St. Mary Our Lady of the Rosary

null / Credit: udra11/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Dec 18, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Wednesday, Dec. 18, is a special day in the Catholic Church, though relatively few Catholics probably realize it. 

This Wednesday — along with the following Friday and Saturday, Dec. 20 and 21 — is an ember day, a day traditionally set aside for fasting and abstinence from meat. These three upcoming ember days are the last ones of 2024. 

But what are ember days, and why do they exist?

Ember days are tied to the four seasons of the year. The reason “ember” is associated with these days seems to be that the word is a corruption of the Latin phrase “quatuor tempora,” meaning four seasons. 

Each of the four seasons of the year contains three ember days. The 12 total ember days throughout the year are:

• The Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after Ash Wednesday

• The Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after Pentecost

• The Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Sept. 14)

• The Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the feast of St. Lucy, which is Dec. 13 

Ember days appear to be a very early Christian practice, first attested to as part of apostolic tradition by Pope Leo I in the fifth century. The purpose of their introduction, according to The Catholic Encyclopedia, was to thank God for the gifts of nature (hence their tie to the natural seasons), especially the crops used to make bread and wine for the Eucharist; to teach people to make use of those gifts in moderation; and to assist the needy. 

Ember days also served as a response to the pagan festivals of Rome; the days encouraged Christians to counter the excesses and debauchery of those festivals by, instead, fasting and praying. At first the Church in Rome had fasts in June, September, and December, but the exact days were not fixed. The first record of the fasts for all four seasons being decreed comes in the writing of Pope Gelasius at the end of the fifth century. 

After Gelasius, the practice spread beyond Rome. Gelasius also started the practice of permitting the conferring of ordinations on ember Saturdays, which were formerly given only at Easter, The Catholic Encyclopedia records. That tradition of holding ordinations of ember Saturdays also continues today, and in addition, ember days have traditionally been days of prayer for vocations.

The observance of ember days was later prescribed for the entire Latin Church by Pope Gregory VII (1073–1085). So, ember days were a big part of Catholic life for quite a while. 

Though canon law no longer requires the observance of fasting and abstinence on ember days, they remain important for Catholics in many countries, and their continued observance by Catholics everywhere is certainly not discouraged. And in fact, some bishops in the United States have explicitly encouraged their Catholics to observe ember days and pray for specific intentions. 

Ember days are a fascinating and ancient tradition of the Catholic Church that has been largely forgotten, at least in the United States. Though certainly not required, consider observing the last ember days of the year, thanking God for nature and for the gifts he brings us through it.

This story was first published Dec. 17, 2022, and has been updated.

null / Credit: Diocese of Lansing, Michigan

CNA Staff, Dec 17, 2024 / 17:40 pm (CNA).

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel this week released the fourth report in a series of investigations the state is conducting into abuse by Catholic clergy there. 

The attorney general’s report, released on Monday, looks at reported abuse in the Diocese of Lansing. Previous reports, released in 2022 and 2024, examined alleged abuse in the dioceses of Kalamazoo, Gaylord, and Marquette.  

As with the earlier investigations, the Lansing report looks at allegations of abuse dating back decades. The report includes “allegations of sexual abuse and other sexual misconduct, including grooming and misuse of authority against minors and adults.”

The attorney general’s office lists a total of 56 clergy and religious in its report, including two bishops, with more than 150 abuse allegations identified in the investigation.  

The majority of the individuals on the list, 37, are “known or presumed to be dead.” Of the remaining 19, just one — a deacon — is in “active ministry” in the Lansing Diocese, while three retired priests have “no restrictions on their ministry.” 

The report says the “vast majority” of the alleged abuse occurred prior to 2002, the year the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops promulgated its “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.” 

Numerous allegations involve the alleged abuse of minors, while others involve inappropriate conduct or abuse of adults. One allegation involves a 5-year-old child.

The attorney general’s office said the materials in the report were gathered from “[a] tip line, victim interviews, police investigations, open-source media, paper documents seized from the Diocese of Lansing, and the electronic documents found on the diocesan computers,” as well as “reports of allegations disclosed by the diocese.”

Nessel on Monday said the state government “made a promise to the survivors years ago” to produce the abuse reports and that the investigations serve the purpose of “sharing their stories and validating their experiences.” 

The prosecutor’s office noted that prosecution of many of the allegations is barred by Michigan’s statute of limitations, though Nessel said that “criminal prosecutions are just one accountability metric.”

“Ensuring each victim is heard, regardless of how long ago the sexual abuse and misconduct may have been, is important in acknowledging their pain and fostering a culture that prioritizes these victims over their silence,” she said.

