The historic city of Aleppo, Syria. / Credits: STEPANOV ILYA/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 10, 2024 / 17:50 pm (CNA).

Catholic Church leaders in the U.S., Rome, and the Middle East have expressed cautious ?hope? that the new regime in Syria will respect Christian communities after a lightning offensive this past week by Islamist rebel groups toppled the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Bishop Elias Zaidan of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops? (USCCB) Committee on International Justice and Peace issued a statement on Tuesday in which he called on the U.S. and the international community at large to support Syria as it ?starts a new chapter in its rich history.?

?In yet another dramatic development in the Middle East, after enduring more than a decade of bloody civil war, Syria is undergoing a national political transition that will surely impact the entire region,? Zaidan said.

The 53-year reign of the Assad regime crumbled in little more than 10 days after a coalition of so-called ?rebel? forces led by the jihadist Sunni Muslim group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) swept through the war-torn country?s major cities of Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and finally Damascus on Dec. 8. HTS is notorious for its early roots in Al-Qaeda and has been designated as a terror group by the U.S. and the United Nations.

Al-Assad, successor to his father Hefez, has fled to Moscow with his wife and children, according to Russian and Iranian state media.

The radical turn of events has provoked reactions of both joy at the end of the oppressive regime and fear at the prospect of what an HTS-controlled Syria could mean for its citizens, especially minority Christian communities who fear persecution.

Zaidan further referenced comments made by the apostolic nuncio of Damascus, Cardinal Mario Zenari, who told Vatican News in a Dec. 8 interview that he was greatly relieved at what he described as a relatively peaceful transition thus far. 

?Thank God, this transition happened without bloodshed, without the carnage that was feared,? Zenari said, adding: ?Now the path ahead is steep ? those who have taken power have promised to respect everyone and to build a new Syria. We hope they will keep these promises, but of course, the road ahead remains very difficult.?  

According to Zenari, HTS rebel forces met with bishops in Aleppo ?immediately? after capturing the city, ?assuring them that they would respect the various religious denominations and Christians.? 

In his statement, Zaidan said he agrees with Zenari that the ?sentiments on the transition and aspirations of the Syrian people are clear.?

?The people of Syria want a government in Damascus that will respect and defend human rights,? Zaidan said, ?especially the religious freedom of minorities, uphold the rule of law, and promote economic and civil society development throughout the country.?

?As Syria starts a new chapter in its rich history, I urge the United States and the international community to keep the people of Syria in prayer and to closely monitor the situation so that all aid organizations are able to reach those most in need,? he concluded.

The Vatican?s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, also addressed the developing situation in Syria at a meeting on interreligious dialogue between Muslims and Christians in Milan at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.

Lebanese Christians celebrate the fall of the Assad regime in Syria on Dec. 8, 2024. / Credit: Jean Bou Assi

ACI MENA, Dec 10, 2024 / 17:20 pm (CNA).

In the wake of the Assad regime?s fall in Syria, the streets of Lebanon were alive with celebration. Church bells rang out as Lebanese Christians gathered en masse, uplifted by the seismic political shift. Flags waved triumphantly as sweets passed from hand to hand and fireworks filled the sky, casting light over a nation long shadowed by turmoil. 

But why have Lebanese Christians reacted so fervently to this news from a neighboring country?

A dark history

Lebanese Christians have long harbored animosity toward the Assad regime, which occupied their country for 29 years. This occupation came to an end in 2005 following the Cedar Revolution, where Lebanese from all sects united in protest. 

Despite the formal end of Syrian control, the regime?s influence lingered, and the ghosts of the past never truly departed. Both under Hafez and Bashar al-Assad, Lebanese Christians endured significant suffering.

The impact of the regime?s actions and crimes has left a deep and lasting mark. Lebanese journalists faced abductions, mutilations, and execution for their opposition. Media outlets were attacked and forcibly shut down. Political assassinations were common, and the daily lives of civilians were marred by humiliation, torture, and interrogations by Syrian intelligence. 

Lebanese citizens faced the grim reality of enduring Syrian checkpoints within their own country, each crossing fraught with potential peril. Students were violently removed from classrooms and beaten up. 

Towns like Zahleh ? one of the largest predominantly Christian towns in Lebanon and the Middle East ? withstood sieges, while neighborhoods such as Ein el-Remmaneh and Ashrafieh suffered immensely under heavy shelling. Car bombs, shelling of vital supply ships, and massacres perpetuated a climate of fear and repression. 

Almost every Christian Lebanese family has a story of suffering at the hands of the Assad regime?s occupation of Lebanon. 

On X (formerly Twitter), Lebanese citizens began sharing personal and familial stories that highlight those dark and oppressive days. Reflecting on this dark history, the news was not just important for Syria but also for Lebanon, which has suffered immensely under Assad?s rule.

In an interview with ACI MENA, CNA?s Arabic-language news partner, Jean Bou Assi, a 27-year-old Lebanese Christian activist who joined in the celebratory gatherings, reacted to the news.

?I wanted to express my happiness as a Lebanese Christian after this historic event,? he said. ?The fall of the Assad regime is deeply tied to years of oppression, occupation, and assassinations that Lebanon endured under this regime. As Lebanese Christians, our history and fate have often been linked to the Lebanese entity (that the Assad regime doesn?t recognize). The fact that Lebanon?s entity endured despite this oppressive regime?s existence is a significant reason to celebrate following its downfall.?

Justice served

Many Christian Lebanese view the fall of Assad as a form of justice being served. 

Bou Assi described the atmosphere, noting that chants of ?Bachir hay fina? (?Bachir lives among us?) filled the air, an invocation of the memory of President-elect Bachir Gemayel. 

Gemayel was a prominent Lebanese Christian leader who was assassinated in 1982. 

Bou Assi explained that for many, it feels like a moment of justice for Gemayel. 

?Many feel that President Bachir was finally avenged, as Syria was widely implicated in his assassination,? he explained. ?This sentiment is reinforced by Syria?s history of granting asylum to his assassin, Habib Chartouni, even after freeing him in 1990. People are now awaiting action from the new Syrian administration, hoping they will hand over Habib Chartouni once identified.?

In a similar vein, Michel Moawad, a member of Parliament and founder of the Independence Movement, shared a poignant tribute to his father, René Moawad, who was the president of Lebanon. 

?Sleep tight dad, for heaven?s justice has been achieved on earth, even if it took a while,? Moawad said in a heartfelt message.

Nayla Tueni, CEO of An-Nahar, one of Lebanon?s most influential newspapers, published an article to honor her father, Gebran Tueni, a journalist assassinated for his strong criticism of Assad. She titled it ?To Gebran and All Martyrs: The Justice of Fate.?

MTV, a major Lebanese TV channel, was shut down by the Assad regime in 2002, giving them a strong reason to celebrate the regime?s fall this week. In one of its posts, it wrote: ?The tyrant?s regime fell, but MTV remained.?

A glimmer of hope

Names of Lebanese citizens believed to be in Syrian prisons have become a focal point on Lebanese media, sparking hope for reunions with loved ones. 

Since 1975, more than 17,000 Lebanese have disappeared, and there is no definitive count of how many are still alive in Assad?s jails. However, families are actively sharing posts about their missing relatives, holding onto hope for their return.

One of the detainees, held for 32 years because of his affiliation with the Lebanese Forces ? an anti-Assad Christian party and resistance movement ? was released and returned to his family in Lebanon. Many others are anxiously awaiting more such reunions and the return of other detainees.

Lebanese are also hopeful that the refugee crisis, which has been placing a strain on the country, will now begin to ease. 

?With the war in Syria reigniting, I previously feared that Lebanon would face an even greater influx of refugees, adding to the 2 million Syrian refugees already hosted ? a burden that has strained Lebanon?s demography, economy, and infrastructure,? Bou Assi said. 

?Many Syrians have cited fear of mistreatment by Assad?s regime as a reason for not returning home. Now that Assad is gone, this justification no longer holds. The Lebanese government will be in a stronger position to address the crisis, implementing measures that encourage refugees to return to Syria.? 

The recent events have also stripped Hezbollah of a crucial ally and supporter. As a significant political backer, arms supplier, and facilitator of Hezbollah?s operations through border smuggling routes ? particularly in the trafficking of Captagon ? Assad?s departure marks a pivotal shift. 

?With Syria?s support gone and Hezbollah weakened by its last war with Israel two months ago, attempts to rearm the group will be significantly hindered. This isolation will disrupt Hezbollah?s logistical and political network, forcing it into a more precarious position within Lebanon?s shifting power dynamics,? Bou Assi said.

This newfound isolation of Hezbollah is seen as a strategic opportunity by its adversaries. 

Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces, the largest Christian party in Lebanon, expressed his long-term frustrations and current hopes in an interview with MTV channel. 

?Over the past 50 years, the regime of Hafez and Bashar al-Assad was the biggest obstacle to the building of a state in Lebanon,? Geagea stated. ?No matter how the situation in Syria will be after Assad, it?s impossible that it will be worse than Assad. I don?t know what awaits us with the new Syrian authorities, but there is nothing worse than Assad.?

Seizing the moment, Geagea called for Hezbollah to either hand over their weapons or sell them, urging a collective effort to build a state in Lebanon. In one tweet, he had a strong message: ??To Hezbollah, game over.?

With the situation changing, there are also hopes for improved relations between the two countries that share a brutal history.

??While it?s still early to predict the future, I remain optimistic that Lebanon and Syria can turn the page toward a new chapter of friendship,? Bou Assi said. ?This could mark the end of Syrian aggression toward Lebanon, from denying Lebanon?s existence as an independent entity to its military occupation and facilitating Hezbollah?s armament. The fall of the Assad regime could close the door on this dark era, paving the way for a better relationship based on mutual respect.??

Joy amid uncertainty

While there is joy over the end of the brutal regime, fear and skepticism naturally persist. 

The transition process remains unclear, and Lebanon must be vigilant against the potential infiltration of pro-Assad intelligence forces and commanders through illegal crossings.

Moreover, Lebanon is not yet free from conflict as the temporary ceasefire was intended for 60 days. Additionally, Lebanon must address its own significant challenge and elephant in the room: Hezbollah. 

Lebanese Christians may not know what will happen next in Syria or even in Lebanon, but they are acutely aware of the unfathomable atrocities committed against them by the Assad family. For now, it is a time to rejoice.

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. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Papal Foundation

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 press release. 

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 25 years 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 receives its funding 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.?

Former Sistine Chapel choir director Monsignor Massimo Palombella leads the choir during a performance on May 9, 2018, in New York City. / Credit: Theo Wargo/Getty Images for AEG

CNA Staff, Dec 10, 2024 / 15:45 pm (CNA).

