- A moral order has been broken, and clergy abuse survivors still quest for justiceAs we face a changing past, Jason Berry looks back on years of reporting on clerical abuse, and reflects on the influence of the beloved dead: a jazz-playing Jesuit, and Berry's daughter Ariel, whose radical innocence radiates. ... read more
- Is Pope Leo ‘based?’ The culture war compliment doesn’t quite fitThe pontiff had barely stepped onto the loggia wearing the mozzetta and papal stole before social media was ablaze with traditionalists claiming "we're so back." ... read more
- Amid ‘fragile’ ceasefire, Caritas seeks to ‘replant hope’ in Gaza this Christmas"We want to replant hope within the Christian community over here in the Holy Land," said Anton Asfar, secretary-general of Caritas Jerusalem. ... read more
- Pioneering Medical Mission Sisters celebrate 100 years of international healingSept. 30 marked the 100th anniversary of the Medical Mission Sisters, an international community of women whose outsized impact on the well-being of those made poor could be compared to the proverbial mustard seed. ... read more
- Tennessee faith leaders urge governor to stop all executionsAt a Dec. 8 press conference in Nashville, leaders noted that Pope Leo XIV — as well as his predecessors St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis — has expressed opposition to the death penalty. ... read more
- Prepare for Christmas by going to Confession, Pope Leo advises (CWN)At the conclusion of his December 17 general audience, Pope Leo XIV recommended Confession in preparation for Christmas and praised the custom of the Christmas novena. ... read more
- Pope Leo’s vision of ‘disarming peace’ [News Analysis] (CWN)“Peace exists; it wants to dwell within us,” Pope Leo XIV writes in his message for the 59th annual World Day of Peace. ... read more
- Bethlehem’s deputy mayor grateful for papal peace appeals (L’Osservatore Romano (Italian))Lucy Talgieh, the deputy mayor of Bethlehem, attended Pope Leo’s December 17 general audience and expressed gratitude for the Pontiff’s peace appeals. “In all of us there is the desire for an end to the armed conflicts that only cause pain and death,” Talgieh, a Catholic, told the Vatican newspaper. “We can only be ... read more
- Vatican newspaper highlights growing wealth inequality (CWN)In a front-page article in its December 17 edition, the Vatican newspaper highlighted rising global inequality in wealth. ... read more
- Vatican dicastery moves candidates toward beatification (Vatican Press Office)On December 18, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints issued a series of decreed, moving fifteen candidates forward on the bath to beatification. The decrees: certified a miracle attributed to the intercession of Enrico Ernesto Shaw, an Argentine layman who died in 1962; attested to the martyrdom of Ignacio Aláex Vaquero, a seminarian, ... read more
- Thursday of the Third Week of AdventThis is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,but before they lived together,she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man,yet unwilling to expose her to shame,decided to divorce her quietly.Such was his intention when, behold,the angel of the ... read more
- St. Thomas Aquinas—The Blessed Virgin, by becoming the Mother of God, …The Blessed Virgin, by becoming the Mother of God, received a kind of infinite dignity because God is infinite; this dignity therefore is such a reality that a better is not possible, just as nothing can be better than God. — St. Thomas Aquinas ... read more
- Dec. 18 December 18, O Lord and Ruler (O Adonai), WeekdayToday is the Second of the O Antiphons, O Adonai (O Almighty God/O Lord and Ruler). As Moses approached the burning bush, so we approach the divine Savior in the form of a child in the crib, or in the form of the consecrated host, and falling down we adore Him. "Put off the shoes ... read more
- Christian prelates ask Israel to allow treatment for Gaza children (Patriarchate of Jerusalem )The Christian leaders of Jerusalem have issued a petition to Israeli authorities, asking them to allow children in Gaza who are suffering from leukemia to be transferred to a hospital on the Mount of Olives for “specialized treatment that is only available to them there.” The petition, made public by the Latin-rite Catholic Patriarchate of ... read more
- Confirmed: Bishop Hicks to head New York archdiocese (Vatican News)Confirming widespread reports, Pope Leo XIV has named Bishop Ronald Hicks of Joliet, Illinois, to succeed Cardinal Timothy Dolan as Archbishop of New York. In a Vatican News interview, Bishop Hicks said: “All I want to do is God’s will, and however God moves me to be a leader in New York, I want to ... read more