In a statement on Monday, the Diocese of Lansing noted that the attorney general’s report indicated that “the 1970s and ’80s were the peak decades for alleged instances of sexual misconduct” regarding clergy in the diocese.

“Over half” of the allegations, from 1950 until the present, occurred during those decades, the diocese said.

Lansing Bishop Earl Boyea said in the statement that his “heart breaks for all those who have suffered due to the evil of clerical sexual abuse.”

The bishop described the abuse as “a great betrayal of Jesus Christ, His Holy Church, the priesthood, and, most gravely, those victims — and their families — who were harmed physically, emotionally, but above all spiritually when they were so young.”

“To all those injured by such criminal and immoral actions I say clearly and without hesitation: these terrible things should never have happened to you; I am so deeply sorry that they ever did; please be assured of my prayers, penance, love, and support,” the prelate said. 

Diocese of Lansing general counsel Will Bloomfield, meanwhile, said on Monday that since the 2002 charter, the diocese has been referring abuse allegations to law enforcement and removing clerics “credibly accused” of abusing minors. 

The diocese mandates that “all allegations of grave clerical misconduct, including those involving adult victims, are professionally investigated and reviewed by a body of lay professionals called the Code of Conduct Advisory Council,” Bloomfield said. 

Pope Francis waves to pilgrims at his Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Oct. 9, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Madrid, Spain, Dec 17, 2024 / 17:10 pm (CNA).

Did you know Pope Francis was a nightclub bouncer, his favorite movie is “La Strada” by Federico Fellini, and that he doesn’t watch television? On the occasion of his 88th birthday, these and other interesting facts about Pope Francis are highlighted below.

1. How did he discover his vocation?

On the feast of St. Matthew the Apostle, Pope Francis discovered his vocation to the priesthood after going to confession when he was 16 years old. It happened on Sept. 21, 1953. It was Student Day in Argentina, which coincides with the day when spring begins in the southern hemisphere and is celebrated with a big party.

“Before going to the party, I passed by the parish I attended and I found a priest I didn’t know and I felt the need to go to confession. This was for me an experience of encounter: I found Someone who was waiting for me.”

“I don’t know what happened, I don’t remember, I don’t know why that priest was there, whom I didn’t know, why I had felt that desire to go to confession, but the truth is that Someone was waiting for me. He had been waiting for me for a long time. After confession I felt that something had changed,” the Holy Father shared.

He said that after that confession he said that he was no longer himself: “I had heard something like a voice, a call: I was convinced that I had to be a priest.”

2. What is his favorite dish?

Nov. 19, 2022, was one of those rare occasions when Pope Francis left the Vatican without an official program. The reason? A family reunion in Asti, the Italian city where his cousin Daniela di Tiglione lives, who was celebrating her 90th birthday.

On that occasion, Pope Francis was able to enjoy his favorite dish: Bagna Cauda, ​​a typical Piedmont dish prepared with anchovies, oil, and garlic and used as a sauce for vegetables.

3. A passion for tango

Before being ordained a priest, especially during his youth, Pope Francis enjoyed tango, one of the most emblematic dances of Argentina. He also liked the milonga, another typical dance from his homeland.

4. He was a bouncer in a nightclub

Like any young man, Jorge Bergoglio worked various jobs to earn his first salary. Although his first job was scrubbing the floors of the hosiery company where his father worked, in 2013 he confessed to a group of young people that he was also a bouncer at a nightclub. Thanks to that experience, he began “to guide the disillusioned to the Church.”

5. He’s missing a lung

When he was 21, he had to have a lung removed due to an infection, which has caused him to suffer from some breathing difficulties in recent years.

6. He has refused forgiveness only once

On more than one occasion, Pope Francis has encouraged priests to forgive “everything” in the confessional and to “not torture” the faithful in the confessional.

During an interview on Italian television in January, he stated that in his more than 50 years as a priest he has refused forgiveness only once, “because of the hypocrisy of the person.”

7. The prayer he says every day to keep his good humor

On several occasions, Pope Francis has praised a good sense of humor and stressed that sadness is not a Christian disposition. He has even gone so far as to say that the “hallmark of a Christian” is joy and not being a sourpuss. 

To be good-humored, he says a prayer from St. Thomas More every day, a prayer he has referred to in numerous public appearances, most recently with the president of France, Emmanuel Macron.

“Lord, give me a sense of humor. Grant me the grace to understand a joke, to discover in life a bit of joy, and be able to share it with others,” the Holy Father prays every day.