A pair of former Vatican officials has been found guilty of embezzlement and abuse of office as part of a long-running investigation into financial irregularities at a prominent choir there. 

Monsignor Massimo Palombella, who previously directed the Sistine Chapel Choir in Vatican City, and Michelangelo Nardella, who was the choir?s manager, were both found guilty in the Vatican City State Tribunal on various counts of embezzlement, laundering, and abuse stemming from their time leading the choir.

Nardella?s wife, Simona Rossi, was also convicted of embezzlement in connection with the scandal.

News of financial improprieties at the choir first broke in 2018 amid reports that Palombella and Nardella used choir concert proceeds for personal expenses. The Vatican launched an investigation that year.

Palombella resigned his position at the choir in July 2019. In January of that same year, Pope Francis issued a motu proprio that among other things moved the Sistine Chapel Choir under the administration of the Office of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations.

Palombella was sentenced to just over three years in prison as well as a fine of 9,000 euros (about $9,500); Nardella will spend four years and eight months in prison and pay 7,000 euros (about $7,400) in fines. Nardella was also served with ?perpetual disqualification from holding public office.?

Rossi, meanwhile, will serve two years in prison and pay 5,000 euros (about $5,300) in fines, along with a similar disqualification from public office. 

All three defendants will further be subject to the confiscation of tens of thousands of euros as part of restitution for the embezzlement crimes, and all will be required to pay legal fees.

Known officially as the Cappella Musicale Pontificia Sistina, the Sistine Chapel Choir is composed of 20 professional singers from around the world as well as a treble section made up of 35 boys aged 9?13 called the Pueri Cantores.

With a 1,500-year history, the Sistine Chapel Choir is believed to be the oldest active choir in the world.

Pope Francis speaks to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Paul Pelosi after Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on June 29, 2022. / Vatican Media

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 10, 2024 / 15:15 pm (CNA).

Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi criticized Pope Francis for the Vatican?s deal with China regarding bishop appointments during an interview with the National Catholic Reporter published on Tuesday, Dec. 10.

The congresswoman from California and former speaker of the House of Representatives told the outlet that she is ?not too happy? about the Vatican-China agreement, saying: ?I don?t know what they have achieved? and adding: ?Do you know of any success??

?We have, for decades, seen the suffering of Catholics in China,? Pelosi, who is Catholic, told the Reporter. ?I have a completely different view [from Francis]. ? Why should the Chinese government be having a say in the appointment of bishops? I?ve talked to some folks here and they?re, ?Well, we have to keep up with the times.? What?! I don?t get that.?

In January 2018, Pope Francis and Chinese officials entered into a deal that gives the Chinese Communist Party input on bishop appointments. Most of the details of the deal and how it functions have not been made public, but the pontiff revealed in September 2023 that the agreement created a joint China-Vatican commission on the appointment of bishops.

The agreement has been renewed three times, most recently in October. The most recent renewal extends the deal into October 2028. Despite the appearance of friendlier relations on the surface, a report published in October by the Hudson Institute found that the ?religious repression of the Catholic Church in China has intensified? since the deal went into effect. In November 2022, the Vatican accused China of violating the terms of the deal. 

In her interview with the Reporter, Pelosi referenced the Gospel of Matthew in her critique of the Vatican-China agreement. 

?Let me say it this way: ?Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,?? Pelosi said. ?Every bishop has sprung from that rock. And now, the Chinese government??

The congresswoman said she had spoken to the papal nuncio about ?what our concerns were,? and commented that those concerns were bipartisan: ?This brings a lot of us together because, over time, even bishops were being killed. I mean, this is like martyrs.?

Pelosi also showed solidarity with Cardinal Joseph Zen, the bishop emeritus of Hong Kong and staunch critic of the Chinese Communist Party and Vatican-China deal. In 2022, Hong Kong police arrested the cardinal for his role in assisting pro-democracy protesters for their legal fees, but he was later released on bail.

?With all the respect in the world for His Holiness, Pope Francis, my point of view is closer to the cardinal of Hong Kong, Joseph Zen,? Pelosi told the Reporter.

In 2020, Zen told CNA that he had not seen any positive changes for the Church following the deal with China. 

?Is there any choice between helping the government to destroy the Church or resisting the government to keep our faith?? Zen said.

According to a report by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in October, China has continued its persecution of Catholics and other religious faiths through its policy of the ?sinicization of religion,? which means to make the religion conform to Chinese culture.

The report noted that, in practice, the policy essentially subordinates faiths to ?the [Chinese Communist Party?s] political agenda and Marxist vision for religion.? This includes censorship of religious texts, forcing clergy to preach the party?s ideology, and requiring the display of Chinese Communist Party slogans in the churches.

In her interview with the Reporter, Pelosi also spoke about a wide variety of other issues, which included the decline of Catholic support for the Democratic Party in the 2024 elections and her feuds with Catholic bishops over her adamant support of abortion.

Although her bishop, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, prohibited her from receiving Communion within the archdiocese because of her support for abortion, Pelosi told the Reporter that she ?received Communion anyway? and said: ?That?s his problem; not mine.? 

?My Catholic faith is: Christ is my savior,? Pelosi said. ?It has nothing to do with the bishops.?

Pelosi won her reelection by a more than 60-point margin in the heavily Democratic 11th Congressional District in California. The congresswoman, who turns 85 in March 2025, resigned from her leadership position within the Democratic Party in 2016 and was replaced by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, who currently serves as the House minority leader.

The flag of the European Union flying in Rome. / Credit: Bohumil Petrik/CNA

Madrid, Spain, Dec 10, 2024 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

The Commission of the Bishops? Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) has called on the European Union (EU) to appoint a coordinator for the fight against anti-Christian hatred in the same way it already employs coordinators to combat hate directed against Jews and Muslims.

?The time is mature for the appointment of an EU coordinator on combating anti-Christian hatred in Europe,? said Alessandro Calcagno, an adviser to the bishops on fundamental rights, during his speech at the European Prayer Breakfast held at the European Parliament last week.

?It is not a question of victimism but equal access to tools of protection,?Calcagno said. 

COMECE is the body that officially represents the Catholic Church to the EU.

Calcagno explained that the right to freedom of religion, as well as provisions to fight against discrimination on the grounds of religion, should not be seen only through the prism of protecting faith communities that are religious minorities. 

?It is necessary to break the ?majorities vs. minorities? dynamic that underpins the approach of certain actors and policymakers,? Calcagno stated.

Appointing a coordinator is one of the priorities that Calcagno, on behalf of the European bishops, outlined in relation to the exercise of religious freedom in the EU, among which is ?need to ensure equal protection to all dimensions of this core fundamental right, including the institutional one,? he highlighted.

?Too often, freedom of religion is depicted as a ?problematic? right, and its collective dimension, compared with its individual dimension, is neglected,? the adviser said.

The need to protect places of worship and data of a religious nature as well as better integrate the defense of religious freedom into EU policies was also addressed during the event.

The European Prayer Breakfast, attended by some 450 participants from across the continent and beyond, was held in conjunction with a panel focused on current trends of rising religious intolerance in Europe.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA?s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Ålesund, a port town on the west coast of Norway. / Credit: May_Lana/Shutterstock

Oslo, Norway, Dec 10, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

On Monday, the parish community of Our Lady?s Church in Ålesund, a port town on the west coast of Norway, gathered for a day of prayer dedicated to the unborn in the wake of new abortion laws in the country. 

This year, the celebration of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary ? usually celebrated Dec. 8 ? was moved to Monday, Dec. 9, as the second Sunday of Advent took precedence. The day began with Mass followed by adoration and the recitation of the rosary, emphasizing the inviolable dignity of human life from the moment of conception.

The parish?s initiative was in part a response to recent changes in Norway?s abortion laws, which for the first time allow for sex-selective abortions and so-called ?twin reduction? procedures. 

The new abortion laws, adopted by Norway?s Parliament on Dec. 3, also extend the legal limit for abortion from 12 to 18 weeks. Women in Norway can still have abortions beyond that time frame with the approval of a medical board.  

The changes in the law have sparked debates in Norwegian society and within church communities, raising serious ethical and moral concerns. Faced with these realities, the diocese sought to respond through prayer, reflection, and increased awareness.

Father Dariusz Buras, parochial vicar of Our Lady?s Church, told EWTN Norway, CNA?s news partner, that he drew inspiration for the pro-life event from Sts. Teresa of Calcutta and Gianna Beretta Molla.

During her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo in 1979, Mother Teresa highlighted the unborn as one of the most vulnerable in our time. She described abortion as a threat to peace, asking poignantly: ?If a mother can kill her own child in the womb, what is to prevent you and me from killing each other?? Stressing that nations that permit abortion are spiritually impoverished, she promoted adoption as a hopeful alternative, showing that every child can find a loving home.

Another prominent saint for the unborn, Gianna Beretta Molla (1922?1962), was an Italian physician and mother who faced a grave moral dilemma when she was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor during her pregnancy. She chose to carry her child to term despite the risk to her own life, because she saw the unborn child as an irreplaceable human being. After giving birth to her daughter, Gianna Emanuela, Molla died of complications. 

Canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2004, St. Gianna Molla remains a modern example of heroic love for life, even under difficult circumstances.

While Mother Teresa addressed the right to life of the unborn from a global perspective, St. Gianna Beretta Molla demonstrated through her life that care for the unborn is not just an abstract principle but a concrete reality ? a pastoral, medical, and maternal care that prioritizes the life of the child. 

Together, the lives of the two saints are a reminder of the Christian call to protect life in all circumstances and to offer alternatives to destruction, such as social support, adoption, and prioritizing the vulnerable with sacrificial love.

Monday?s gathering at Our Lady?s Church in Ålesund, inspired by the witness of the two saints, became a moment of deep reflection and prayer in a society where laws increasingly undermine human dignity, especially the dignity of the unborn.

John Traynor is believed to be the first British Catholic to be cured at Lourdes. / Credit: Courtesy of Hospitality of Our Lady of Lourdes

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 10, 2024 / 09:30 am (CNA).

The healing of a British World War I soldier at the Marian shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France has been proclaimed as the 71st miracle attributed to the pilgrimage site.

Archbishop Malcolm McMahon of Liverpool in England declared the miraculous healing of John Traynor, a soldier of the British Royal Navy, on Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception and the 81st anniversary of his death.

The Church has not recognized a miraculous event at Lourdes since 2018.

The news comes after the president of the Lourdes Office of Medical Observations, Dr. Alessandro de Franciscis, commissioned a review of Traynor?s case last year, which was undertaken by an English doctor and member of the International Medical Committee at Lourdes, Kieran Moriarty.

