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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Exchanging Christmas gifts and organizing holiday parties are all well and good, but Christians should contemplate the scene of Jesus' birth to recover what is truly important during the Christmas season, Pope Francis said.At his weekly general audience Dec. 20, just five days before Christmas, the pope told people that "the risk of losing what matters in life is great, and paradoxically increases at Christmas.""The atmosphere of Christmas is changing," he said. "It's true, if people want to give presents, that's good, but with the frenzy of shopping, 'go, go, go,' this pulls one's attention somewhere else, and there is not that simplicity of Christmas."For people caught up in the holiday rush, "there is no interior space for wonder" before the mystery of Jesus' birth, but "only to organize parties," he said.Organizing parties is fine, "but with what spirit do I do that?" he encouraged people to ask.After a band performed Christmas songs using traditional woode...
Pope Francis gives his annual Christmas address to the cardinals who work in Vatican offices on Dec. 21, 2023, in the gilded Hall of Benediction at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican MediaRome Newsroom, Dec 21, 2023 / 11:13 am (CNA).Pope Francis warned the Roman Curia on Thursday that "rigid ideological positions" can be an obstacle to "moving forward."In his annual Christmas address to the cardinals who work in Vatican offices on Dec. 21, the pope underlined that it is important to "keep faring forward, to keep searching and growing in our understanding of the truth, overcoming the temptation to stand still.""Let us remain vigilant against rigid ideological positions that often, under the guise of good intentions, separate us from reality and prevent us from moving forward," Pope Francis said.Pope Francis gives his annual Christmas address to the cardinals who work in Vatican offices on Dec. 21, 2023, in the gilded Hall of Benediction at the Vatican. Credit: Vatican MediaThe pope'...
The Missionaries of Charity convent located on the compound of Holy Family Parish, the only Catholic church in Gaza, was damaged by rocket fire on Dec. 16, 2023. / Credit: Latin Patriarchate of JerusalemJerusalem, Dec 20, 2023 / 17:20 pm (CNA).On Sunday, Dec. 17, the third Sunday of Advent, mother and daughter Nahida and Samar Anton, who were killed at Holy Family Parish in Gaza, were laid to rest in the small cemetery located within the parish compound. A statement from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem released the evening of their deaths, Dec. 16, reported that they were killed by an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sniper, though the IDF has denied responsibility.Nahida Anton and her daughter Samar Anton were killed as they were walked to the Missionaries of Charity convent in the compound of Holy Family Parish in Gaza on Dec. 16, 2023. Credit: Father Gabriel Romanelli/FacebookOn the same Saturday, rockets were reportedly fired from an IDF tank and hit the convent of the Siste...
A liturgy at St. Mary's Syro-Malabar Major Archiepiscopal Church, Arakuzha, India. / Achayan via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Bangalore, India, Dec 20, 2023 / 17:50 pm (CNA).Tensions are rising within the Syro-Malabar Church in the Indian state of Kerala as the Vatican's Dec. 25 deadline for priests to implement a "universal" liturgy or face possible excommunication fast approaches. Ahead of the deadline, a number of priests have publicly protested a mandate to institute a uniform Mass and have urged the Vatican to take into account the way they have celebrated the liturgy for the past 60 years."We are not against the pope or the Synod [of Bishops] but our request is only to do justice to our archdiocese with 650,000 faithful, 464 priests, and thousands of religious," Father Kuriakose Mundadan of the Ernakulam Archdiocese told CNA.Facing the people vs. facing EastThe Syro-Malabar Church is one of the 23 autonomous Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with Rome. The Euch...
null / Credit: lunamarina/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 20, 2023 / 18:10 pm (CNA).Catholic bishops around the world are deeply divided on a Vatican declaration that permits nonliturgical blessings of homosexual couples: some bishops are welcoming the news, some are approaching it with caution, while others are outright refusing to implement it.In some countries, including Austria, Germany, and France, many Church leaders have warmly embraced the new guidelines on blessings. The heads of the bishops' conferences in both Germany and Austria have suggested that priests cannot refuse to perform blessings for homosexual couples. Church leaders in other countries, namely the United States, the Philippines, Ukraine, Ghana, and Kenya, have mostly accepted the declaration but are also urging caution in its implementation. This, they say, is to avoid any confusion that would lead people to incorrectly believe the Church permits homosexual activity.Alternativel...
