Catholic News

  • Pope offers advice on confirming decisions prompted by Holy Spirit (Vatican Press Office)
    Continuing his series of catechetical talks on discernment, at his weekly public audience of December 7, Pope Francis offered some advice on confirming that a decision is prompted by the Holy Spirit. A good decision, the Pope said, will provide “a peace that last over time.” It will be “born out of gratitude for the good received.” And will give one “a sense of one’s place in life—that tranquility, ‘I am in my place.’” The Pope added that a decision prompted by the Holy Spirit will leave the prayerful Christian “remaining free with regard to what has been decided, being willing to question it, even to give it up in the face of possible denials.”
  • New book collects papal appeals for peace in Ukraine; Pope pens preface (Vatican News)
    Francesco Antonio Grana, the Vatican reporter for the Rome-based newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, has gathered the Pope’s appeals for peace in Ukraine in a new book, Un’enciclica sulla pace in Ucraina (An Encyclical on Peace in Ukraine). In his preface to the book, Pope Francis writes that “we men of God who proclaim the Gospel of the Risen One have the duty to cry out this truth of faith: God is a God of peace, love, and hope. A God who wants us all to be brothers, as His Son Jesus Christ taught us. The horrors of war, of every war, offend the most holy name of God. And they offend Him even more if His name is abused to justify such unspeakable carnage.”
  • US State Department cites 12 nations for 'particularly severe' violations of religious freedom (US Department of State)
    “I am announcing designations against Burma, the People’s Republic of China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, the DPRK [North Korea], Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as Countries of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom,” said Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. “I am also placing Algeria, the Central African Republic, Comoros, and Vietnam on the Special Watch List for engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom,” he added.
  • Council of Cardinals discusses COP27, Synod progress, protection of young people (Vatican News)
    At meetings on December 6 and 7, the Council of Cardinals discussed several different topics: the COP27 conference on climate change; the continental phase of the Synod on Synodality; and the work of the Commission for the Protection of Minors.
  • Dissidents in Russian-allied Belarus question Vatican's dialogue with authoritarians (National Catholic Reporter)
    Belarus, an Eastern European nation of 9.4 million (map), is 79% Christian (64% Orthodox, 11% Catholic). Its authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, assumed office in 1994.
  • War is a sign of weakness, Pope tells peace organization (Vatican News)
    “We have realized that the human family, threatened by war, runs a more serious danger: the lack of will to build peace,” Pope Francis said in an audience with Leaders pour la Paix [Leaders for Peace], a French organization founded by former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
  • Vatican appointee given police protection in India (UCANews)
    The prelate, Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, was recently appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Syro-Malabar Archeparchy of Ernakulam-Angamal, which is embroiled in a liturgical dispute.
  • Authentic synodality does not lead to divisions in faith and morals, Assyrian church leader says (Fides)
    The Fides news agency has interviewed Mar Awa III, the Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East. The church ceased to be in full communion with the Holy See following the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (431). Asked to comment on synods, the prelate said that authentic synodality “is more suitable to manifesting consensus around the depositum fidei [deposit of faith], and to guarding it together.” “An authentic synodal dynamic arises precisely from the fact that the bishops and all the baptized walk together in the same faith, and converge in seeking together the most suitable forms and practices to bear witness to the same faith in the present time,” he continued. “If the synodal dynamics express the path of the whole Church in the footsteps of the faith of the Apostles, they cannot be used to open divisions among the members of the Church on questions of faith or morals.”
  • New Jersey prosecutor drops charges for Red Rose Rescue (CNA)
    A state prosecutor in New Jersey has dropped criminal charges against four pro-life activists who entered an abortion clinic, presenting women with red roses and information about the effects of abortion. One of those who faced charges, Father Fidelis Moscinski, has federal charges pending against him, under the Freedom of Access to Clinics (FACE) Act, for a similar effort in New York in July.
  • Pope calls for joint approach to tackle challenges of Mediterranean region (Vatican News)
    “This Conference has the merit of relaunching the centrality of the Mediterranean, through the exchange of an agenda that is particularly rich in topics ranging from themes of geopolitics and security to the protection of the fundamental freedoms of the person, the challenge of migration, and to the climate and environmental crises,” Pope Francis wrote in his message to the Rome MED Dialogues Conference.
  • Indonesia bans sex outside marriage as parliament passes sweeping new criminal code (CNN)
    The Southeast Asian nation of 275 million (map), the world’s fourth most populous, has more Muslims than any other country. The nation is 80% Muslim and 12% Christian.
