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Pope Francis speaks at his general audience Dec. 20, 2023, at Paul VI Hall at the Vatican. / Credit: Elizabeth Alva/EWTNRome Newsroom, Dec 20, 2023 / 11:25 am (CNA).Pope Francis on Wednesday spoke during his last general audience before Christmas on the importance of approaching the coming of Christ with "joy" and "amazement," noting that the first Nativity scene established by St. Francis of Assisi provides an important example for Catholics today. The pope opened by noting that this year marks the 800th anniversary of the first living Nativity established by St. Francis in the central Italian town of Greccio. "[St.] Francis doesn't desire to create a beautiful work of art," the pope said, "but through the Nativity scene to provoke amazement at the extreme humility of the Lord, at the hardships he suffered, for love of us, in the poor grotto of Bethlehem."Pope Francis uses a cane to enter Paul VI Hall at the Vatican for his general audience Dec. 20, 2023. Credit: Eli...
Jonathan Price, a member of Jimmy Lai's international legal team, appears on "EWTN News Nightly" with host Tracy Sabol on Dec. 19, 2023. / Credit: EWTN News NightlyCNA Staff, Dec 20, 2023 / 11:55 am (CNA).A lawyer representing embattled Catholic democracy activist Jimmy Lai said the Hong Konger is unlikely to receive a fair trial in the legal system that is now controlled by Chinese Communist Party authorities.Lai's trial in Hong Kong began this week. He was originally arrested in August 2020 under that year's controversial national security law, which was passed by China's communist-controlled government and sharply curtailed free speech in the region.Lai has been imprisoned for over 1,000 days under the law. He has been accused of colluding with foreign adversaries and conspiracy to defraud and is facing a possible life sentence.Jonathan Price, a human rights lawyer with the U.K.-based Doughty Street Chambers, which is representing Lai in international matters, told...
Gov. Gavin Newsom was awarded the 2023 "Ebenezer Award" after cancelling traditional holiday celebrations. / Credit: BecketWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 19, 2023 / 16:00 pm (CNA).California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom received this year's "Ebenezer Award" for being "the year's biggest Scrooge" after canceling the state's annual Christmas tree lighting festival and choosing to skip a menorah lighting ceremony."In canceling one of California's most cherished holiday traditions and skipping another, Newsom can rightly be dubbed the Governor who stole Christmas and Hanukkah," said Mark Rienzi, president and CEO of Becket, a law firm specializing in religious liberty cases involving all different faiths. "Each year the Christmas and Hanukkah season inspires a slew of outrageous offenses against the free exercise of religion," Becket said in a statement. This year, the 56-year-old California governor was "the most outrageous offender" against the spiri...
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris in New York City on Nov. 29, 2023. / Credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesCNA Staff, Dec 19, 2023 / 19:05 pm (CNA).Vice President Kamala Harris announced she will embark on a tour across the nation promoting abortion rights, beginning on the anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade next month. In focusing on abortion, the vice president's tour is set to advance what Biden-Harris reelection campaign communications director Michael Tyler told CNN will be the "central pillar of the campaign moving forward."Harris' "Fight for Reproductive Freedoms" tour, announced Tuesday, will include events focusing on the alleged "harm" of abortion bans. The tour is scheduled to begin in the battleground state of Wisconsin on Jan. 22, 51 years after Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide in 1973. Biden and Harris have vowed to "bring back" the now-overturned Roe v. Wade as the law of the land. The campaign rec...
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Catholic priest can bless a gay or other unmarried couple as long as it is not a formal liturgical blessing and does not give the impression that the Catholic Church is blessing the union as if it were a marriage, the Vatican doctrinal office said.The request for a blessing can express and nurture "openness to the transcendence, mercy and closeness to God in a thousand concrete circumstances of life, which is no small thing in the world in which we live. It is a seed of the Holy Spirit that must be nurtured, not hindered," the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith said in a formal declaration published Dec. 18.The document, "Fiducia Supplicans" ("Supplicating Trust") was subtitled, "On the pastoral meaning of blessings," and was approved by Pope Francis during an audience with Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, dicastery prefect, Dec. 18.In his introductory note, Cardinal Fernández said questions about a priest blessing a LGBTQ+ or other unmarried couple had...