Moriarty?s investigations uncovered numerous files in the archives at Lourdes that included the testimonies of the three doctors who examined Traynor before and after his cure, along with other supporting evidence.

McMahon concluded during a canonical commission that based on the evidence assembled by Moriarty, Traynor?s healing was indeed miraculous.

?Given the weight of medical evidence, the testimony to the faith of John Traynor and his devotion to Our Blessed Lady, it is with great joy that I declare that the cure of John Traynor, from multiple serious medical conditions, is to be recognized as a miracle wrought by the power of God through the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes,? the archbishop stated.

?I hope that in February 2025, during the jubilee year, we will have a fitting celebration at the metropolitan cathedral to mark this significant moment in the history of our archdiocese, helping us all to respond to the jubilee call to be ?pilgrims of hope,?? McMahon added.

Traynor was born in Liverpool, England, in 1883. Though his Irish mother passed away when he was young, Traynor?s personal testimony featured on the shrine?s website states that ?her devotion to Mass and holy Communion and her trust in the Blessed Mother stayed with him as a memory and fruitful example.? Traynor described his mother in the testimony as a ?daily Communicant when few people were.?

A member of the Royal Navy Reserve, Traynor was mobilized at the outset of the war in 1914. During the battle at Antwerp, he was hit in the head by shrapnel while attempting to carry an officer off the field. He quickly recovered and returned to service.

On April 25, 1915, Traynor took part in an amphibious landing on the shores of Gallipoli as a part of an unsuccessful attempt by British and French troops to capture the peninsula in the Ottoman-occupied Turkey. Traynor was one of the few soldiers to reach the shore during that first day, having prevailed through the onslaught of machine-gun fire by the Turkish forces who were poised atop the steep banks of the beach.

For over a week, Traynor remained unscathed as he attempted to lead the small coalition that survived the landing up the sandhill.

However, on May 8, Traynor caught a spray of machine gun bullets to the head, chest, and arm during a bayonet charge. The wounds he sustained from the battle left him paralyzed in his right arm and regularly susceptible to epileptic attacks. Doctors attempted numerous surgeries to repair the damaged nerves in his arm and to treat the head wounds believed to have been the source of his epilepsy, but to no avail.

Eight years after the battle that left him ?completely and incurably incapacitated,? Traynor was slated to be admitted to a hospital for incurables. Instead he went to Lourdes.

A long journey to Lourdes

Against the pleas of his wife, doctors, and several priests, Traynor insisted upon joining a parish-led pilgrimage to Lourdes from Liverpool from July 22?27, 1923.

Traynor wrote in his testimony that he ?succeeded in being bathed nine times in the water from the grotto spring,? despite being desperately ill in the first three days of the trip and facing much resistance from his caretakers.

On the second day of the trip, Traynor recalled suffering a severe epileptic fit while being wheeled to the baths. ?Blood flowed from my mouth and the doctors were very much alarmed,? he said. When the doctors attempted to bring him back to his lodgings, Traynor refused, pulling the brakes on his wheelchair with his good hand.

?They took me into the bath and bathed me in the usual way. I never had an epileptic fit after that,? he said in his testimony.

The next day, Traynor went again to the baths ? while he was bathing, he recalled his legs becoming ?violently agitated? and feeling as though he had regained use of them. Since he was due to return for a Eucharistic procession, Traynor?s caretakers ? who believed he was having another fit ? rushed him to Rosary Church.

When the archbishop of Rheims passed him by with the Blessed Sacrament, Traynor?s arm too became ?violently agitated,? and he broke through his bandages and made the sign of the cross for the first time in eight years.

The next morning, Traynor leapt from his bed and ran to the grotto. 

?My mother had always taught me that when you ask a favor from Our Lady or wish to show her some special veneration you should make a sacrifice,? Traynor recalled. ?I had no money to offer, as I had spent my last few shillings on rosaries and medals for my wife and children, but kneeling there before the Blessed Mother, I made the only sacrifice I could think of: I resolved to give up cigarettes.? 

On the morning of July 27, Traynor was examined by three doctors who found he had regained his ability to walk perfectly, as well as full use and function of his right arm and legs. The sores on his body had healed completely and his fits had ceased. Remarkably, an opening in his skull that was created during one of his surgeries had also ?diminished considerably.? 

One of the official reports issued by the Medical Bureau at Lourdes on Oct. 2, 1926 ? later discovered by Moriarty ? states that Traynor?s ?extraordinary cure is absolutely beyond and above the powers of nature.? 

Traynor went on to have three children after receiving his cure, one of whom is called Bernadette. He is believed to be the first British Catholic to be cured at Lourdes, according to the shrine?s website.

Cardinal Mykola Bychok is a Ukrainian Greek Catholic prelate. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

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 website 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 Brze??) united Orthodox Christians in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the Holy See, leading to what is now the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Eastern rites and the Ukrainian rite

The website 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.

?Ukraine is in my heart?

?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 Vatican News.

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 ????????? ??????????, ????? ??? (?Holy Mother of God, save us?). St. Sophia on Via Boccea was designated yesterday as his titular church as a cardinal.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA?s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Pope Francis prays at the consistory for the creation of 21 new cardinals at St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Dec. 7, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

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 a digital ?dashboard? of the College of Cardinals. Users can sort the cardinals by age, country of origin, electoral status, and religious order.

An aerial view of the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., May 11, 2021. / Credit: Air Force Staff Sgt. Brittany A. Chase, DOD, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 10, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill are threatening to oppose the U.S. government?s defense spending bill for the next fiscal year over its inclusion of language that would prevent the Department of Defense (DOD) from providing health care coverage that funds transgender drugs and surgeries for minors. 

Although the current draft was the product of negotiations between Republican and Democratic lawmakers, some Democrats have considered abandoning the final version amid its inclusion of banning gender transitions for children.

?The final text includes a provision prohibiting medical treatment for military dependents under the age of 18 who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria,? Democratic Rep. Adam Smith, who serves as the ranking member for the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement.

?Blanketly denying health care to people who clearly need it, just because of a biased notion against transgender people, is wrong,? Smith continued. ?This provision injected a level of partisanship not traditionally seen in defense bills. Speaker [Mike] Johnson is pandering to the most extreme elements of his party to ensure that he retains his speakership. In doing so, he has upended what had been a bipartisan process.?

Republican lawmakers included the language in the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2025, which was unveiled this past weekend. The primary function of the NDAA is to fund the nation?s military. 

Republican lawmakers sought to include similar language related to gender transitions in last year?s NDAA but eventually abandoned the effort when they failed to get enough support in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Under the proposal, taxpayer-funded health care programs provided by the DOD for members of the military and their families would prevent any coverage of transgender drugs and surgeries for anyone under the age of 18. It would not affect these services for adults.

Currently, the DOD offers coverage for transgender drugs for all ages, which includes puberty blockers and hormones through its TRICARE program, which serves about 9.5 million service members, military retirees, and dependents. TRICARE does not currently provide coverage for transgender surgeries.

According to a study published by the American Public Health Association in 2023, at least 25,000 children sought treatment for gender dysphoria through TRICARE in 2017 ? and about 900 received transgender drugs such as puberty blockers or hormones. It?s unclear whether those numbers have increased in recent years.

A Republican effort to end the DOD?s policy to fund travel for military members and their families to obtain abortions was ultimately removed from the NDAA proposal.

In a statement, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said lawmakers ?remain determined to confront increasingly hostile threats from communist China, Russia, and Iran, and this legislation provides our military with the tools they need to deter our enemies.?

?This legislation includes House-passed provisions to restore our focus on military lethality and to end the radical woke ideology being imposed on our military by permanently banning transgender medical treatment for minors and countering antisemitism,? he added.

Smith?s objection to the NDAA proposal comes as activist groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) are urging Democrats to vote against the legislation. 

?Medical care should stay between families and their doctors but this provision would baselessly and recklessly inject politics into the health care military families receive,? Mike Zamore, the ACLU national director of policy and government affairs, said in a statement. 

?Nobody should have to choose between serving the country and ensuring their child has the health care they need to live and thrive,? he added. ?Members of Congress must vote against the defense bill because of the inclusion of this deeply harmful, unconstitutional provision.?

The ACLU is currently representing Tennessee families who are challenging a state law that prohibits doctors from providing children with transgender drugs and surgeries. The United States Supreme Court heard the case?s arguments on Dec. 4.

Transgender issues dividing Congress

Most Democratic lawmakers openly support gender transitions for minors. However, following the 2024 election, the two House Democrats ? Rep. Seth Moulton and Rep. Tom Suozzi ? have accused their party of going too far to the left on issues related to transgenderism, particularly when it comes to biological boys who identify as girls playing in girls? sports.

Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Roger Marshall is introducing a bill to prohibit surgical gender transitions of minors nationwide. The legislation is called the Safeguarding the Overall Protection (STOP) of Minors Act.

In a statement posted on X, Marshall, an OB-GYN physician by profession, said that most Americans ?want a complete ban on any performance of mutilation, sterilization, and castration procedures on children,? which is what prompted him to introduce the bill. 

As of December, transgender drugs and surgeries for children are prohibited in 24 states and another two states ban only the surgeries. Gender transitions for minors remain legal in the remaining 24 states and several have enacted laws that explicitly protect access to those drugs and surgeries.

President-elect Donald Trump has said he supports a federal law banning the surgical gender transitions of minors. Some scholars have argued that the incoming Trump administration could use regulatory authority to restrict the gender transitions of minors nationally.

The Holy House of Our Lady in the Shrine of Loreto. / Credit: Tatiana Dyuvbanova/Shutterstock

Rome Newsroom, Dec 10, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

What do Galileo, Mozart, Descartes, Cervantes, and St. Thérèse of Lisieux have in common? They all traveled hundreds of miles to step inside the Virgin Mary?s house, which is preserved inside a basilica in the small Italian town of Loreto.

Catholic pilgrims have flocked to the Holy House of Loreto since the 14th century to stand inside the walls where tradition holds the Virgin Mary was born, raised, and greeted by the angel Gabriel.

In other words, if the structure actually comes from the ancient house in Nazareth, the holy house?s walls witnessed when the ?Word became flesh? at the Annunciation, a point on which the history of humanity turned.

Pope Francis elevated the feast of Our Lady of Loreto in 2019 by decreeing that it be included in the current Roman calendar as an optional memorial each year on Dec. 10.

Tradition holds that the Holy House arrived in Loreto on Dec. 10, 1294, after a miraculous rescue from the Holy Land as the Crusaders were driven out of Palestine at the end of the 13th century.

