- Pope venerates Mary Immaculate, prays for jubilee year, Rome's mayor (Aleteia)
Following longstanding custom, Pope Francis left the Vatican on the afternoon of December 8 and traveled to the Piazza di Spagna in Rome, where he offered an act of veneration to the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Column of the Immaculate Conception (video).The Pope’s prayer to Mary Immaculate included references to the 2025 jubilee year. Nearly a year after his public reprimand of Rome’s mayor over the city’s deficient functionality, the Pontiff expressed satisfaction that there are “construction sites everywhere in the city” and prayed for him: Here, the Mayor is preparing so that everything during this commemoration, in this Holy Year will turn out well. We pray for the Mayor, who has so much work. - Pope rues male-dominated culture as he praises women who fight hunger (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Francis received leaders of Manos Unidas, the Catholic Committee of the Campaign against World Hunger, and encouraged them in their work against world hunger.Recalling that the organization was established in 1959 by the women of Catholic Action in Spain, the Pope described the Virgin Mary as “ the quintessential Woman” and added: With this male-dominated culture, we are used to seeing women, not as the dog or cat of the house, but as a second-class human being, and we forget that it is women who run the world and —some say —they are the ones who are in charge. But that’s fine. But the woman who runs a family, who runs the villages, who is close to the needs, that rich sensibility of women.“Mary, with her heart rooted in God, continues to be attentive to the needs of her children, urges us to go out towards them and to bring them the Lord’s consolation,” he continued. “She is the fully realized model for our humanity, through which, with God’s grace, we can all contribute to improving our world. This is what you try to do, thanks to your characteristics and your intuition and reality as mothers, daughters, wives, and mothers-in-law.” - Sistine Chapel Choir's former director found guilty of embezzlement (CNS)
A Vatican court has found Father Massimo Palombella, SDB, the former director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, guilty of embezzlement and has sentenced him to three years and two months in jail.The court also rendered guilty verdicts against Michelangelo Nardella, the choir’s former business manager, and his wife, Simona Rossi. The former received a jail sentence of four years and eight months; the latter, a sentence of two years.Palombella was the choir’s director from 2010 to 2019, when he resigned amid a financial investigation. - Papal encouragement for Human Economic Forum (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Francis offered his encouragement to the Human Economic Forum, a new organization that aims for a more human model of economic development.“The pursuit of a sustainable and integral human development is critical for ensuring and promoting the universal common good,” the Pope said during the December 11 audience. “For this reason, it is essential to place the human person at the heart of all our concerns and activities.”The Pope also called for “constant attention” to “the dignity and integral development of concrete persons in efforts to combat poverty, restore dignity to the excluded, and care for our common home.” - Notre-Dame Cathedral reopens, 5 years after fire (AP)
The Cathedral Basilica of Notre-Dame de Paris reopened on December 7, five years after a devastating fire. Archbishop Laurent Ulrich presided at the first Mass in the reopened cathedral on the following day (videos).“We all still remember the terrible fire that seriously compromised the building five years ago,” Pope Francis wrote in a message, dated November 21 and released December 7.“Our hearts ached at the risk of seeing a masterpiece of Christian faith and architecture, an age-old witness to your national history, disappear,” the Pope continued. “Today, sadness and mourning have given way to joy, celebration and praise.”After thanking the firefighters, craftsmen, and public officials, the Pope added: May the rebirth of this admirable church be a prophetic sign of the renewal of the Church in France. I invite all the baptized who will joyfully enter this Cathedral to feel a legitimate sense of pride, and to reclaim their faith heritage. - Syrian prelates urge prayers for safety (Fides)
The Christian leaders of Syria have asked for prayers for their people, amid uncertainty about the future after the fall of the Assad regime. Presiding at Mass on December 8, Syrian Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joussif III Younan prayed that “this phase of transition in Syria may be safe and peaceful.” He observed that Syria has been suffering for year through “a terrible war, whose security and economic impacts have been terrible for everyone.” Syrian Orthodox Patriarch Mor Ignatios Aphrem II also prayed for peace, and for a new regime “respecting Syria’s cultural identity and long history.” Syria’s Christians are uneasy about their prospects under a government whose most prominent leaders were important figures in the Islamic State. - Walk in the path of Jesus, Pope Francis tells 21 new cardinals (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Francis presided at an ordinary public consistory for the creation of 21 new cardinals from 17 nations on December 7 (video).In his homily during the consistory, which the Vatican website inaccurately described as a “papal Mass,” Pope Francis emphasized that “to walk in the path of Jesus means above all to return to him and to put him back at the center of everything.”