Pope Francis addresses pilgrims gathered for his general audience on Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Jesus Christ Our Hope’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Preparations for Christmas, prayers for peace

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

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

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

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

Blessed Martyrs of Compiègne were guillotined for their faith on July 17, 1794. / Photo illustration.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Who were the Martyrs of Compiègne?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other sainthood causes recognized

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the Vatican’s current doctrinal chief and principal drafter of “Fiducia Supplicans,” is shown during the Synod on Synodality at the Vatican, Oct. 9, 2023. / Credit: Edward Pentin/National Catholic Register

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spokane silence 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Highest percentage of same-sex couples 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Judgment calls 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, on Dec. 17, 2024, and has been adapted by CNA.

Pope Francis speaks with young men during a general audience. / Credit: Vatican Media

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pope Francis is presented with a birthday cake aboard the papal plane on the return from his trip to Corsica on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

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

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

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

Just this past Sunday, Dec. 15, he completed his 47th apostolic journey to the French region of Corsica to spend a full day with the Catholic faithful and take part in their cultural and pious traditions.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pope Francis meets with members of the Filipino community at the Vatican's Consistory Hall on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

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

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

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

Pope Francis meets with members of the Filipino community at the Vatican's Consistory Hall on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media

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

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

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

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

Pope Francis blesses a clergy stole while meeting with members of the Filipino community at the Vatican's Consistory Hall on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. Credit: Vatican Media

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pope Francis greets artists and participants of the 2024 Vatican Christmas Concert in the Clementine Hall on Dec. 14, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pope Francis meets with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the Vatican on Oct. 9, 2021. / Credit: Vatican Media

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In response to Pelosi’s comments in the National Catholic Reporter, the archbishop of San Francisco issued a statement Dec. 10 expressing his desire to speak with the politician.  

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

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

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

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

Pope Francis blessing a baby during a general audience. / Credit: Vatican Media

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Statue of St. Lucy at the New Chapel of St. Lucy in Pampanga province, Philippines. / Credit: Judgefloro, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘We need women’s work and word in the Church’

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

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

Being on the side of light exposes us to martyrdom

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

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

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

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

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

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

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