  • Argentine pastoral team laments treatment of indigenous (Fides)
    “It is with pain that we continue to see the high levels of ignorance, discrimination and racism that exist in society in general, reflecting a very negative image of indigenous peoples, expressed mainly in the media,” the Aboriginal National Pastoral Team of Argentina said at the conclusion of a meeting with the president of Argentina’s Episcopal Commission for Indigenous Pastoral Care. The team also spoke of “the violence and harshness with which those who defend their right to the territory and to live according to their vision of the cosmos are repressed.”
  • Theme of papal preacher's 1st Advent sermon: faith (Cantalamessa.org)
    Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap, the preacher of the papal household since 1980, customarily preaches sermons to the Pope and members of the Roman Curia on Fridays during Advent and Lent. Cardinal Cantalamessa is devoting his 2022 Advent sermons to the theological virtues. In his first sermon, he reflected on faith. the sections of his sermon are entitled “Christ, origin and fulfillment of faith,” “the challenge of science,” and “the righteous shall live by faith.”
  • Albanian president meets with Pontiff (Vatican Press Office)
    Pope Francis recently received President Bajram Begaj of Albania. The Southeastern European nation of 3.1 million (map) is 59% Muslim, 19% Orthodox, and 18% Catholic; Pope Francis made an apostolic journey there in 2014. Belgaj and leading Vatican diplomats discussed “the path of integration of Albania in the European Union and various regional and international issues, including the war in Ukraine and its impact in the Western Balkans,” according to a Vatican statement. “His Holiness Pope Francis is a great friend of Albania and Albanians!” Belgaj tweeted. We will be forever grateful to @pontifex for his role in pushing forward the religious harmony that exists in our country. Thank you, Your Holiness @pontifex, for being such a great force for peace and unity in times of conflict and divisions!”
  • Key witness manipulated in Vatican trial? (AP)
    The Vatican’s landmark financial trial has produced another stunning revelation: a key prosecution witness may have been manipulated by an adviser who was herself convicted in an earlier Vatican trial. The revelation that Msgr. Alberto Perlasca prepared his testimony with help from Francesca Chaouqui—who was convicted in connection with the 2016 “Vatileaks” scandal—has been followed by the release of text messages in which Chaouqui seems to be framing Peralsca’s testimony to suit her own purposes—reminding him at one point that “you owe me a favor.” Msgr. Perlasca, once regarded as a leading suspect in the criminal case involving the purchase of a London real-estate property, became a leading witness for the prosecution after he agreed to present evidence against Cardinal Angelo Becciu.
  • USCCB committee chair offers prayers, support for Indonesia following earthquake (USCCB)
    Bishop David Malloy of Rockford (IL), the chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, offered prayers and expressed solidarity with the Church in Indonesia following the West Java earthquake, which killed over 300 people.
  • Pope sets new accounting standards for Vatican foundations (Vatican News)
    Pope Francis has issued a new motu proprio setting accounting standards for foundations and corporations established by the offices of the Roman Curia. Because they are offices of the Holy See, the Pope writes, these institutions are “subject not only to the supervision of the curial institutions from which they depend, but also to the control and surveillance of the economic bodies of the Roman Curia.” The motu proprio gives the Secretariat for the Economy the authority to supervise the financial affairs of foundations and corporations established by the offices of the Roman Curia. These institutions, because they are semi-autonomous, had previously escaped careful scrutiny.
  • Catholic educators are sent on a common project at the service of humanity, Pope Francis writes (Vatican News)
    “When we approach education, we cannot do so thinking of something merely human, focusing the question on programs, training, resources, areas of reception, since the Christian vocation asks us to give voice to a Word that is not ours, that surpasses us, that transcends us,” Pope Francis wrote in an Italian-language letter to participants in the World Congress of Catholic Education, which took place in Marseille, France.
  • Pope: Keep the crèche in Christmas (CNS)
    “Roots and contemplation: the tree teaches us about roots, the Nativity scene invites us to contemplation,” Pope Francis said in an audience with the donors of the Nativity scene and Christmas tree in Saint Peter’s Square. “Let us not forget these two human and Christian attitudes,” the Pope continued. “And if we truly want to celebrate Christmas, let us rediscover through the Nativity scene the surprise and amazement of smallness, the smallness of God, who makes himself small, who is not born in the splendor of appearances, but in the poverty of a stable.”
  • French bishops create national canonical criminal tribunal (Église catholique en France)
    On December 5, the bishops of France installed a National Penal Canonical Tribunal that replaces all diocesan and interdiocesan tribunals in judging canonical offenses committed by clerics and laity. “Many people suffer from the slowness of canonical procedures because officialdom is often overwhelmed,” Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort of Reims, president of the Bishops’ Conference of France, said in spring 2021, when the bishops approved the court. “The creation of a national structure is also motivated by the difficulty of recruiting personnel for the existing offices.”
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