8. St. Joseph, his help in difficulties

There is an image of St. Joseph that Pope Francis is very fond of that shows the “silent” saint  lying down asleep.

During his apostolic trip to the Philippines, the pontiff referred to St. Joseph as “a strong man of silence” and said that he keeps this figurine on his desk. “Even when he sleeps, he takes care of the Church,” he said.

“When I have a problem, a difficulty, I write a little note and put it under St. Joseph so that he can dream about it. In other words, I tell him: Pray for this problem!” the Holy Father confessed.

9. Pope Francis favors taking a daily nap

Pope Francis usually goes to bed at 9 p.m. and wakes up around 4 a.m. He sleeps about six hours a day, as he usually reads for an hour after going to bed, until 10 p.m.

“Later I need a nap. I have to sleep for 40 minutes to an hour. I take off my shoes and fall into bed. And I also sleep deeply and wake up alone. On days when I don’t take a nap, I notice it,” he once said.

10. What is his favorite soccer team?

Even though he no longer lives in Argentina, Pope Francis continues to root for the San Lorenzo de Almagro team from Buenos Aires. He keeps up to date thanks to a Swiss Guard who informs him of the team’s news every week, since the pope doesn’t watch the games.

In fact, during an audience at the Vatican in September, a delegation from the San Lorenzo club asked the Holy Father for his blessing to name the club’s next stadium after him.

11. The day his life was saved

At the age of 44, Pope Francis suffered from gangrene of the gallbladder, a serious complication that occurs when the tissue of this organ of the digestive system becomes necrotic due to an interruption of blood flow.

“I felt like I was dying,” said the Holy Father, referring to the night in 1980 when he was operated on by Dr. Juan Carlos Parodi, an eminent Argentine surgeon who saved the life of then-Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio. In 2014, 34 years later, the two held a private meeting in the Vatican.

12. Where does he want to be buried?

Unlike many pontiffs throughout the history of the Church, whose coffins are in the crypts of the Vatican in the grottoes under St. Peter’s Basilica, the Holy Father revealed that he has had his tomb prepared in St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome due to the great devotion he has to the Virgin Salus Populi Romani (protectress of the Roman people), to whom he made a promise.

In addition, in December 2022, the pontiff gave an interview in which he announced that he had signed his resignation in case his health did not allow him to continue exercising his ministry.

13. What is his favorite movie?

“La Strada” by Federico Fellini, winner of the Oscar for best foreign film in 1957.

14. He doesn’t watch television because of a promise to Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Pope Francis says he hasn’t watched television since July 15, 1990, when he promised Our Lady of Mount Carmel that he would no longer do so. The Holy Father made this promise because he “felt that God was asking me to do it.”

15. He went to therapy at age 42

In the book interview “Politics and Society” by Frenchman Dominique Wolton, Pope Francis recounted that, when he was provincial of the Society of Jesus in Argentina, he went to therapy for six months with a Jewish psychologist. “She was very good, very professional,” the Holy Father said.

16. An ‘incognito’ pope on the streets of Rome

In 2013, the year he was elected bishop of Rome, a Vatican source informed the Huffington Post that Pope Francis went out at night dressed as a priest to give alms and help the poor on the streets of Rome.

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

An Ontario judge has acquitted Linda Gibbons, a 76-year-old Christian grandmother and pro-life activist who was charged with protesting within an “buffer zone” outside an abortion clinic. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Campaign Life Coalition

CNA Staff, Dec 17, 2024 / 16:40 pm (CNA).

Here’s a roundup of recent pro-life and abortion-related updates.  

Ontario judge acquits elderly pro-life activist

Linda Gibbons is not your average grandmother. This year, she was arrested four times — all for her pro-life activism outside abortion clinics.

The 76-year-old Canadian was brought in and out of an Ontario court in handcuffs before she was finally acquitted on Dec. 5. Ontario judge Maria Speyer ruled that Gibbons was not guilty of criminal mischief to property.

Gibbons was on trial for holding up a sign outside a Toronto abortion facility that performs abortions up to the middle of the second trimester of pregnancy. 

Gibbons stood in the 50-meter (164-foot) buffer zone, enacted in 2017 as part of the Safe Access to Abortion Services Act. She held her characteristic sign with an image of a young child that read: “Why Mom? When I have so much love to give.”

Gibbons “did not accost anyone or impede any patient as they made their way to the clinic other than having to step around her,” the judge found. The judge ruled that Gibbons “never stepped onto the walkway leading to the door,” making her not guilty of mischief. 

