, was a live one for them. Particularly for those who would celebrate Mass, for priests, and for those who would seek to aid them in their mission, it was a question of life and death.” 

After their ordinations in Rome, the courageous young priests returned to England and Wales, where they served in secret, facing constant dangers of betrayal, arrest, and execution.  

Over the next 100 years, 44 of the college’s students were martyred, most by being tortured and then hanged, drawn, and quartered.

The rector of the Venerable English College, Father Stephen Wang, recalled that the most important martyr for the seminary is the first martyr, and one of the first students, St. Ralph Sherwin.

“He was from the north of England. He was very much an ‘establishment figure’ in England,” Wang told EWTN News on Nov. 28. “He was at Eaton School, at Oxford University, but then he converted to Catholicism, and he was full of faith and longed to share that faith with others. He studied for the priesthood, lived here for three years, and then he went back on the first mission that was sent from the seminary with a group of companions to try and share the Catholic faith back in England and Wales.”

According to the college, during the Catholic persecution in England, students would gather around the “Martyrs’ Picture” in the chapel to sing the Te Deum — a Latin hymn of thanksgiving — whenever news reached Rome of the martyrdom of a former student. 

This custom continues today on Martyrs’ Day, when the relics of the martyrs, preserved beneath the altar, are venerated by the students.

They also have morning prayer and Mass, vice rector Warren said. “And then in the evening after evening prayer, we have a public service of veneration during which the Gospel is read, but also an account of the martyrdom of one of the college martyrs. So that’s really a highlight because it sets before us the reality of their sacrifice.” 

While much of the building of the Venerable English College had to be massively restored after being commandeered and ransacked by Napoleon’s troops in 1798, the Martyrs’ Picture by Durante Alberti, dating to 1583, was saved and still hangs in the sanctuary of the college’s church today.

The painting has “an image of the Most Holy Trinity with the blood of Jesus falling onto a globe, setting it on fire,” Wang, the rector, said. “That’s our motto, the words of Jesus: ‘I have come to cast fire on the earth.’”

He explained that in the painting, the seminary’s two patron saints, St. Thomas Becket of Canterbury and St. Edmund, king of East Anglia, are depicted gesturing toward the Flaminian Gate, “which represents the road going north. So it’s the road home.”

“Our two saints are saying to us and to everyone today who’s in the Church: Your destiny, your vocation is not to stay in Rome forever. It’s to remember that you’re here for a purpose. It’s to go home. It’s to be on mission. It’s to take the good news of Jesus and your experience of being here in Rome back home to those who need to hear the Gospel,” the rector added.

Wang noted that while Catholics in England no longer face the likelihood of a physical martyrdom, they still have to confront many challenges, and seminarians returning home often have to navigate shifting modern cultural realities and anti-Christian hostility.

The future priests of the Venerable English College continue to draw inspiration from the courage of the English martyrs, whose legacy drives them to share the Gospel no matter the obstacles.  

“I think our seminarians are very inspired by the history here,” Wang said. “It’s so relevant, too, today as well, because today we need missionary priests, we need priests whose hearts are full of love, but also full of zeal and aware of the difficulties. The cultures are not always welcoming to the Gospel and to the Christian message. So, to be able to share your faith in a loving way but to have the courage and also the creativity you need to share that faith in new and difficult circumstances... The martyrs are such a model for that.” 

Vatican City, Dec 2, 2024 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis has written a moving letter to Catholics in Nicaragua to express his closeness, affection, and incessant prayer to the Virgin, imploring her consolation in the midst of the persecution of the faith that the country is suffering under the regime of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.

In the context of the novena prior to the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the Holy Father wrote a Dec. 2 to the “beloved Church in Nicaragua.” 

The pontiff professed the affection he has for the Nicaraguan people, distinguished by their “extraordinary love for God,” whom they affectionately call “Papachú.”

“I am with you,” the Holy Father assured, encouraging the faithful to trust in Providence, “the only sure guide,” especially in the most difficult moments, when humanly “it becomes impossible to understand what God wants of us.” In these circumstances, he reminded, “we are called not to doubt his care and mercy.”

Pope Francis emphasized that trust in God and fidelity to the Church are “two great beacons” that illuminate their lives. “Be assured that faith and hope work miracles,” he said.

He also invited them to turn their gaze to the Immaculate Virgin, referring to the title of his letter: “Who causes so much joy? The Conception of Mary!” This popular expression marks the celebration of “,” a Nicaraguan tradition that fills churches every Dec. 7 in honor of the Mother of God.

The pontiff expressed his hope that this celebration will be a source of encouragement “in difficulties, uncertainties, and deprivations” and urged the faithful to abandon themselves into the arms of Jesus with the prayer “God first.”

“I want to really emphasize that the Mother of God unceasingly intercedes for you, and we continually ask Jesus to always hold you by his hand,” the Holy Father added.

He also encouraged the faithful to pray the “powerful prayer” of the rosary, where the mysteries “make their way through the intimacy of our hearts, where the freedom of the daughters and sons of God finds shelter, which no one can take away from us.”