There is an often-repeated story that angels carried the Holy House from Palestine to Italy. While modern listeners may doubt the legend?s veracity, historic documents have vindicated the beliefs of pious pilgrims over the centuries ? with an ironic twist.

In 1900, the pope?s physician, Joseph Lapponi, discovered documents in the Vatican archive stating that in the 13th century a noble Byzantine family, the Angeli family, rescued ?materials? from ?Our Lady?s House? from Muslim invaders and then had them transported to Italy for the building of a shrine.

The name Angeli means ?angels? in both Greek and Latin.

Further historic diplomatic correspondence, not published until 1985, discusses the ?holy stones taken away from the House of Our Lady, Mother of God.? In the fall of 1294, ?holy stones? were included in the dowry of Ithamar Angeli for her marriage to Philip II of Anjou, son of King Charles II of Naples.

A coin minted by a member of the Angeli family was also found in the foundation of the house in Loreto. In Italy, coins were often inserted into a building?s foundation to indicate who was responsible for its construction.

Excavations in both Nazareth and Loreto found similar materials at both sites. The stones that make up the lower part of the walls of the Holy House in Loreto appear to have been finished with a technique particular to the Nabataeans, which also was widespread in Palestine. There are inscriptions in syncopated Greek characters with contiguous Hebrew letters that read ?O Jesus Christ, Son of God,? written in the same style inscribed in the cave in Nazareth.

Archaeologists also confirmed a tradition of Loreto that third-century Christians had transformed Mary?s house in Nazareth into a place of worship by building a synagogue-style church around the house. A seventh-century bishop who traveled to Nazareth noted a church built at the house where the Annunciation took place.

From St. Francis de Sales to St. Louis de Montfort, many saints visited the Holy House of Loreto over the centuries. St. Charles Borromeo made four pilgrimages in 1566, 1572, 1579, and 1583.

St. John Paul II in 1993 called the Holy House of Loreto the ?foremost shrine of international import dedicated to the Blessed Virgin.?

The victory over the Turks at Lepanto was attributed to the Virgin of Loreto by St. Pius V, leading both General Marcantonio Colonna and John of Austria to make pilgrimages to the shrine in 1571 and 1576 respectively.

Christopher Columbus made a vow to the Madonna of Loreto in 1493 when he and his crew were caught in a storm during their return journey from the Americas. He later sent a sailor to Loreto on a pilgrimage of thanksgiving on behalf of the entire crew.

Queen Christina of Sweden offered her royal crown and scepter to the Virgin Mary in Loreto in 1655 after her conversion from the Lutheran faith to Catholicism.

Napoleon plundered the shrine and its treasury on Feb. 13, 1797, taking with him precious jewels and other gifts offered to the Virgin Mary by European aristocracy, including several French monarchs, over the centuries. Yet, the object of real value in the eyes of pilgrims, the Holy House of Mary, was left unharmed.

In a homily in 1995, St. John Paul II called the Holy House of Loreto ?the house of all God?s adopted children.?

He continued: ?The threads of the history of the whole of humankind are tied anew in that house. It is the Shrine of the House of Nazareth, to which the Church that is in Italy is tied by providence, that the latter rediscovers a quickening reminder of the mystery of the Incarnation, thanks to which each man is called to the dignity of the Son of God.?

This article was first published on Dec. 10, 2022, and has been updated.

President-Elect Donald Trump at the Elysee Palace on Dec. 7, 2024, in Paris. / Credit: Oleg Nikishin/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Dec 9, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

In his first sit-down broadcast network interview since the election, President-elect Donald Trump said that in his first 100 days in office, he would focus on immigration as well as enacting tax cuts and tariffs.

During the interview on NBC News? ?Meet the Press? Sunday, the president-elect reaffirmed his support of in vitro fertilization (IVF), a fertility procedure opposed by the Catholic Church because it destroys embryonic life and separates conception from marriage. Trump also said he would ?probably? not restrict the abortion pill, though he refused to commit to that, noting that ?things do change.? 

Immigration 

Trump pledged that the first thing he would do is address the border issue, beginning with criminals who are in the U.S. illegally. He told NBC he would begin ?rapidly? with criminals who are here illegally such as Venezuelan gang members and MS-13.

?We?re starting with the criminals, and we gotta do it,? he said. ?And then we?re starting with others and we?re going to see how it goes.? 

When asked about deporting everyone who has been living in the country illegally for years, he said: ?Well, I think you have to do it.?

?It?s a very tough thing to do, but you have to have rules, regulations, laws; they came in illegally,? Trump said. 

He noted that this is unfair for people waiting to come into the country legally. 

?We?re going to make it very easy for people to come in, in terms of, they have to pass the test,? Trump said. ?They have to be able to tell you what the Statue of Liberty is. They have to tell you a little bit about our country. They have to love our country.?

When asked about families with mixed immigration status, Trump said he wouldn?t split up families, saying the families could be deported together if they choose.

?I don?t want to be breaking up families, so the only way you don?t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back,? he said. 

?We have to do our job,? Trump continued. ?You have to have a series of standards and a series of laws.? 

Trump also pledged to end birthright citizenship for children of immigrants.

When asked whether his plan violates the 14th Amendment?s guarantee that ?all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside,? Trump said that he may have to turn to ?the people,? but ?we have to end it.? 

Trump also pledged to ?work with the Democrats on a plan? to help Dreamers (immigrants who came into the country illegally as children) stay in the country, noting that Republicans are ?very open? to doing so.

The U.S. bishops in November urged the American government to reform the immigration system with ?fair and humane treatment? of immigrants. The statement called for a system that ?provides permanent relief for childhood arrivals, helps families stay together, and welcomes refugees,? while also ?keep[ing] our borders safe and secure.? 

In vitro fertilization

During his campaign, Trump promised free in vitro fertilization (IVF), either through the government or insurance mandates. In the interview, Trump reaffirmed his support for the treatment, calling himself ?the father of IVF in a certain way.?

Trump cited his involvement in the Alabama IVF controversy earlier this year in which he voiced support for IVF. After the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen human embryos constitute children under state statute, the Republican governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, signed legislation granting clinics immunity when they ?damage? or cause the ?death? of human embryonic life in the process of providing in vitro fertilization (IVF) fertility treatments to women.

Trump noted that in response to the court decision he issued ?a statement from the Republican party that we are all for IVF.? 

?The Alabama Legislature met the following day and passed it,? he said. ?It was a beautiful thing to see.? 

But when asked where IVF was on his list of priorities, Trump noted that ?we have a lot of other things.?  

?We?re going to be talking about it,? he said of IVF. ?We?ll be submitting in either the first or second package to Congress the extension of the tax cuts. So that might very well be in there, or it?ll come sometime after that.? 

The Catholic Church has long opposed IVF as ?morally unacceptable? because of the rejection of the natural procreative act of husband and wife, the commodification of the human child, and the destruction of embryonic human life, which is very common in the procedure. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that though ?research aimed at reducing human sterility is to be encouraged? (No. 2375), practices such as IVF ?disassociate the sexual act from the procreative act? and the act ?entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists? (No. 2377). 

Abortion pills 

Trump reaffirmed that he would not restrict abortion pills, though he refused to commit to the position, noting that things sometimes change.

When asked if he would restrict abortion pills, Trump said: ?I?ll probably stay with exactly what I?ve been saying for the last two years, and the answer is no.? 

When asked if he committed to that statement, Trump noted that ?things do change, but I don?t think it?s going to change at all.? 

Medical or chemical abortions ? abortions procured via a two-pill regimen ? made up 70% of abortions in the U.S. in 2022, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

During the presidential campaign, Trump was criticized by pro-life advocates for his position that abortion law should be left for the states to decide. In June he said he agreed with the Supreme Court?s ruling on the abortion pill saying: ?I agree with their decision to have done that, and I will not block it.?

The Catholic Church teaches that abortion is ?gravely contrary to the moral law? and that ?life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception? (CCC, No. 2271). 

Bishop Emeritus Frederick Bernard Henry, shown in a 2018 file photo, led the Diocese of Calgary from 1998 to 2017. Henry died on Dec. 3, 2024, at the age of 81. / Credit: Canadian Catholic News file photo

Calgary, Canada, Dec 9, 2024 / 15:50 pm (CNA).

Known for his boldness in taking a stance on controversial issues, Bishop Emeritus Frederick Bernard Henry, who led the Diocese of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, from 1998 to 2017, died on Dec. 3 at Calgary?s Rockyview General Hospital. He was 81.

Throughout his career, Henry was unafraid to challenge mainstream narratives, often drawing national attention for his positions on topics such as same-sex marriage, euthanasia, gender identity, and residential schools. His episcopal motto, ?Dabo Vobis Pastores? (?I will give you pastors?), reflected his dedication to shepherding the faithful while holding firmly to Catholic teachings.

Born in London, Ontario, on April 11, 1943, Henry was the eldest of five sons in the family of Leo and Noreen Bishop Henry. He entered St. Peter?s Seminary in London after high school and was ordained a priest on May 25, 1968, by Cardinal G. Emmett Carter.

Henry?s ministry combined academic achievement and pastoral leadership. He earned a master?s degree in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame in 1971 and a licentiate in theology from the Gregorian University in Rome in 1973. His academic career included roles as associate professor, dean, and rector at St. Peter?s Seminary before his episcopal appointment.

As bishop of Calgary, Henry tackled controversial issues. In 2007, he banned gambling-based fundraising in Catholic schools, prompting a transition to ethical funding practices that spread across Alberta. He defended religious freedom during contentious debates on same-sex marriage and faced a human rights complaint in 2005 after issuing a pastoral letter defending traditional marriage. In his letter, he articulated the Catholic Church?s teachings on marriage as a union between one man and one woman, emphasizing its sacramental nature and moral significance.

The letter was published in a newspaper, which led to complaints being filed with the Alberta Human Rights Commission, alleging that his statements constituted hate speech against the LGBTQ+ community. The complaints were dismissed after mediation.

Henry stood firm, using the opportunity to argue that defending Catholic doctrine should not be mischaracterized as hateful or discriminatory. He saw the complaints as an example of government overreach into religious freedom and the public expression of faith.

More recently, Henry?s skepticism regarding the unverified claims of mass graves at former residential schools made him a polarizing figure. He questioned the lack of evidence supporting the allegations and called for transparent investigations, saying: ?No truth. No reconciliation.? Despite criticism, he maintained that seeking factual clarity was essential for justice and healing.