Gibbons, who remained silent during the hearing, has spent a combined nearly 11 years in prison for her pro-life work. She had been in jail since June.

“Justice was done for Linda,” Pete Baklinski, communications director for Campaign Life Coalition, Canada’s national pro-life organization, told CNA. 

“The judge clearly saw that Linda’s actions of peacefully witnessing to life in front of the abortion mill in no way amounted to the criminal activity of ‘mischief.’ My hope is that this ruling adds to the growing body of jurisprudence that pro-life advocates have a right to speech in front of abortion centers and that it will be used in future cases to defend their right,” Baklinski said.  

Proposed Oklahoma bill would protect unborn 

A Republican lawmaker has introduced a bill to increase protection for unborn children and classify abortion as a felony for providers. Oklahoma Rep. Jim Olsen’s House Bill 1008, if passed, would revive a previous Senate bill that was struck down by the Oklahoma Supreme Court after being signed into law in 2022. 

Olsen rewrote S.B. 612 to match the preferences of the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling. H.B. 1008 prohibits providers from performing abortions “unless necessary to preserve the life of a pregnant woman.” The bill provides more protections for unborn children by requiring the medical provider to preserve both the life of the mother and the baby wherever possible unless the birth of the child is a threat to the mother’s life. Abortion is currently only legal in Oklahoma to save the life of the pregnant woman.

The bill would also make it a felony to perform an abortion, with a fine of up to $100,000, jail time of up to 10 years, or both. The proposed bill specifies that this would not apply to a woman with any criminal offense in the death of her own unborn child. It would also not prohibit contraceptive drugs used before the time that pregnancy could be determined. The bill notes that a physician would not be liable if the medical treatment provided to a pregnant woman accidentally resulted in the unborn child’s injury or death.  

Missouri abortion clinics pause abortions ahead of court ruling

Missouri’s pro-abortion amendment legalizing abortion went into effect on Dec. 6, but local Planned Parenthood clinics are still waiting to begin abortions pending a court ruling on whether abortion restrictions still on the books are valid.

Planned Parenthood Great Plains and Planned Parenthood Great Rivers along with ACLU of Missouri are awaiting a judge’s decision before beginning to perform abortions after suing to strike down regulations on abortion clinics.

Some of the regulations include a 72-hour waiting period between an initial appointment and an abortion and a requirement that the same abortionist who saw the patient is the one to perform the abortion. The law also requires that abortionists have hospital admitting privileges. Abortions fell from an annual average of 5,000 to 167 in 2020 amid these requirements. After Roe v. Wade, a trigger law went into effect, protecting unborn children except for when abortions were medically necessary. In November, Missouri passed Amendment 3, which added “a fundamental right to reproductive freedom” to the state constitution.

Pope Francis meets political authorities, civil leaders, and diplomats in the Republican Palace in Baghdad on March 5, 2021. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI MENA, Dec 17, 2024 / 16:10 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis has revealed that he narrowly escaped two attempts on his life during his visit to Iraq in March 2021 in the city of Mosul.

In a new book titled “Spera” (translated as “Hope”), set to be released on Jan. 14, 2025, the Holy Father recounts his personal story, including details of the planned attack during his trip.

Advised not to go

According to Corriere della Sera, the Italian newspaper that shared excerpts from the book, the pontiff stated that most people had advised him against undertaking the apostolic visit to a land ravaged by jihadism and extremist violence. Those challenges were compounded by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the extremely high security risks.

“But I wanted to go at all costs. I felt I had to do it,” Francis said. He said that he felt an obligation to visit and meet “our forefather Abraham,” from whom Jews, Christians, and Muslims all trace their lineage. 

The Holy Father also stressed that he did not want to disappoint the Iraqi people. Two decades earlier, Pope John Paul II had been unable to visit the country because then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein rejected the plan.

The city that left a mark on his heart 

The city of Mosul, as the book conveys, was “a wound in the pope’s heart.” Francis described how deeply the city affected him. Viewing Mosul from a helicopter, the sight struck him like “a punch to the gut.” The historic old city, once a place of coexistence imbued with centuries of tradition and civilization, had been reduced to ruins during the three-year reign of ISIS. From above, Mosul appeared to him like an “X-ray image of hatred.”

Warnings

In the book, the pope also revealed that as soon he landed in Baghdad, Vatican security was informed by the police that British intelligence had passed on a warning: a young female suicide bomber was heading to Mosul with the intention of detonating herself during the pope’s visit. In addition, a speeding truck had been launched for the same purpose. 

Despite these threats, the journey proceeded as planned.

