St. Mary Our Lady of the Rosary

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of Health and Human Services, arrives for meetings at the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Dec. 16, 2024, in Washington, D.C. / Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 18, 2024 / 17:50 pm (CNA).

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is reassuring Republican senators that he will back certain pro-life policies if the Senate confirms him to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

In November, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump nominated Kennedy to serve as the United States secretary of the HHS, a position that requires Senate confirmation. HHS oversees 10 agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Kennedy is a former Democrat. He ran for president as an independent in 2024 before dropping out and endorsing Trump. 

Although Kennedy has supported legal abortion for his entire public career, he told pro-life senators in closed-door meetings that he would oppose taxpayer funds for abortion domestically and abroad and restore conscience protections.

“Today I got to sit down with [Kennedy] — we had a substantive discussion about American health care … [and] a good discussion, at length, about pro-life policies at HHS,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, said in a series of posts on X.

According to Hawley, Kennedy told him that, if confirmed, he would reinstate the Mexico City Policy, which ends federal funding for overseas organizations that promote abortion. Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy during his first term and said in an October interview with EWTN News that he would consider doing so again in a second term.

Hawley said Kennedy’s plans include “ending taxpayer funding for abortions domestically” and ”reinstating the bar on Title X funds going to organizations that promote abortion.” He said that Kennedy also “pledged to reinstate conscience protections for health care providers.”

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, told reporters that he and Kennedy also talked about abortion, saying: “The big thing about abortion is that he’s telling everybody … whatever President Trump [supports], I’m going to back him 100%.” 

“Basically, [Kennedy] and President Trump have sat down and talked about it and both of them came to an agreement,” Tuberville said. “Roe v. Wade is gone, [abortion has] gone back to the states. Let the people vote on it.” 

Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, told reporters that Kennedy told him he “serves the will of the [incoming] president of the United States and he’ll be pushing his policies forward.”

“[Kennedy’s] first thing is [that] we have too many abortions,” Mullin said. “... His follow up to that is [that he is] serving at the will of the president of the United States. … I think that should clear up that question for anyone.”

Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, said in a post on X that he also spoke with Kennedy about abortion. 

“I had a productive discussion with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this evening about the future of our nation’s health care system, preventing taxpayer-funded abortion, and Americans’ long-term well-being,” Scott said. 

During his independent presidential campaign, Kennedy first endorsed abortion in all stages of pregnancy, including late-term abortion. He later retracted that position and said he would back restrictions at the point of fetal viability. 

Kennedy also said during his campaign that he would support a “massive subsidized day care initiative” to reduce abortion without limiting legal access.

No word on chemical abortions

Tuberville, however, said that he did not speak with Kennedy about chemical abortions, which are regulated by the FDA. Trump himself has said he will not restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone. Chemical abortions account for about half of all abortions in the country. 

The FDA first approved mifepristone to be used in chemical abortions in 2000. Under current law, the drug is approved to abort an unborn child up to 10 weeks’ gestation, at which point the child has a fetal heartbeat, early brain activity, and partially developed eyes, lips, and nostrils.

Mifepristone kills the child by blocking the hormone progesterone, which cuts off the supply of oxygen and nutrients. A second pill, misoprostol, is taken between 24 to 48 hours after mifepristone to induce contractions meant to expel the child’s body from the mother, essentially inducing labor.

Pro-life advocates have been urging the incoming administration to restrict abortion drugs. Many activists have argued that the executive branch could prohibit the delivery of abortion drugs in the mail by enforcing the Comstock Act — a plan that has not been embraced by Trump.

St. Januarius and the miracle of the liquefaction of his blood contained in a relic. / Credit: Louis Finson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Photo2023, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 18, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

The faithful of the city of Naples in Italy experienced profound relief when they witnessed the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius, the miracle that kept the city in suspense during the day on Dec. 16.

The extraordinary event, which did not occur in the morning as usual, finally happened at 5:40 p.m. (local time) in the Naples cathedral.

Since 9 a.m., the reliquary containing the blood of the saint had been exposed to the faithful by Father Gregorio Vincenzo, but it remained solid until the afternoon. 

After the miracle, the liquefied blood of the patron saint of the city was taken to the Treasury Chapel of the cathedral, where a Mass was celebrated.

The miracle consists of the mass of blood adhering to one side of the ampoule turning into completely liquid blood, covering the entire glass.

This extraordinary event has occurred since 1389 on three occasions: every Sept. 19, the feast day of the saint; on Dec. 16, the anniversary of his intervention to prevent the effects of an eruption of the Mount Vesuvius volcano in 1631; and on the Saturday before the first Sunday in May, in memory of the transfer of his remains to Naples.