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- With song, cake and circus performers, Pope Francis celebrated his 87th birthday in festive style at the Vatican. As in previous years, the pope spent his birthday Dec. 17 in the Paul VI Audience Hall with the children of those assisted by the Vatican's "Santa Marta" pediatric dispensary, which gives medical supplies to families in need. As soon as Pope Francis entered the room, one girl couldn't help but stand up and give the pope a hug. The children held up signs wishing Pope Francis happy birthday in Italian, sang to him and watched performers pull off acrobatic stunts, twirl plates and do tricks with hula hoops as the pope watched along laughing and applauding. Seated alongside him for the show was Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner."For being able to see you, so many girls and boys, everyone here, thank you," the pope said to the children. "We have to prepare for a big party which will be next week: Christmas, the party in which we think of and r...
WASHINGTON - In response to the Declaration "Fiducia supplicans" issued by the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith today, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) offered the following statement from its spokesperson, Chieko Noguchi, executive director of public affairs."The Declaration issued today by the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) articulated a distinction between liturgical (sacramental) blessings, and pastoral blessings, which may be given to persons who desire God's loving grace in their lives. The Church's teaching on marriage has not changed, and this declaration affirms that, while also making an effort to accompany people through the imparting of pastoral blessings because each of us needs God's healing love and mercy in our lives."###
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When St. Francis of Assisi staged the first Nativity scene 800 years ago, he did so to remind people of the powerful, awe-inspiring truth that God became human in Jesus, Pope Francis said.Nativity scenes are not simply works of art or folk art, the pope told hundreds of people involved in staging a live Nativity scene at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome Dec. 16.Dressed as angels, shepherds, the Holy Family and the townspeople of Bethlehem 2,000 years ago, the amateur actors met Pope Francis in the Vatican audience hall just a few hours before their performance began.When St. Francis staged a similar living Nativity in 1223, the pope said, he wanted "to represent in life the birth of Jesus to inspire in friars and in the people emotion and tenderness toward the mystery of God born of Mary in a stable and laid in a manger."The live setting, he said, was designed "to give substance to the representation -- not a painting, not statues, but people in flesh and...
St. Macartan's Cathedral in the Diocese of Clogher, in Northern Ireland. Laypeople will soon preside over funerals in 12 parishes in the diocese due to a shortage of priests. / Credit: JohnArmagh|Wikipedia|CC BY-SA 3.0CNA Staff, Dec 19, 2023 / 13:30 pm (CNA).More than 40 laymen and laywomen in the Diocese of Clogher in the north of Ireland will soon begin presiding over funeral liturgies amid a shortage of priests.A major vocation crisis could result in fewer than 10 active priests in the diocese in less than 20 years, according to the local ordinary, Bishop Larry Duffy."Over the past few months, over 40 people from 12 parishes across the diocese have taken part in a formation course to enable them to accompany people and families at the time of bereavement," Duffy, bishop of Clogher, announced in a Christmas pastoral letter Dec. 16.Other parishes have indicated a "willingness" to nominate people for a similar course in the spring, he wrote. In the letter, h...
Cardinal Seán O'Malley, Bishop Andrew Cozzens, and Cardinal Blase Cupich. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA and Diocese of CrookstonWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 19, 2023 / 15:30 pm (CNA).Several American Catholic dioceses have already issued statements on how they intend to implement new Vatican guidelines that permit nonliturgical pastoral blessings of homosexual couples, but it's still unclear what this will look like in most of the country.The Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a declaration on Monday titled Fiducia Supplicans, which allows "spontaneous" pastoral blessings for "same-sex couples" and other couples in "irregular situations."According to the document, nonliturgical blessings are "meant for everyone" and are available for those who "do not claim a legitimation of their own status but who beg that all that is true, good, and humanly valid in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed, and elevated by the presence of the Holy Spirit....