Finally, he entrusted the people of Nicaragua to the protection of the Immaculate Conception and concluded with “that simple cry expressed with profound trust: ‘Mary belongs to Nicaragua, Nicaragua belongs to Mary.’ So be it!”

The Holy Father’s letter comes at a critical time for Nicaragua, shortly after the National Assembly approved a constitutional reform proposed by the dictatorship by which Ortega and Murillo will henceforth be “co-presidents” and will officially have total control of the government.

Among the most controversial measures is a provision that requires that “religious organizations must remain free of all foreign control.”

For years, the Ortega regime has intensified a systematic persecution against all expressions of faith in the country. Lay faithful, priests, and bishops are constantly monitored, persecuted, abducted, and even imprisoned in deplorable conditions.

Numerous members of the clergy have been deported from the country and stripped of their Nicaraguan citizenship, leaving them stateless, as is the case of the bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando Álvarez, who was e in January along with another bishop, 15 priests, and two seminarians.

Under the socialist regime, Catholics have been silenced and public expressions of faith, such as prayers for the persecuted or pastoral and spiritual activities, are strictly prohibited.

From 2018 to 2024, 870 attacks against the Catholic Church have been according to the report “Nicaragua: A Persecuted Church?”, which documents how serious the crisis is.

Vatican City, Dec 1, 2024 / 09:30 am (CNA).

Five Italians have been chosen by Pope Francis to become cardinals at the Dec. 7 consistory, four of whom are under 80 years old and therefore have voting rights to elect a new pope at the next conclave. 

In total, 21 cardinals — representing the Catholic Church’s geographical diversity — will be created at the upcoming consistory.

Metropolitan Archbishop Roberto Repole of Turin, who edited the series “The Theology of Pope Francis,” is a theologian and former president of the Italian Theological Association educated at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. The 57-year-old prelate actively participated in both plenary sessions of the global Synod on Synodality that took place in the Vatican in 2023 and 2024. Repole also participated in the 2024 theological-pastoral forums, created by the Synod of Bishops, to deepen study and reflection on the missionary action of the Church. 

Archbishop Baldassare Reina, vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, is the youngest of the Italian prelates to be elevated to the cardinalate on Dec. 7. In 2024 alone — in addition to being chosen for the College of Cardinals — the 54-year-old prelate was appointed by Pope Francis as vicar general for the Diocese of Rome, archpriest of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, titular bishop of Acque di Mauritania, apostolic administrator of Ostia, and grand chancellor of the Pontifical Lateran University.  

Father Fabio Baggio, CS, is the only one of the five Italian cardinals-elect who belongs to a religious congregation. He will become titular archbishop of Arusi. Baggio, a priest of the Missionaries of St. Charles (also known as the Scalabrinians), has worked in the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development since 2017. With the appointment of Canadian Jesuit Cardinal Michael Czerny as the dicastery’s prefect in 2022, Baggio was subsequently promoted to be the dicastery’s undersecretary. From 2017–2022, Baggio was head of the dicastery’s Migrants and Refugees section.

Metropolitan Archbishop Domenico Battaglia of Naples, known for his love for the poor, led a drug rehabilitation center in Catanzaro, Calabria, for over 20 years during his priestly ministry. Appointed by Pope Francis as archbishop of Naples in 2022, Battaglia — also known as “Don Mimmo” — had previously served as bishop of Cerreto Sannita-Telese-Sant’Agata de’ Goti in Italy’s southwestern region of Campania from 2016–2020.

At 99 years old, Archbishop Angelo Acerbi will become the oldest member of the College of Cardinals at the upcoming consistory. Having served as a bishop in the Catholic Church for 50 years, Acerbi also has 40 years of experience working as part of the Holy See’s diplomatic corps. Between 1974 and 2001, he served as nuncio to New Zealand, Colombia, Hungary, Moldova, and the Netherlands. From 2001–2015, Acerbi was prelate of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Due to being over the age of 80, he will not have voting rights at the next papal conclave.

Following the Dec. 7 consistory there will be a total of 253 members of the College of Cardinals. Among the 52 Italians, only 17 will have voting rights at the next papal conclave. 

CNA Newsroom, Dec 1, 2024 / 08:25 am (CNA).

Pope Francis welcomed the recent Lebanon-Israel ceasefire while urging the faithful to “stand erect and raise your heads” amid global turmoil during his Sunday .

Speaking to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the first Sunday of Advent, the pontiff expressed hope that the diplomatic breakthrough between Lebanon and Israel could spark similar ceasefires elsewhere, particularly in Gaza, while delivering a powerful message about maintaining spiritual vigilance in times of tribulation.

“Jesus’ invitation is this: Raise your head high and keep your heart light and awake,” the Holy Father said, addressing a world grappling with what he called “cosmic upheavals and anxiety and fear in humanity.”

The pope noted that many people today, like Jesus’ contemporaries, faced with “catastrophic events they saw happening around them — persecutions, conflicts, natural disasters — are gripped by anxiety and think that the end of the world is coming.”