Tradition has it that on Dec. 16, 1631, the faithful of Naples carried the relics of their patron saint in a procession to prevent the eruption of Mount Vesuvius volcano from destroying the city. During the procession, the lava miraculously stopped. Since then, this event has been known as the “laypeople’s miracle.”

The liquefaction process sometimes takes hours or even days, and sometimes it doesn’t happen at all, which Neapolitans interpret as a bad omen, as happened in 1939 before the outbreak of World War II.

The Catholic Church believes that the miracle, without scientific explanation, happens thanks to the dedication and prayers of the faithful.

With the exclamation “The miracle has happened!”, the faithful go to the altar to kiss the relic and sing the Te Deum in thanksgiving after the archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Domenico Battaglia, has walked around the church holding the relic.

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

U.S. Supreme Court. / Credit: PT Hamilton/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 18, 2024 / 16:50 pm (CNA).

The United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear a six-year-old case about whether South Carolina can prevent Medicaid funds from covering non-abortion services at Planned Parenthood facilities and other abortion clinics.

On Wednesday, the justices announced they would take the case in their 2024-2025 term. The case stems from a lawsuit Planned Parenthood filed in 2018 after Gov. Henry McMaster blocked abortion clinics from receiving those funds through an executive order.

Under federal law, federal Medicaid funds cannot be used to pay for abortion unless the life of the mother is at risk or the pregnancy results from rape or incest. However, federal law does allow those funds to pay for other services at abortion clinics. The court’s ruling will determine whether states can prevent those funds from covering non-abortion services at those facilities.

“Taxpayer dollars should never fund abortion providers like Planned Parenthood,” McMaster said in a post on X after the court agreed to hear the case. 

“In 2018, I issued an executive order to end this practice in South Carolina,” he added. “I’m confident the U.S. Supreme Court will agree with me that states shouldn’t be forced to subsidize abortions.”

The state government has argued that it has the authority to determine which organizations can access the federal funds it receives for family planning services and that it can allocate funds to other organizations that provide family planning services while exempting abortion clinics. The lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood argues that the state is interfering with a patient’s ability to obtain health care services at “the qualified provider of their choice.”

“Taxpayer dollars should never be used to fund facilities that make a profit off abortion,” Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel John Bursch said in a statement. 

Alliance Defending Freedom lawyers are representing the state’s interests in the lawsuit. 

“Pro-life states like South Carolina should be free to determine that Planned Parenthood and other entities that peddle abortion are not qualified to receive taxpayer funding through Medicaid,” Bursch added. “Congress did not unambiguously create a right for Medicaid recipients to drag states into federal court to challenge those decisions, so no such right exists.”

Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said in a statement that “every person should be able to access quality, affordable health care from a provider they trust, no matter their income or insurance status.”

“This case is politics at its worst: anti-abortion politicians using their power to target Planned Parenthood and block people who use Medicaid as their primary form of insurance from getting essential health care like cancer screenings and birth control,” Black said.

In March, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit issued a ruling in favor of Planned Parenthood and ordered the state to grant abortion clinics access to those federal funds. Alliance Defending Freedom appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court.

Monsignor Roger Landry. / Credit: EWTN News/Screenshot

Boston, Mass., Dec 18, 2024 / 16:30 pm (CNA).

Father Roger Landry is now Monsignor Roger Landry — but he says he’s not ready to abandon the title “Father” anytime soon.

Landry, 54, the incoming national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States and a regular contributor to the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news parter, said he got the news this past weekend. He made it public Tuesday morning.

He said the new title, which is an honor bestowed by the pope, “will take some getting used to,” adding that he prefers the simpler title he has had during his 25 years of priesthood.

“I really love being called ‘Father,’ which is an ever-present challenge, every time it’s used, to respond as a spiritual father in the image of God the Father and of my own hardworking manly dad. I think it’s the greatest title to which any man and priest ought to aspire,” he told the Register.

“But I anticipate those who have always known me as ‘Father’ or strangers who see me dressed in black will still use it as the most natural vocative. I hope they do,” he continued. 

Landry is a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, where he serves as executive editor of the diocese’s newspaper, The Anchor. The diocese sent a written statement to its priests this past weekend. It says:

“On Nov. 14, 2024, Father Roger Landry was honored with the title Chaplain of His Holiness by the Holy Father, Pope Francis, for his distinguished service to the Church. Let us all wish Monsignor Landry hearty congratulations and best wishes.”

Landry told the Register that Fall River Bishop Edgar da Cunha told him about his new title on Saturday.

Landry said he was surprised, because in 2014 Pope Francis announced he was limiting the pool of possible candidates for the title of monsignor to priests in the Holy See’s diplomatic corps and those who serve at least five years in the Vatican, in addition to diocesan priests who are at least 65 years old, as the Register reported at the time.