“To walk in the path of Jesus also means to cultivate a passion for encounter,” he continued in his homily, which lasted slightly over ten minutes, just days after he urged priest to keep a tight ten-minute limit on homilies. “To walk in the path of Jesus means, in the end, to be builders of communion and unity.”Among the cardinals participating in the consistory was Cardinal Angelo Becciu (video, 1:02:40), four years after he renounced the rights connected with the cardinalate, and a year after his conviction in the Vatican’s “trial of the century.”There are now 253 members of the College of Cardinals, 140 of whom are eligible to take part in a papal election. - Papal homily: Mary was daughter, bride, and mother (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Francis presided at Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on December 8. Members of the College of Cardinals were present at the Mass, including new cardinals created the previous day.“Let us pause for a moment to contemplate Mary’s beauty in the light of the Word of God, focusing on three aspects of her life that remind us of her closeness to us,” the Pope preached. What are these three aspects? Mary as daughter, bride and mother.”After reflecting on these aspects, he added: Brothers and sisters, let us look to Mary Immaculate and ask her to conquer us through her loving Heart. May she convert us and make us a community in which filial, spousal and maternal love may be a rule and criterion of life.Only then will families be united, will spouses truly share everything, will parents be physically present and close to their children and children will take care of their parents. That is the beauty we see in the Immaculate Virgin; that is the “beauty that saves the world.” - Papal Angelus address: Place your hope in God, as Mary did--and go to Confession (Vatican Press Office)
During his Sunday Angelus address on December 8, Pope Francis encouraged pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square to place their hope in God, as the Virgin Mary did. He concluded with a “piece of advice”: to go to Confession.After reflecting on Immaculate Mary, the Pope asked: Brothers and sisters, contemplating this mystery we can ask ourselves: in our time, ravaged by wars and bent on the effort to possess and dominate, where do I place my hope? In strength, in money, in powerful friends? Do I place my hope there? Or in God’s infinite mercy? And in the face of the shiny false models circulating in the media and on the internet, where do I look for my happiness? Where is the treasure of my heart?“Let us implore the intercession of Mary,” he concluded. “And I will give you a piece of advice. Today it is a good day to decide to make a good Confession. If you cannot go today, this week, until next Sunday, open your heart and the Lord will forgive everything, everything, everything. And so, in Mary’s hands, we will be happier.” - Pontiff urges new approaches to theology (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Francis expressed a desire “that theology help to rethink how to think” in a December 9 address to an international conference on the future of theology, being held at the Pontifical Lateran University this week. The Pontiff called for “a wide-ranging imagination and thinking” in theology, contrasting that approach with “a shriveled, closed, and mediocre way of thinking.” He decried the theological manuals of the past: “all closed, all museum pieces, all bookish, without making you think.” Pope Francis applauded the greater representation of women in theological studies. “All all-male theology is an incomplete theology,” he said. “We still have a long way to go in this direction.” He also encouraged cross-disciplinary approaches to theology. And he remarked that many middle-aged people today are taking an interest in theological studies: an interest that should be encouraged. - Pope urges Biden: commute all death sentences (Vatican News)
Pope Francis has suggested that outgoing US President Joe Biden should commute the death sentences of all prisoners on death row. Without mentioning Biden explicitly, the Pope said during his Angelus audience on December 8: “I feel compelled to ask all of you to pray for the inmates on death row in the United States. Let us pray that their sentences may be commuted or changed.” President Biden is expected to issue a number of pardons before leaving office on January 20. - Murders mount in Haiti; bishops plead for peace (Fides)