His willingness to engage with controversial topics extended to the public square. In a 2018 interview, Henry urged clergy not to shy away from tough questions about the Church?s role in society, including the sexual abuse crisis. ?We ought to be talking to the press,? he said. ?If they don?t like it, that?s OK. They can ask tough questions, but we?ve got the tough answers too.?

Henry resigned in 2017 due to severe chronic pain from an autoimmune disease that affected his spine, making movement increasingly difficult. In his resignation letter to Pope Francis, he wrote: ?I believe that someone younger with more energy, stamina, and pastoral vision should take over.? He was replaced by Bishop William McGrattan.

Throughout his nearly two decades as bishop of Calgary, Henry remained committed to Catholic education, social justice, and evangelization. At the time of his retirement, Vancouver Archbishop J. Michael Miller described him as ?a hardworking, dedicated bishop who was never afraid to take a tough stand on a controversial issue.?

Henry?s funeral is being held Dec. 10 at St. Mary?s Cathedral in Calgary.

This story was first published by The B.C. Catholic and is reprinted with permission.

Archbishop Laurent Ulrich presides at the first Mass in the reopened Cathedral of Notre Dame on Dec. 8, 2024. / Credit: EWTN/Screenshot

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 9, 2024 / 15:10 pm (CNA).

The archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, on Dec. 8, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, celebrated the first Mass during which the altar of the restored cathedral was consecrated following the fire that ravaged the church in April 2019.

At the Eucharist, which was attended by the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, some 170 bishops from the country and from around the world concelebrated with Ulrich as well as one priest from each of the 106 parishes of the Archdiocese of Paris and one priest from each of the seven Eastern-rite Catholic churches.

The clergy wore chasubles designed by Jean-Charles Castelbajac, the 74-year-old Frenchman who was entrusted with the task and who has designed clothing for such celebrities as Madonna, Beyoncé, and Rihanna.

One of the bishops in attendance was the archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who was also present at the Dec. 7 opening ceremony.

In a post on X, Dolan said he was grateful to participate in the first Mass in the cathedral and highlighted the generosity of the many Americans who contributed to the restoration of the emblematic cathedral.

Before proceeding to the consecration of the altar, the relics of five saints ? three women and two men ? ?whose history is linked to the Church of Paris: St. Marie Eugenie Milleret, St. Madeleine Sophie Barat, St. Catherine Labouré, St. Charles de Foucauld, and Blessed Vladimir Ghika? were placed in a recess in it, according to the archdiocesan website.

The Parisian prelate then read the prayers for the consecration of the altar and anointed the entire altar with chrism (blessed oil), which he spread with his hands as the ritual requires. Five small containers holding lit coals were set on the corners and center of the altar and the archbishop then placed incense on them, releasing the fragrant smoke heavenward.  

After the containers were removed, deacons wiped off the excess chrism from the altar with towels and placed the altar cloth on the altar. Finally, altar servers placed six candles on the steps to one side of the altar and a priest placed one candle and a plain hammered metal cross on the altar itself.

In his homily, the archbishop of Paris proclaimed: ?This morning, the pain of April 15, 2019, is taken away,? adding that ?in a certain way, and even if the shock caused by the fire has been lasting, the pain was already overcome when prayer rose from the banks of the [River] Seine and from hundreds of millions of hearts throughout the world.?

After stating that he would soon consecrate the altar so that it may be ?the table of Christ?s sacrifice, the place where he gives his life for all,? Ulrich noted that ?the material chosen by the artist [for the altar], bronze, enters into a frank dialogue with the stone building.?

?And this altar block,? he continued, ?as if taken from the earth for the sacrifice, is prepared as a fraternal table for the Lord?s supper.?

The prelate then encouraged all the faithful present to not be simply ?dazzled by the rediscovered beauty of the stones, but let yourselves be led to the greatest joys, to the most beautiful gift that God gives you and gives us of his loving presence, of his closeness to the poorest, of his transforming power in the sacraments.?

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA?s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

A painting of Franciscan missionary Pedro de Gante with Juan Diego, whom the friar baptized along with Diego?s wife in 1525. / Credit: Jerónimo de Mendieta, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Dec 9, 2024 / 14:10 pm (CNA).

Many are familiar with the story of St. Juan Diego, whose feast is celebrated on Dec. 9 in the worldwide Church. However, the story of the Franciscan friar who baptized this beloved saint is less well known.

In 1521, Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortes defeated the Aztec empire, tore down the pagan temples, and in their place built Catholic churches. Franciscans were the first missionaries to arrive in the region and began their work sharing the Gospel with the native people in 1524.

One of the first three Franciscan missionaries to arrive in Mexico was Brother Pedro de Gante, also known as Pieter van der Moere. Originally from Ghent, Flanders (present-day Belgium), Gante was trained in the choral style of the low countries ? Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. He took this musical foundation to Mexico where he trained the Indigenous singers who worked at the cathedral in Mexico City.

Gante believed that education and religion should be natural parts to one?s everyday life. He studied the native language of the Indigenous people and was able to teach them in their own dialect as well as Spanish.

During this time, Juan Diego ? who was a member of the Chichimecas but lived in the region that was part of a vast Aztec empire ? and his wife began to attend Mass at the Church of St. Diego. In 1525, at the age of 50, he and his wife were baptized by Gante and took new names: Juan Diego and Maria Lucia. The two are considered one of the first native couples to be baptized in Mexico.

In 1526, Gante founded San José de los Naturales to teach Indigenous boys reading, writing, music, and the Catholic faith. The school also taught them Spanish artisanal skills, which led to many painters and sculptors helping adorn the many churches that were built.

The friar published ?Christian Doctrine in the Mexican Language? in Nahuatl, the Aztec language, in 1528.

Gante was never ordained a priest and remained a brother his entire life, dying on April 19, 1572, in Mexico City. 

This article was first published on Dec. 9, 2023, and has been updated.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops headquarters in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Farragutful, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Dec 9, 2024 / 13:40 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) on Monday launched a campaign urging Catholics to contact outgoing President Joe Biden and ask him to commute the death sentences of the 40 men currently on federal death row to life in prison. 

?President Biden has an extraordinary opportunity to advance the cause of human dignity by commuting all federal death sentences to terms of imprisonment and sparing the lives of the 40 men currently on federal death row,? the bishops wrote on a webpage that provides a contact form for Biden. 

The bishops of the United States have, as a body, been calling for an end to the federal death penalty since 1980 when they released a statement calling for its abolition, just a few years after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed executions to resume in the country. Biden, a Catholic, called for an end to the use of the federal death penalty as a candidate for president, but that marked a departure from his previous political positions and actions. 

The federal death penalty has been applied relatively sparingly since being reinstated in 1988. Just 16 people have been put to death by the federal government ? 13 during the first Trump administration ? compared with nearly 1,600 by the states.

In their 1980 statement, the U.S. bishops ?outlined concerns with the death penalty that remain relevant today,? the petition page notes, including that the death penalty ?extinguishes possibilities for reform and rehabilitation; the imposition of capital punishment involves the possibility of mistakes; the legal imposition of capital punishment in our society involves long and unavoidable delays; carrying out the death penalty brings with it great and avoidable anguish for everyone involved; and that capital punishment is carried out in an unfair and discriminatory manner.?

The USCCB petition follows a similar call last month from Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN), an advocacy group that opposes the death penalty, which urged Biden to commute the sentences before leaving office in light of the upcoming jubilee year in the Catholic Church. 

This is not the first time in recent years that the bishops have called for an end to the federal death penalty. In 2021, in the face of a rising number of federal executions taking place, the bishops called for an end to the federal death penalty and for Biden to commute federal death sentences to terms of imprisonment. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, reflecting a 2018 update promulgated by Pope Francis, describes the death penalty as ?inadmissible? and an ?attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person? (No. 2267).

The context for the bishops? most recent petition is the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, who strongly favors capital punishment and previously oversaw the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which resumed federal executions after a hiatus of more than 15 years, a decision that led to an outcry from many Catholics including the U.S. bishops. 

All told, 13 inmates were executed in the final six months of Trump?s first term, including Lisa Montgomery, who murdered Bobbie Jo Stinnett in Missouri in 2004 in order to steal her unborn baby. Montgomery was the first woman to be executed by the federal government in nearly 70 years. 

In July 2021, after Biden took office, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a moratorium on federal executions while the Department of Justice conducted a review of its policies and procedures to ensure the death penalty is being applied ?fairly and humanely.?

Despite overseeing the halting of new executions, the Biden administration has sought to uphold the death sentences of several prisoners already convicted, including the 2013 Boston Marathon bomber. 

The Biden administration also pursued the death penalty for the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooter, who was handed a capital sentence in 2023. The administration is also still actively pursuing the death penalty for Payton Gendron, the then-18-year-old man who in 2022 killed nearly a dozen Black shoppers at a Tops Friendly Market grocery store in Buffalo, New York. His trial is expected to take place during the next Trump administration.

null / Credit: Ariya J/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Dec 9, 2024 / 13:10 pm (CNA).

The provincial government of Alberta, Canada, is considering several possible regulations on euthanasia there in the face of growing popularity of the practice throughout the country. 

The government is actively seeking citizen input on ?oversight of medical assistance in dying [MAID],? with Alberta residents invited to offer input through Dec. 20 on a proposed new series of regulations.

Among the possible new regulations on which citizens can offer input are ?the creation of a new public agency and legislation to provide oversight? of the euthanasia program as well as ?limitations on criteria for MAID eligibility and on MAID as an option for patients.?

Also under consideration is ?the creation of a MAID decision dispute mechanism for families and eligible others? that would allow loved ones to argue against a family member?s being allowed to participate in the program.

Mickey Amery, the Alberta provincial minister of justice and attorney general, said in announcing the survey that euthanasia ?is a very complex and often personal issue and is an important, sensitive, and emotional matter for patients and their families.?

?It is important to ensure this process has the necessary supports to protect the most vulnerable,? the minister said, calling on Albertans ?who have experience with and opinions on MAID? to take the survey.

The government said it hopes to ensure that MAID regulations protect ?vulnerable Albertans, specifically those living with disabilities or suffering from mental health challenges.?

Alex Schadenberg, the executive director of the Ontario-based Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC), told CNA that while Canadian federal law guarantees access to euthanasia, ?provincial governments have jurisdiction over how it is implemented.?

?The federal law lacks effective definition; therefore provincial governments can add definition to the law,? he said.

By way of example he noted that federal rules require two doctors or nurse practitioners to approve euthanasia ?but the province can add an independent approval from the government to provide oversight.?