The only one of those categories that corresponds to Landry is the diplomatic service, he said, “but after nothing happened after I worked for seven years as an attaché to the Holy See’s diplomatic corps as the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York, I figured I was safe!” 

Landry was born and raised in Lowell, Massachusetts, where he was valedictorian of his high school class. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Harvard in 1992. He graduated from the Pontifical North American College in Rome in 1999, the year he was ordained a priest.

He served as a parochial vicar at parishes in Fall River and Hyannis before becoming a pastor in New Bedford and later at another church in Fall River.

For the past nine years he has worked in assignments outside of his diocese.

He served as attaché to the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York from 2015 to 2022, when Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, appointed him Catholic chaplain at Columbia University. He is completing his stint at Columbia this month.

During the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2016 he served as a “missionary of mercy,” with authority from the pope to offer absolution for sins normally reserved to the Holy See.

He served as ecclesiastical assistant to Aid to the Church in Need between 2021 and 2024.

This past summer, Landry was the only priest to walk the entirety of one of the four National Eucharistic Pilgrimages. He carried the Body of Christ in a monstrance for long stretches on foot between New Haven, Connecticut, and Indianapolis, the site of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in July — an experience he wrote about for the Register in August.

He is the author of the February 2018 book “Plan of Life: Habits to Help You Grow Closer to God.”

His newest role is national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States, which he begins full time in January 2025.

Landry will run, from the organization’s offices in New York City and St. Petersburg, Florida, four societies that help the pope spread the Catholic faith: the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, which supports missionary work in 1,100 dioceses in Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and Latin America; the Society of St. Peter the Apostle, which supports vocations to the priesthood and religious life; the Missionary Childhood Association, which helps provide young people religious education, health care, advocacy, and the necessities of life; and the Missionary Union, which prays for the missions and supports catechists across the world.

As Landry looks forward to his new mission, he hopes that he will be seen for his priestly service foremost, he told the Register. “At the end of the day, I’m still just an ordained foot-washer given the privilege to proclaim the greatest news of all time.”

The oldest known stone tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments, dating from A.D. 300 to 800, was sold at Sotheby’s on Dec. 18, 2024, in New York City. Expected to sell for $1 million to $2 million, it went for $5.04 million. Inscribed with the commandments in Paleo-Hebrew script, the tablet was discovered during railroad excavations along the southern coast of Israel in 1913. / Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Seattle, Wash., Dec 18, 2024 / 15:40 pm (CNA).

A contentious Ten Commandments tablet has sold at Sotheby’s for $5.04 million — more than twice its high estimate of $2 million. The auction took place on Wednesday in New York City.

Promoted by the auction house as “the earliest surviving inscribed tablet of the Ten Commandments” and purportedly dating to the late Roman-Byzantine era, the marble slab drew intense scrutiny ahead of the sale, with scholars disputing its provenance and authenticity.

According to Sotheby’s, a local worker discovered the roughly 115-pound artifact in 1913 during railway construction in what is now Israel. Unaware of its significance, he reportedly used it as a threshold stone for decades.

It was only in 1943, when scholar Jacob Kaplan acquired the tablet, that its potential importance as a Samaritan Decalogue emerged. Sotheby’s relied partly on this narrative and the object’s wear as indicators of its antiquity.

Some experts remained unconvinced. 

“It may or may not be ancient,” said Christopher Rollston, the chairman of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at George Washington University, in an interview with CNA. 

“Sotheby’s has not done its due diligence with this piece, and I find that to be deeply problematic,” he said. Rollston argued that while Sotheby’s cites wear patterns as evidence of age, decades of use as a doorway threshold alone could account for the stone’s abrasion.

In a recent blog post for The Times of Israel, Rollston also noted that the tablet omits the commandment forbidding the misuse of God’s name — a precept included in the Samaritan Pentateuch. 

He suggested that such deviations might be intentional “surprising content” introduced by forgers to stoke interest. “For 150 years, and indeed much longer than that … forgers have been producing fake inscriptions with surprising content,” Rollston wrote in the blog.

Sotheby’s defended its process. “Sotheby’s regularly undertakes due diligence procedures to authenticate and determine the provenance of property prior to accepting it for sale, and the research into this property was no different,” a spokesperson said before the sale.

The house emphasized that the tablet “was also seen by scholars who had the opportunity to inspect it firsthand” and has appeared in scholarly publications since 1947 without prior challenges to its authenticity.

The strong price underscores the ongoing tension between market demand for rare antiquities and persistent legal, ethical, and academic debates about how such objects are vetted. 