Bishop José Ignacio Munilla of Orihuela-Alicante, Spain. / Credit: Archdiocese of ValladolidACI Prensa Staff, Dec 20, 2023 / 18:30 pm (CNA).The bishop of Orihuela-Alicante in Spain, José Ignacio Munilla, is focusing on the implications of pastoral charity involved in blessing couples in irregular affective situations.The prelate shared his views on X, shortly after the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released its Dec. 18 declaration, titled Fiducia Suplicans, on the pastoral meaning of blessings.Munilla said that "pastoral charity is a call that we may bless all sinners but not to bless [their] sin," noting that "this was how Jesus of Nazareth acted, who 'blessed' (spoke kindly to) the sinful woman whom they wanted to stone, but that did not mean that he blessed her relationships. ("Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more" (Jn 8:11).The Spanish bishop explained that "the Gospel invites us to bless all who open themselves to the gift of God, including those who live...
A migrant carries a baby in the Darien Province in Panama on Sept. 22, 2023. More than 390,000 migrants have entered Panama through this jungle so far this year. / Credit: Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty ImagesACI Prensa Staff, Dec 20, 2023 / 18:50 pm (CNA).Pope Francis has called for a "humanitarian response" to the tragic reality of mass migration through the Darien Gap, the jungle region between Panama and Colombia that migrants seek to cross with the ultimate goal of reaching the United States.The pontiff expressed his concern at the end of the Angelus in St. Peter's Square on Dec. 17. "Today I want to remember the thousands of migrants who try to cross the Darien jungle between Colombia and Panama. They are often families with children who venture down dangerous paths, deceived by those who falsely promise them a short and safe route," he said.Pope Francis decried the fact that these migrants are "mistreated and robbed" and "not a few lose their lives in that jungle.""We ne...
Members of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM). / Credit: ECMACI Africa, Dec 20, 2023 / 12:50 pm (CNA).Bishops in Malawi have prohibited the implementation of the Vatican declaration on the blessing of "same-sex couples" and couples in other "irregular situations," Fiducia Supplicans, which the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) released Dec. 18.In a two-page statement dated Dec. 19, members of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) offered "clarification on the declaration on the pastoral meaning of blessings, Fiducia Supplicans" and stated that they prohibit the practice of such blessings in the southern African nation."We direct that for pastoral reasons, blessings … for same-sex unions of any kind are not permitted in Malawi," ECM members said in their collective statement.The Church leaders' directive prohibiting the blessings "for same-sex unions of any kind" in the country follows a four-point clarification of the latest Vatican declaration.The bishops ...
null / Credit: Mike Labrum / UnsplashACI Prensa Staff, Dec 19, 2023 / 18:00 pm (CNA).On Dec. 28, the day when the Catholic Church commemorates the feast of the Holy Innocents, Spanish-speaking cities in Latin America and Spain will join together in the "Light Up Life" campaign, an initiative that advocates for the defense of life from conception and the preservation of the innocence of children.The campaign, called by various pro-life organizations including the National Front for the Family and 40 Days for Life, encourages people to take action with a message on social media: "You don't abort a child, you don't sexualize a child, you don't indoctrinate a child… Children are sacred!""We will gather in the streets and squares of many countries and light a candle for the innocent aborted children. We will gather as sentinels of life, with candles lit, because as on that night of times past, Herod continues killing innocent children... Herod today is the genocide of abortion," the...
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...