Assisted suicide in Canada has become increasingly popular since it was first legalized in 2016. Government statistics in 2022 indicated that MAID was the sixth-leading cause for death in Canada, with 13,241 ?MAID provisions? reported that year, accounting for 4.1% of all deaths nationwide.

In recent months and years concerns have been raised that euthanasia provisions in Canadian law are insufficient to protect vulnerable patients from taking part in MAID programs.

The government of Quebec recently began allowing euthanasia for individuals who cannot consent at the time of the procedure, permitting ?advance requests? for assisted suicide for those diagnosed with incapacitating illness such as Alzheimer?s disease.

Earlier this year a judge in Alberta ruled that a woman with autism could be granted her request to die by MAID, overruling efforts by the woman?s father to halt the deadly procedure.

In February, the Canadian federal government postponed until 2027 plans to expand its euthanasia program to include those suffering from mental illness after a parliamentary report said the country?s health system is ?not ready.?

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, ?intentional euthanasia, whatever its forms or motives, is murder? and ?gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and the respect due to the living God, his Creator? (No. 2324).

This teaching was reaffirmed in the 2020 Vatican document Samaritanus Bonus, and Pope Francis has spoken frequently against euthanasia and assisted suicide and in favor of palliative care.

Schadenberg told CNA that among its positions the EPC opposes MAID being associated with palliative or hospice care and that medical institutions should be permitted to opt out of providing MAID to patients.

 ?We opposed MAID being considered as a type of medical treatment,? he said.

?There is much that can be done but essentially we oppose killing people,? he added.

The Boston Children?s Museum is one of the participating museums in a program that provides free access to some of the city?s most famous museums twice a month to K?12 students ? including, in a recent policy change, Catholic school students. / Credit: Tim Pierce, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Boston, Mass., Dec 9, 2024 / 12:40 pm (CNA).

Boston?s mayor is planning to include students at Catholic schools in a program that provides free access to some of the city?s most famous museums twice a month ? a change in policy from earlier in the year.

Mayor Michelle Wu announced the shift earlier this week.

?If you?re a K?12 student and you live in Boston, you and two guests will be able to visit nine of Boston?s most iconic and inspiring spaces for free the first and second Sunday of every month,? Wu said in a video posted Wednesday.

The current program, which Wu announced in January, allows students in Boston public schools to visit six museums free of charge on the first and second Sunday of the month with up to three family members. But it excludes students in Catholic schools, home-schoolers, and other students not in the city?s public school system.

The new version of the program, called Boston Family Days, is scheduled to begin in early January 2025, which is an election year in the city.

The current free-Sundays program, estimated to cost $1 million, is funded partly by the city through federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 money and partly by donors, including Amazon, nonprofit foundations, and individuals. 

Each museum also contributes, because the funds provided by the city don?t cover the full admission fee, said Carole Charnow, president and chief executive officer of Boston Children?s Museum.

?It?s great news that the Boston Public Schools? Sundays program can be expanded to include all of the children of Boston, including Catholic schools, private schools, charter schools, and METCO,? Charnow told CNA by telephone Friday, referring to the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, which enables minority students to attend public schools in suburban towns. 

?And we are grateful to the mayor for her leadership in founding and developing this program, which brings all of the cultural riches of Boston to Boston schoolchildren, many of whom have not had the opportunity to visit before,? she said. 

Between Feb. 4 and Oct. 13 of this year, Charnow told CNA, 6,429 people visited Boston Children?s Museum through the city?s free public schools Sundays program, of whom 41% said they had never been to the museum before. 

She said Boston public schools contact every family in their own language every Friday before one of the free Sundays to invite them to participate. 

Other museums in the program are the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Franklin Park Zoo, the Museum of Science, the Institute of Contemporary Art, New England Aquarium, the Museum of African American History, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts. 

No Catholic school students at start 

Wu came under fire in some quarters earlier this year for limiting the free-museums program to public school students. 

Two members of the Boston City Council, Erin Murphy and Ed Flynn, introduced a resolution on Feb. 28 calling for the program to include ?ALL Boston families, regardless of what school their children attend.? The resolution noted that there are ?13,000 Boston children who attend charter schools, nearly 7,000 Boston children who attend parochial or private schools, more than 3,000 Boston children who attend METCO, and 273 Boston children are home-schooled.? 

?Let?s give them the same opportunity as every other family does. Why are they being penalized?? Flynn said during the city council meeting Feb. 28. 

There are more than 45,000 students in the Boston public schools, and Wu has argued that she needed to determine the cost of the free-admission program before considering expanding it to students who aren?t in the city?s school system. 

The mayor and all members of the Boston City Council are Democrats, but there are divisions. Wu and most of the city councilors are progressives, while Murphy and Flynn are often described as centrists. 

Flynn, son of former Boston mayor Ray Flynn, is widely seen as a possible challenger against Wu in the city?s September 2025 preliminary election for mayor. 

The mayor?s press office did not respond to a request for comment by deadline Friday. Neither did spokespersons for Flynn or Murphy. 

Catholics respond 

Eileen McLaughlin, superintendent of Catholic schools for the Archdiocese of Boston, thanked the donors and the mayor for including students in Catholic schools in the free-museums program next year. 

?The Archdiocese of Boston Catholic Schools Office is excited to celebrate the success of the initial pilot program and grateful to all of the benefactors who made it possible for the expansion of the program to include students in Boston Catholic Schools and to Mayor Wu and her team for recognizing Boston?s museums as a learning space for our students and their families,? McLaughlin told CNA on Friday by email through a spokesperson. 

C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, praised city councilors Flynn and Murphy for what he called ?their defense of the rights of Catholic school students in the city of Boston.? 

He called Wu?s decision this week to include students in Catholic schools and other students in the free-museums program ?a belated but nonetheless appropriate redress of an initial injustice.? 

Doyle noted that a majority of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court in recent years have tended to grant religious freedom claims, as the National Catholic Register, CNA?s sister news partner, reported in December 2022.

?At a time when the U.S. Supreme Court has found that the denial of neutral public benefits to the students and parents of religious schools is unconstitutional, the Wu administration?s exclusion policy was, at best, tone-deaf, and almost certainly, unlawful. It would not have survived a court challenge,? Doyle said in a written statement.

The new version of the museums program is scheduled to run from January 2025 until December 2026. To participate, families need to fill out an online form to receive a program pass from the city.

Pope Francis greets participants in the International Congress on the future of Theology promoted by the Dicastery for Culture and Education, Dec. 9, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

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. 

750 years after Sts. Thomas Aquinas and Bonaventure

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.?? 

Unlike ideology, theology does not ?flatten? reality  

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.

An ?all-male? theology is incomplete

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.?

Members representing Assam Christian Forum and CRI-NEI in India take part in a solidarity prayer meeting for restoration of peace in Manipur after ethnic violence at a school in Guwahati on June 24, 2023. / Credit: BIJU BORO/AFP via Getty Images

Bangalore, India, Dec 9, 2024 / 11:40 am (CNA).

The Christian leadership of Assam in northeast India has expressed ?deep concern over relentless attacks on the Christian community? in the state ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Assam Christian Forum (ACF) ?expressed shock, pain, and anguish over the relentless attacks on the Christian community, its institutions, and individuals over the past year,? the ACF said after a Nov. 28 meeting presided over by its chairman, Archbishop John Moolachira of Guwahati.

?We need protection against what is happening and urge the government to ensure the safety of the Christians,? Moolachira told CNA on Dec. 3.

The diverse concerns of the Christian community in Assam ? which accounts for nearly 4% of the state?s 35 million people ? were listed in the statement the ACF issued after the meeting involving a dozen key Christian church leaders.

The ACF lamented that there have been several attacks on Christian institutions ?demanding the removal of faith-revered statues and pictures.?

?This blatant disregard for religious freedom and tolerance is unacceptable,? the statement said. 

?Police conducting investigations against the church and individuals in [several] districts has created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation,? the organization said.

ACF also pointed to reported ?false and malicious accusations against the church? by a Hindu nationalist leader claiming ?that [the church] was behind drug dealing and supplying.?

?It is shocking that no action has been taken against him for hurting the sentiments of the Christian community,? the Christian leaders wrote.

Further, ACF noted, under the Magical Healing (Prevention and Evil) Act enacted earlier this year, ?innocent church personnel and believers have been harassed and booked for praying for the sick and their well-being or even helping the poor and marginalized to cope with their studies. This is a clear infringement of their constitutional rights.?

Allen Brooks, Catholic coordinator of ACF, pointed to last week?s arrest of a Christian under the dubious Magical Healing Act. ?Luckily, he was released on bail by the court,? Brooks said.

?Posters demanding a ban on Christian symbols continue to be pasted on the walls of schools here and there,? Brooks said.

?If the government had acted against the one who launched this demand, we would not have faced a situation like this,? noted Brooks, who served as chairman of the Minority Commission of Assam.

?Our problems have multiplied of late and the situation has become awful and Christians are living in fear,? he said.

Brooks called the effort to portray Christians as drug peddlers ?all part of a systematic campaign to terrorize and discredit Christianity.?

In February, meanwhile, the Hindu Kutumba Surakshya Parishad (Family Safety Council) indicated that religious institutions should strip many identifying religious features from schools. 

The ?dress of the fathers-sisters,? the ?installation of idols of Jesus Christ and Mother Mary and sign of the cross? and the installation of ?churches inside the campus of educational institutions? are ?exclusive religious practices,? the council said.

It ordered churches to ?remove all kinds of exclusive religious items from the campus of the school for maintaining the secular values of the country.?

The group also threatened ?to storm into [Christian] campuses without any hesitation if the missionary schools failed to comply with their demand.?

The ACF is appealing to the government ?to safeguard the constitutional rights of the Christian minority community and protect them from being targeted for their faith.? 

?We demand immediate action against those responsible for these attacks and false accusations,? it said. 

The Catholic Church in Assam, which numbers more than 600,000 faithful, runs over two dozen hospitals and dispensaries besides nearly 400 schools and other educational institutions in the state.

Bishop Hanna Jallouf, the apostolic vicar of Aleppo and head of the Latin Church in Syria, told ACI MENA ?we pray for a new dawn in this country.? / Credit: The Episcopal Committee for Consecrated Life in Syria

ACI MENA, Dec 9, 2024 / 11:10 am (CNA).

March 8 once marked the anniversary of the Ba?ath Party?s seizure of power in Syria in 1963, but optimism is now stirring as Christians in Syria look to a brighter future.

On Sunday, the Syrian government fell, ending the 50-year rule of the Assad family after insurgents, led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a rebel group with al-Qaida origins, gained more territory and entered the capital of Damascus.