“Their hearts are weighed down with fear,” Francis observed. “Jesus, however, wants to free them from present anxieties and false convictions, showing them how to stay awake in their hearts, how to read events from the plan of God, who works salvation even within the most dramatic events of history.”

“I welcome the ceasefire that has been reached in recent days in Lebanon, and I hope that it may be respected by all parties, thus enabling the population of the regions involved in the conflict — both Lebanese and Israeli — to return home soon and safely, also with the valuable help of the Lebanese army and the United Nations peacekeeping forces,” the pope said.

The pontiff also expressed concern about Syria, “where unfortunately war has flared up again, claiming many victims,” and added: “I am very close to the Church in Syria. Let us pray!”

Addressing the situation in Ukraine, Francis noted that “for almost three years we have witnessed a terrible sequence of deaths, injuries, violence, and destruction... Children, women, the elderly, and the weak are the first victims. War is a horror, war is an affront to God and to humanity, war spares no one, war is always a defeat, a defeat for the whole of humanity.”

Looking toward Christmas, the pope connected the season’s message of hope with contemporary challenges: “All of us, in many moments of life, ask ourselves: What can I do to have a light heart, a wakeful heart, a free heart? A heart that does not let itself be crushed by sadness?”

The pontiff concluded with a stark warning about indifference to conflict, stating that “the quest for peace is the responsibility not of a few, but of all. If habituation and indifference to the horrors of war prevail, the whole, entire human family is defeated.”

Rome Newsroom, Nov 30, 2024 / 08:10 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has proposed celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea together with Orthodox leaders in a personal letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.

The letter, published by the Vatican on Saturday, was delivered by Cardinal Kurt Koch — who heads the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity — during a visit to Istanbul for the patronal feast of the Orthodox Church.

“The now imminent 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea will be another opportunity to bear witness to the growing communion that already exists among all who are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” Francis wrote in his message dated Nov. 30.

Reflecting on six decades of Catholic-Orthodox dialogue while looking ahead to future possibilities for unity, the pope acknowledged the progress made since Vatican II’s decree marked the Catholic Church’s official entry into the ecumenical movement 60 years ago.

Speaking to EWTN News about this anniversary on Nov. 21, Koch emphasized that unity efforts must focus on “the innermost center of self-revelation in Jesus Christ.”

The Swiss cardinal also highlighted what he called an “ecumenism of blood,” noting that “Christians are not persecuted because they are Catholic, Lutheran, or Anglican but because they are Christians.”

While celebrating the “renewed fraternity” achieved since Vatican II, Pope Francis noted in his message that full communion, particularly sharing “the one Eucharistic chalice,” remains an unfulfilled goal.

In a pointed observation about contemporary global tensions, the pontiff connected ecumenical efforts to peace-building.

“The fraternity lived and the witness given by Christians will also be a message for our world plagued by war and violence,” he wrote, specifically mentioning Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, and Lebanon.

The pope also highlighted the recent participation of Orthodox representatives in October’s Synod on Synodality.

The traditional exchange of delegations between Rome and Constantinople occurs twice yearly, with Catholic representatives traveling to Istanbul for St. Andrew’s feast on Nov. 30 and Orthodox delegates visiting Rome for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul on June 29.

Koch led this year’s Vatican delegation. He was accompanied by Archbishop Flavio Pace, secretary of the dicastery; Monsignor Andrea Palmieri, undersecretary; and Archbishop Marek Solczyński, apostolic nuncio to Turkey.

The delegation participated in the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Church of St. George, Phanar, and held discussions with the synodal commission charged with relations with the Catholic Church.

Rome Newsroom, Nov 29, 2024 / 10:00 am (CNA).

The Vatican’s chief prosecutor confirmed at a public event on Wednesday that despite prior denials, the Vatican does possess a confidential file on the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi — the so-called “Vatican girl” who went missing over 40 years ago.

The Vatican “found” the file, it does “exist,” the Vatican’s promoter of justice, Alessandro Diddi, said at a book presentation in Rome on Nov. 27, according to Italian media.

Orlandi’s brother, Pietro Orlandi, has maintained for years that the Vatican had information on his missing sister that it was withholding from the Italian authorities.

Diddi said Wednesday the content of the dossier is confidential, but the Vatican continues to collaborate with Italy in its new investigation into how the 15-year-old Emanuela disappeared in 1983.

Orlandi was the daughter of an envoy of the prefecture of the pontifical house and a citizen of Vatican City State. Her disappearance at age 15 in June 1983 has been one of Italy’s biggest unsolved mysteries and, since it occurred, the subject of international intrigue, including speculation about the Vatican’s role.

Public interest in the case was also rekindled in 2022 after the release of the true-crime documentary “Vatican Girl: The Disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi” on Netflix.

At the request of Orlandi’s family, the Vatican conducted a new investigation into the case at the beginning of 2023, sharing its findings with Rome prosecutors that summer.

In November 2023, the Italian Senate voted to begin a new parliamentary inquiry into Orlandi and another girl who went missing in Rome around the same time.

The four-year parliamentary commission has “full investigative powers” and a budget of 50,000 euros (about $52,500) per year to shed light on the 1983 disappearance of the two girls.