“Stop these cruel acts,” the Catholic bishops of Haiti exhorted gang leaders, as the country descends into anarchic violence. According to the UN human-rights commissioner in Haiti, at least 184 people were murdered in the capital city of Port-au-Prince during the past weekend alone. The total number of killings in Haiti this year is over 5,000. More than 100 murders were reportedly ordered this week by a gang leader in the sprawling slum of Cite-Soleil; the gang targeted suspected voodoo practitioners. - Papal encouragement to diplomats to address climate change, other problems (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Francis received new ambassadors from 11 nations on December 7 and said that international diplomacy is called to address the “problems that affect the entire human family.”He explained, “I think of the continued devastating effects of climate change, which especially impact developing nations and the poorest members of society, the armed conflicts that cause untold suffering to so many of our brothers and sisters, and the plight of countless migrants and refugees fleeing their homelands in search of a better future for their families.”“Every country must have a voice in addressing these problems of international concern and formulating comprehensive and long-term solutions,” the Pope continued. “In this regard, the patient work of diplomacy is of the utmost importance.”The new ambassadors hail from India, Jordan, Denmark, Luxembourg, São Tomé and Principe, Rwanda, Turkmenistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, and Kenya. - All Christians are called to evangelize, Pope tells Carmelite sisters (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Francis received members of the Carmelite Sisters, Messengers of the Holy Spirit, a Brazilian women’s religious institute that is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its founding. In the institute, said the Pope, evangelization “is closely linked to contemplation and a life of prayer, following the ancient and beautiful Carmelite tradition.”“This is a good opportunity to remind ourselves of the daily commitment to the service of evangelization and the propagation of the Word of God,” the Pope said on December 6. “The Word of God must reach everyone. Do not forget this: everyone.”“Indeed, proclaiming the Gospel to the entire world is the mission of all Christians,” the Pope added. “[These] are the words of Saint Paul, which should resound in the heart of every baptized person: ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!’” (1 Cor 9:16). - Nicaragua's nuns to face exile? (Pillar)
Catholic women’s religious orders could face expulsion from Nicaragua, as the Ortega regime continues to escalate its offensive against the Church. Nicaraguan law allows the government to close down religious organizations, and the regime has used that power to shutter Catholic charities and media outlets. The Pillar reports that religious orders have been warned that residency permits for foreign-born members will not be renewed. That policy, if put into effect, would effectively close down some religious communities. - Vatican's Christmas tree was cut down ecologically, Pope says (Vatican Press Office)
The Vatican’s Christmas tree was “cut down with respect for the ecological principles of the natural replacement of the forest,” Pope Francis said in a December 7 address to donors of the Christmas tree and Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square.Residents of the small town of Ledro in northern Italy had gathered around the 95-foot, 200-year-old tree in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent it from being cut down.After reflecting on the Nativity scene, which features a lagoon, the Pope turned his thoughts to Bethlehem.“Let us remember the brothers and sisters who, instead, right there and in other parts of the world, are suffering from the tragedy of war,” he said. “With tears in our eyes, let us raise our prayer for peace. Brothers and sisters, enough war, enough violence!” - Italian nun denies charges of organized-crime involvement (Pillar)
An Italian religious, Sister Anna Donelli, was arrested last week and charged with acting as a messenger for leaders of the ‘Ndrangheta crime network in northern Italy. Sister Donelli, who serves as a volunteer in a Milan prison, denied the charges. - Slovak leader meets with Pontiff (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Francis met on December 9 with Slovakia’s President Peter Pellegrini. The Vatican reported that their conversation centered on church-state issues, but also touched on the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. - Vatican concert with the poor is 'beautiful sign of synodal harmony': papal address (Vatican Press Office)
In an address to the organizers and artists of the Vatican’s annual Concert with the Poor, Pope Francis said that “a concert is a beautiful parable, a parable of harmony, of the synodal harmony that the Church is striving to live more fully.”“This Concert with the Poor that you will perform today is a beautiful sign of synodal harmony, especially because it will take place in communion with our most fragile brothers and sisters, invited to take part in this wondrous symphony of love that is the Gospel,” the Pope continued.Both the papal address and the concert took place on December 7. Among those participating in various ways in the concert were Maestro Hans Zimmer, cellist Tina Guo, composer Dario Vero, and actress Serena Autieri. 3,000 out of the 8,000 seats in Paul VI Audience Hall were reserved for the poor, the homeless, prisoners, migrants, and others. - Former queen's chaplain urges King Charles to abdicate (YouTube)
Dr. Gavin Ashenden, who once served as Anglican chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II, has suggested that King Charles should step down from the throne, since the king “thinks political correctness is loathsome and the Church of England is all bunkum.” “Charles, save your soul,” said the former Anglican cleric, who entered the Catholic Church in December 2019. “Become Orthodox, become Catholic, and hand that whole mess over to people who thrive on pantomime and fakery.”