In an exclusive interview with ACI MENA, CNA?s Arabic-language news partner, Bishop Hanna Jallouf, the apostolic vicar of Aleppo and head of the Latin Church in Syria, shared his reflections on what has just happened in the country. He admitted that he did not expect Aleppo to fall into opposition hands within hours or for the regime to be overthrown within just 10 days.

Speaking about the future of Christians in Syria, he said: ?Initially, we were afraid because this scenario was entirely unfamiliar. Thankfully, there have been assurances that Christians [will] remain an integral part of Syria?s social fabric, with commitments to work collaboratively in rebuilding our nation. We received guarantees that our churches and properties would remain untouched.?

?I hope that everyone receives their due rights. We have lived under oppression and suffering for many years. Many people died, many were displaced or imprisoned. Yet, we pray for a new dawn in this country,? Jallouf said Dec. 8. ?Let us not forget that today is the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and through the Virgin Mary?s intercession, we have reached this moment of joy. The bells of our churches rang out in Aleppo, and, for the first time in nearly 13 years, they rang again in Al-Quniya [Idlib].?

Jallouf addressed Syria?s new leadership and the international community.

?I pray that the Lord strengthens the future rulers as they work to build a new Syria. A nation that embodies its historical and cultural identity as the cradle of civilization and a beacon to the nations,? he said. ?The focus must be on rebuilding infrastructure and restoring essential services, especially access to water and energy resources.?

He continued: ?To the decision-makers around the world, I urge you to help us by reopening international roads and facilitating trade routes so that life can return to normal. I also call for lifting the economic sanctions on Syria. These sanctions have not affected those in power, who have access to everything, but they have devastated ordinary people. They have borne the brunt of this unjust burden. Finally, I appeal to major nations to support us in rebuilding our country, not to give us the impossible but simply to help us get back to square one.?

The bishop concluded with a message to Christians, urging them to cast off fear. 

?The sun of freedom has risen over Syria today,? he said. ?We are part of this nation and deeply rooted in it. Let us not forget that Christianity originated in this land, and it was here in Antioch that believers were first called Christians. To all our people, I say: Return to your homes and your work. Life must move forward. May the Lord bless and protect everyone and grant us leaders who can guide Syria to safe shores.?

This story was first published by ACI MENA, CNA?s Arabic-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

A bridge over the Mississippi River near St. Louis. / Credit: Checubus/Shutterstock

St. Louis, Mo., Dec 9, 2024 / 05:00 am (CNA).

?Immaculate? is not a word most people would use to describe the Mississippi River?s famously muddy waters. But Father Jacques Marquette was not most people.

The Jesuit explorer, who came from France as a missionary to Canada in 1666, was one of the first Europeans to name the Mississippi, which he explored and mapped with his companion Louis Joliet beginning in 1673. And the name he gave to this vital artery of North America was ?The River of the Immaculate Conception.?

The entrustment of this mighty waterway ? one of the largest and most important rivers in the world ? to the Virgin Mary was part of the French Jesuits? mission to evangelize the Native Americans of the area, which by all accounts they did, not with violence but with fellowship and respect.

French missionary activity in North America was driven by great devotees to Mary, like Marquette, who had a vision of the meeting of two civilizations ? European and Native American ? under the Catholic faith, rather than a conquest of the land, said James Wilson, a professor of humanities at the University of St. Thomas in Houston.

?They set out on their canoes entrusting themselves entirely to God?s grace, entrusting themselves entirely to Mary as the Immaculate Conception, and they didn?t seek to build lasting monuments to their conquests or to plant flags,? noted Wilson, author of a seven-part poem called ?River of the Immaculate Conception.?

?They sought primarily to enter as agents of grace among the Indians and to live with them, preach to them, and enter into communion with them.?

Of course, the Mississippi today bears its original, Native-given name, which roughly translates to ?great waters.? But Wilson said far from being a footnote in history, Marquette?s consecration of the Mississippi endures as a testament to how God?s grace was already working in North America. Nearly two centuries later, in 1846, the bishops of the now United States declared Mary, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, as the patroness of the country.

The church on Immaculate Conception River

Though forgotten by most, the ?River of the Immaculate Conception? endures in the memories of one community in particular: the congregation at the Immaculate Conception Chapel in Kaskaskia, Illinois. 

Kaskaskia was, at one time and in some ways, the center of the Mississippian universe. The now-tiny hamlet, located on the river, predates the historic riverside metropolises of New Orleans to the south and St. Louis to the north. Known at one time as the ?Grand Village,? Kaskaskia was a prosperous nexus of trade for Natives and French trappers alike. The town of 1,900 people was the logical ? and in some ways the definitive ? place for Catholic missionaries to use as their evangelical hub. 

Emily Lyons, the historian at the Immaculate Conception Chapel in Kaskaskia, told CNA that the church?s founder, Marquette, had an ?absolute devotion to the Immaculate Conception.? He entrusted anything and everything he could to Mary?s care.

Marquette founded the mission at Kaskaskia on Easter Sunday in 1675 and died later that year.

Since that time, the church dedicated to Mary in Kaskaskia has endured as a remarkable testament to God?s grace. Lyons said since the earliest days, when the church was a simple structure of upright logs, the congregation has ?worn out about five different buildings.?

The island on which Kaskaskia sits is extremely prone to flooding, and the church has had to be moved several times over the years. The current brick church dates to 1894 and endured significant damage in the major Mississippi floods of 1993. The next year, the Diocese of Belleville designated it a chapel. Today, the once-thriving village of Kaskaskia only has about two dozen residents.

Though no longer a parish, Immaculate Conception Chapel still attracts many visitors and worshippers. Lyons said every year on or around the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8, the community has a celebratory Mass whereby they sing Marian hymns translated into the Algonquin language. The liturgy has attracted many Native American Catholics over the years, she said.

The congregants also hold a procession and reenact a purported miracle that occurred at the church many years ago, whereby a young Native woman found lilies growing near the church ? despite the prohibitive winter cold ? and brought them inside as an offering for Mary.

God?s grace in America

Unlike the Spanish, whose conquest of North America was often marked by brutality, the French entered with ?relative peacefulness? and largely respected the humanity of the Natives, Wilson said. Many of the Natives were subsequently converted and incorporated Christianity into their way of life.

To meditate on this, Wilson said, is to reconceive of the United States not as a wild frontier later tamed by man but as ?a stage where God?s grace is the first actor.? The French Jesuits, through their devotion to prayer and to the devout life, were attuned to this reality, Wilson said.

?To consecrate the Mississippi River as the ?River of the Immaculate Conception? is not to plant a flag or to lay conquest. It?s rather to recognize that this vast, open continent must, objectively speaking, be defined primarily not by what any human being does but by the actions of God through his grace,? Wilson said.

?Even when Christians try to talk about history, they talk as though only humans have acted in history and don?t consider that God is always the primary author of every action, and God?s grace is the most dynamic agent of everything in history.?

This article was first published on Dec. 4, 2022, and has been updated.

Father Chris Alar, MIC, provincial superior of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy Province of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception. / Credit: Marians of the Immaculate Conception

CNA Staff, Dec 9, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception is ?key to everything,? according to Father Chris Alar, MIC, provincial superior of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy Province of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception.

Alar appears in the new Marian docudrama ?I Am the Immaculate Conception.? The film, produced and directed by Michal Kondrat in association with the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, will be released by Fathom Events in theaters on Dec. 12, 14, and 17. 

In the film, a variety of experts, in addition to Alar, analyze Greek texts of the Scriptures as well as the dogma of the Immaculate Conception to interpret and reveal Mary?s extraordinary role in God?s divine plan of salvation for the world.

?The Immaculate Conception is the key to everything. Everything. And it?s the least understood of almost all Catholic teaching,? Alar said in an interview with CNA.

The solemnity of the Immaculate Conception was established by Pope Pius IX in 1854 with the papal encyclical Ineffabilis Deus. In this encyclical, Pope Pius IX solidified the long-held belief by the Catholic Church that Mary was conceived free from original sin. She was granted this extraordinary privilege because of her unique role in history as the mother of God. 

?For centuries nobody questioned the Immaculate Conception. It was always a part of the Church from the earliest centuries,? Alar explained. 

He pointed out that even the fathers of the Protestant Reformation, including Martin Luther and John Calvin, all accepted the Immaculate Conception of Mary. 

?The only reason that sometimes we have defined dogmas is because of heresy, or if the culture starts rejecting a given truth that wasn?t defined as dogma but was always accepted. And the Immaculate Conception was always accepted and all of a sudden they started to sway away from that ?,? Alar explained. ?That?s why she [the Catholic Church] formally defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception ? to say this is the truth, no more swaying from it, no more rejecting it.?

Alar shared that the teaching on the Immaculate Conception is so important because ?Mary?s living proof that we can be holy and immaculate.?

?The Bible states that we all must become holy and immaculate,? he added. ?The Bible states nobody will enter into heaven that is not holy and immaculate. So, at some point, you and I and every other living human has got to become holy and immaculate or we do not have eternal salvation.?

The priest explained that God makes us holy and immaculate in one of three ways: After we die in purgatory or while alive, as is the case with canonized saints. The third way, Alar said, was done one time and it was done before the person was born ? this was the case with Mary.

?If God can do it after we die and he can do it in this life, which nobody argues, why in the world do we not think he has the power to do it before somebody?s born??

?And the reason he had to do that with Mary is because Mary could have no stain ever on her soul to be the vessel by which God came to this world,? he said.

While there are several passages in Scripture that defend this dogma, Alar highlighted one in particular ? Genesis 3:15.

?Genesis 3:15 says between the woman and the serpent there will be complete enmity. That means complete and radical opposition to each other,? he explained. ?If Mary had even the slightest stain of sin, even the tiniest little sin, that would mean she was at least partially under the sway of Satan. Whenever I sin or you sin or anybody sins, we are partially under the sway of Satan no matter how small ? If Mary had any sin, even original sin, that would mean she was at least partially under the sway of Satan. And if that?s the case, there would be a lie in Genesis 3:15.?

?It says complete and radical opposition. Complete meaning full. That?s what enmity means. So, if she had even the slightest stain of sin, there could not be complete enmity between her and the serpent ? So, it is scriptural.?

Alar said he hopes this docudrama will help spread the message about the dogma on the Immaculate Conception and that Catholics will fall ?in love with their faith? again.

?Catholics need to see this movie because if they don?t fully understand the importance of the Immaculate Conception, or they don?t fully love the Church with all their minds, souls, hearts, and strength, then they need to understand better why the Church teaches what she does and once they do understand it better, they?ll love their faith more.?