“Auction houses don’t have any specific legal obligations to verify authenticity and provenance,” said Patty Gerstenblith, distinguished research professor of law and director of the Center for Art, Museum, and Cultural Heritage Law at DePaul University. “The auction house typically owes a fiduciary obligation to the consignor, not the buyer.”

If doubts arise after a sale, buyers face hurdles. “If the artifact turns out not to be authentic or not to have lawful provenance, the purchaser may be able to sue the auction house,” Gerstenblith said, noting that such claims often hinge on whether the auction house’s assertions amounted to a warranty or were made fraudulently.

While the $5.04 million result indicates robust interest in this piece of purported biblical heritage, the scholarly skepticism voiced by experts like Rollston suggests the tablet’s true legacy — and its place in the historical record — may remain the subject of vigorous debate.

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.

St. Nicholas, by Jaroslav Čermák (1831-1878). / Credit: Galerie Art Praha via Wikimedia (public domain)

CNA Staff, Dec 18, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

After years of excavation work, the leader of an archeological expedition at the Church of St. Nicholas in Demre, Turkey, announced this week that her team has found a sarcophagus that may contain the body of St. Nick — a discovery that could muddy the conventional wisdom about the true resting place of the saint’s relics, which is currently believed to be Italy.

In a recent interview, the leader of the expedition, Professor Ebru Fatma Fındık, said that sources point to Turkey’s southern Antalya Province as Nicholas’ resting place after his death, which took place in the 340s. 

She said that after an earthquake in the region in 529, archeologists believe the Church of St. Nicholas, long a popular pilgrimage site, especially for Russian Orthodox Christians, “may have been built near the burial place of the saint.”

In another interview, Fındık speculated that the sarcophagus, “the first sarcophagus unearthed in the church” after drilling work began in 2022, could have been covered by gravel and sand from a flood or tsunami, which she says is why it is so well preserved.

Turkish claims to the resting place of St. Nicholas are not new — in fact, Turkish officials have admitted for years that if they can prove that St. Nicholas is buried there, “tourism will gain big momentum.” The present excavations at the church were initiated by Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

“We have been carrying out excavations in the church for months … During our drilling work in the two-story building that borders the courtyard of the church from the south, we came across a sarcophagus” that they believe belongs to St. Nicholas, Fındık said. 

“Geologists related to this subject will come soon, and they will actually investigate and examine it,” she said. 

Who was St. Nicholas?

Nicholas was an early Christian bishop born in the third century in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey, at a time when Christians suffered sporadic but often brutal persecutions under the Roman Empire. He was ordained a priest and later ordained bishop of Myra, an ancient port city that corresponds to the modern-day Turkish city of Demre. 

There are numerous legends about Nicholas, who was known for his generosity; perhaps the most famous of which is that he once dropped three bags of gold through an open window or down the chimney at a house in Myra to pay the doweries of the three women who lived there, ultimately saving them from a life of prostitution. This is likely the explanation for why the modern Christmas character of Santa Claus clandestinely brings gifts for children. 

Nicholas was imprisoned for a time under the persecution of Emperor Diocletian, only released when Constantine the Great came to power and made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Nicholas later participated in the Council of Nicea in 325 and fervently defended the Church against heretics such as Arius. 

He died on Dec. 6, which is the day his feast is celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church. He is deeply revered in the East as well, especially in the Russian Orthodox Church. 

Where are Nicholas’ relics?

The location of St. Nicholas’ mortal remains is already a matter of some dispute, and the discovery of the additional sarcophagus, depending on what it contains, will likely muddy things further. 

Churches across the world — including in Germany, Russia, and even Virginia — claim to possess relics of him. But the Basilica of St. Nicholas in Bari, in Italy’s southern region of Puglia, has perhaps the strongest claim to St. Nicholas’ final resting place today. 

Amid the takeover of the Turkish region by the Muslim Seljuks, Nicholas’ bones were purportedly moved by merchants from Myra to Bari in 1087 — and a few bones reportedly made their way to Venice — not long after the Great Schism between Catholics and the Orthodox in 1054. 

A desecrated sarcophagus located in the Turkish church was previously thought to contain Nicholas’ body until it was taken — either for pious or opportunistic reasons, depending on whom you ask — to Italy.  

Pope Francis has visited Bari twice during his papacy, and during both the 2018 and 2020 visits, he stopped in the basilica’s crypt to venerate St. Nicholas’ relics. In the crypt where St. Nicholas is purportedly buried, there is an altar for the celebration of Orthodox and Eastern Catholic liturgies, making it an important ecumenical site. 

In 1953, scientific studies confirmed that bones from both Bari and Venice belonged to the same individual, though whether they were both from St. Nicholas remains inconclusive, Archaeology Magazine reported.