Cardinals follow the ceremony during the ordinary public consistory for the creation of new cardinals at St. Peter?s Basilica, Vatican City, Dec. 7, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

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, Stanis?aw Ry?ko, Joseph Coutts, Vinko Pulji?, 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.

Pope Francis? choices

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 geographical balance of the College of Cardinals

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.

Regional distribution

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.

National representation

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.

What would a possible conclave be like?

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 Praedicate Evangelium, 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.

Pope Francis gazes up at the bronze statue of Mary atop the 39.4-foot column at Rome?s Spanish Steps, Dec. 8, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

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.

?Rome is alive, renewing itself?

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.

The contemplative Sisters of the Monastery of Bethlehem in Livingston Manor, New York, support themselves by offering their hand-painted chinaware and other unique gifts for sale. / Credit: Monastery of Bethlehem

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 8, 2024 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Many monasteries and communities of religious brothers and sisters depend on proceeds from the sale of their products to sustain their lives of prayer and service. These days, most have online gift shops that will ship your purchases to arrive before Christmas.

Here?s a guide to some of our favorite handmade gifts to give and receive.

Fudge and candy

Trappistine Candy, Mount St. Mary?s Abbey: The nuns of Mount St. Mary?s Abbey in Wrentham, Massachusetts, have boxes of handmade fudge, chocolate, and almond brittle in stock, ready to send to your loved ones this Christmas. Each 1-pound box is $13, and for an extra 50 cents, the sisters will include a festive red bow.

Monk Bakery Gifts, Monastery of the Holy Spirit: Monks in Conyers, Georgia, make their famous fudge with premium chocolate and real butter. Try a 12-ounce gift box for $15. And for a taste of Georgia, try their Southern Touch fudge, ?made with real peach morsels, pecans, and a touch of peach brandy.?

Monastery Candy, Our Lady of the Mississippi Abbey: These contemplative nuns in Dubuque, Iowa, are known for their delicious caramels, which they make by hand to support their way of life. A 9-ounce box of chocolate-covered caramels sells for $15.55.

Monastery Creamed Honey, Holy Cross Abbey: The monks at Our Lady of the Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Virginia, support themselves financially through their own labor, a characteristic of the Cistercian Order?s way of life. Their 100% natural Monastery Creamed Honey, locally sourced in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, makes a great gift. A set of four 10-ounce tubs includes natural-, cinnamon-, almond-, and brandy-flavored honey and sells for $34.95. Add some delicious chocolate truffles to the order for a sure-to-be-appreciated Christmas gift.

Cookies

Clarisa Cookies, Capuchin Poor Clare Sisters: The Capuchin Poor Clare nuns make their famous butter cookies from their monastery in Denver. The ?Clarisas? come in a beautiful gift box featuring an image of St. Clare and sell for $18 for a 1.5-pound box.

Monks? Biscotti, Abbey of the Genesee: The Trappist monks of the Abbey of the Genesee have been baking from their monastery in western New York since 1953. As their website explains: ?The bakery supports the monastery?s primary mission, which is to pray for the world.? The twice-baked biscotti is a popular item, which makes a great gift basket when combined with monk-made coffee and a mug. A bundle of four boxes of biscotti in a variety of flavors sells for $33.99. 

Springerele Christmas cookies, Sisters of St. Benedict: The Benedictine religious sisters are known for their Springerele cookies, a traditional German treat with an ?Old World? charm. A package of six cookies, each bearing a different, intricate design, sells for $10. 

Coffee

Mystic Monk Coffee, Carmelites Monks of Wyoming Monastery: The Monks of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel live a cloistered life in the Rocky Mountains in the Diocese of Cheyenne, Wyoming. They help support themselves through Mystic Monk Coffee, which they roast in small batches. The website CoffeeReview.com ranks their coffee among the highest of the coffees it reviews. A 12-ounce bag of their most popular flavor, Jingle Bell Java, sells for $12.95 at the EWTN Religious Catalogue. Visit their website for more coffee selections.

Fruitcake

Brandy-dipped fruitcake, New Camaldoli Hermitage: With all due respect to your grandmother, this is not your grandmother?s fruitcake. The monks of New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, California, offer a fruitcake soaked in brandy and aged for three months. It ?has converted many a fruitcake ?atheist,?? according to its creators. Order a 1-pound fruitcake for $27.98.

Kentucky Bourbon Fruitcake, Monks of the Abbey of Gethsemani: At their monastery in New Haven, Kentucky, Trappist monks offer a 20-ounce Kentucky Bourbon Fruitcake along with a jar of Trappist Apricot-Pineapple preserves and a jar of Trappist Quince Jelly, which makes a lovely Christmas gift for $33.50.

Beer

Birra Nursia, Benedictine Monks of Norcia: In 2012, a community of Benedictine monks revived the order?s ancient beer-making tradition at their 16th-century monastery in Nursia, the birthplace of St. Benedict. Tragically, four years later, a devastating earthquake struck, seriously damaging their monastery and threatening their way of life. Today, their monastery is open again thanks to money raised in part from the beer they make and sell and export to the United States and elsewhere. Beer in 750-milliliter (25-ounce) bottles is available at their U.S. online store for $15.99 each.

Handmade Christmas-themed gifts

Christmas Boutique, Monastery of Bethlehem: The contemplative Sisters of the Monastery of Bethlehem in Livingston Manor, New York, support themselves by offering their hand-painted chinaware and other unique gifts for sale. This Christmas their online shop features several Christmas-related items that would make wonderful gifts. 

A beautiful hand-carved Nativity, made in the sisters? monastery in Mougères, France, includes Joseph, Mary, the baby Jesus, and a wooden manger, and sells for $110. This is a great value for a keepsake that is sure to be passed down from generation to generation. Or why not come bearing the gift of myrrh this Christmas with an attractive tin of imported incense ($56)? Also available: a pack of five Christmas greeting cards, hand-calligraphed by the sisters and duplicated on fine paper. Each card features a mystery of the lives of Jesus and Mary.

Gifts from the Holy Land

Holy Land gifts, Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land in America: The Franciscan friars based at their monastery in Washington, D.C., are dedicated to supporting and protecting the sacred sites and people of the Holy Land. They sell products made by artisans in the Holy Land to help their businesses so they can continue to live in the land of their forefathers. Among the gifts at the Holy Land gift shop are hand-painted ceramic candle holders made by a young artist in Bethlehem; olive wood Nativity sets, crosses, and rosaries; and olive oil soap. Visit the Holy Land Gift Shop here. 

Soaps and candles

Cloister Shoppe, Summit Dominicans: The nuns from the Dominican Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary in Summit, New Jersey, live a life of prayer through Eucharistic adoration and dedication to the rosary. To support this way of life they create handmade candles and skin-care products, which they sell at their Cloister Shoppe. Create your own Christmas gift bag of two bars of soap, a hand cream, a jar candle, a face moisturizer, and a handmade rosary made from olive wood beads from the Holy Land for $50. 

Throw in a pair of Bayberry Christmas Eve Tapers for $18 to give your holiday table a festive glow. 

Pope Francis prays the Angelus on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

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.?

A call to reflect on Mary

Pope Francis spoke about the Annunciation during his catechetical reflection on this Marian feast day, 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.?

Christmas spirit at the Vatican

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.

Pope Francis delivers the homily during Mass on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception in St. Peter's Basilica, Dec. 8, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

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 receiving their red hats at Saturday?s consistory.

The Mass honored one of the Church?s most significant Marian feasts, commemorating the dogma formally defined by Pope Pius IX in 1854 that the Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved free from original sin 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.?

Left to right: Father Timothy Gallagher, Archbishop Borys Gudziak, Archbishop Nelson Perez, Archbishop Alexander Sample. / Credit: SOCA

CNA Staff, Dec 8, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Several Catholic bishops and priests will join Catholic therapists, authors, and other experts later this month for a free online conference on mental health and prayer. 

The Divine Fulfillment Conference, to be held Dec. 27?29, ?is a first and perhaps only of its kind event,? conference spokesman Daniel Coleman told CNA. A lay apostolate based in Denver called Souls of the Christian Apostolate (SOCA) is organizing the conference. 

The conference?s goal, Coleman explained, is ?to move the needle on this epidemic of mental illness, first in the life of participants and then, God willing, to the people closest to them amongst family, friends, and greater community.?  

The conference will feature speakers ranging from archbishops to qualified mental health counselors, including Catholic therapist and author Bob Schuchts; Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, Oregon; and Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska.

Coleman called the Divine Fulfillment Conference ?a unique fusion and special opportunity.?

The idea for the conference began with an idea by SOCA?s founder, Kevin Roerty, who suggested that SOCA focus on mental health and mental prayer, ?two items that sorely need attention in today?s world and Church,? Coleman noted.

?When he made the suggestion it really resonated, and we held that in our hearts for quite some time and were delighted to later find out that Bishop [Robert] Barron and Archbishop [Borys] Gudziak in conjunction with the USCCB [U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops] called for a year to raise awareness of mental health,? Coleman said.

?In a world tending toward shallowness and despair that results from forgetting about God, there is one solution, one thing necessary: the interior life with God and the healing that brings to the depths of our souls,? Roerty told CNA. ?With the Divine Fulfillment Conference, our aspiration is to provide hope and healing to mental health through a perspective that incorporates deep prayer.?

SOCA offers a step-by-step guide and resources to prayer as well as remote and in-person accompaniment, Coleman explained. The group also offers check-ins and online group accountability, he noted.

?SOCA is dedicated to spreading the Catholic mystical tradition of interior life to as many Catholics as possible through a three-pillar approach that we have found great success in, initiating over 1,300 Catholics into deeper intimacy with Christ last year alone,? Coleman explained. 

The list of speakers includes Catholic authors Jason Evert, known for his work on chastity, and Father Timothy Gallagher, OMV, a Catholic priest known for his books on Ignatian spirituality. Other speakers include Deacon Ed Shoener, president of the Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers, and Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, psychiatrist and director of the Program in Bioethics and American Democracy at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. 

Several other archbishops and bishops are scheduled to speak at the conference, including Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Eparchy of Philadelphia; Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas; Archbishop Nelson Perez of Philadelphia; and Bishop Donald Hying of Madison, Wisconsin.

In addition to a long list of speakers, the conference offers practical guidance ?for mental and spiritual peace,? according to the press release. The conference will also provide contact information for professional mental health help as well as one-on-one discipleship opportunities in the months following the event.

Coleman called the Divine Fulfillment Conference ?a unique fusion and special opportunity.?

?The fruits have been outstanding,? he said. ?Greater peace, greater joy, vocations!?

For more information on the conference and to register, click here.