The ‘joy and honor’ of meeting al-Sistani

Reflecting on his visit to Najaf, Pope Francis said his meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani “filled his soul with joy and honor.” 

He described al-Sistani’s decision to welcome him into his home as being more eloquent than any words, declarations, or documents, as it embodied friendship and a shared sense of belonging to one human family. 

The Holy Father carried with him something al-Sistani said as a “precious grace”: “People are either brothers in faith or equals in humanity.”

The day after his meeting with al-Sistani, the pope asked Vatican security about the two reported attacks. The commander responded succinctly: “They no longer exist.” 

This reply also left a mark on the pope because those attacks, he noted, were the bitter fruit of a poisonous war but in the end, they were dissipated.

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

Pope Francis laughs with some religious sisters at his general audience in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Aug. 30, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media

CNA Staff, Dec 17, 2024 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Tuesday penned an essay for the New York Times on the importance of fostering a sense of humor, of quelling narcissism through “appropriate doses of self-irony,” and of avoiding “wallowing in melancholy at all costs.”

“The Gospel, which urges us to become like little children for our own salvation (Matthew 18:3), reminds us to regain their ability to smile,” Pope Francis wrote in an essay adapted from his new book, “Hope: The Autobiography,” set to be published in January. 

The pontiff called the many children he meets, as well as the elderly, “examples of spontaneity, of humanity.” 

“[T]hey remind us that those who give up their own humanity give up everything, and that when it becomes hard to cry seriously or to laugh passionately, then we really are on the downhill slope. We become anesthetized, and anesthetized adults do nothing good for themselves, nor for society, nor for the Church,” he wrote.

“Irony is a medicine, not only to lift and brighten others but also ourselves, because self-mockery is a powerful instrument in overcoming the temptation toward narcissism,” the pope continued. 

“Narcissists are continually looking into the mirror, painting themselves, gazing at themselves, but the best advice in front of a mirror is to laugh at ourselves. It is good for us. It will prove the truth of that old proverb that says that there are only two kinds of perfect people: the dead and those yet to be born.”

Pope Francis has spoken about humor several times throughout his papacy; in June of this year, he hosted and entertained a group of over 100 comics, stand-up comedians, and humorists in the largest — and possibly only — gathering of comedians in the Vatican since Pope Pius V eliminated the role of the papal jester in the 1500s.

During a recent visit with French President Emmanuel Macron in Corsica, Pope Francis recommended that Macron read his apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exultate, drawing attention to a passage referencing St. Thomas More’s prayer for a sense of humor.

“Lord, give me a sense of humor. Grant me the grace to understand a joke, to discover in life a bit of joy, and to be able to share it with others,” reads the prayer, which Pope Francis has previously described as “very beautiful” and recites daily.

The pope in his essay offered examples of good humor shown by his fellow popes St. John XXIII and St. John Paul II.

St. John XXIII, for example, was said to have showcased his self-deprecating wit when he joked that he often resolved to speak with the pope about serious problems before remembering “that the pope is me.”

Relaying an anecdote about St. John Paul II’s playful resistance to rigid expectations of clerical conduct, Francis wrote that the saint was once, while still a cardinal, rebuked for enjoying many outdoor sporting activities, whereby John Paul responded that “these are activities practiced by at least 50% of cardinals.” In Poland at the time, there were only two cardinals.

“[S]ometimes we [popes] unfortunately come across as bitter, sad priests who are more authoritarian than authoritative, more like old bachelors than wedded to the Church, more like officials than pastors, more supercilious than joyful, and this, too, is certainly not good,” the pope wrote.

“But generally, we priests tend to enjoy humor and even have a fair stock of jokes and amusing stories, which we are often quite good at telling, as well as being the object of them.”

The pope in his essay also told a joke involving himself, printed here in its entirety:

As soon as he arrives at the airport in New York for his apostolic journey in the United States, Pope Francis finds an enormous limousine waiting for him. He is rather embarrassed by that magnificent splendor, but then thinks that it has been ages since he last drove, and never a vehicle of that kind, and he thinks to himself: OK, when will I get another chance? He looks at the limousine and says to the driver, “You couldn’t let me try it out, could you?” “Look, I’m really sorry, Your Holiness,” replies the driver, “but I really can’t, you know, there are rules and regulations.”

But you know what they say, how the pope is when he gets something into his head … in short, he insists and insists, until the driver gives in. So Pope Francis gets behind the steering wheel, on one of those enormous highways, and he begins to enjoy it, presses down on the accelerator, going 50 miles per hour, 80, 120 … until he hears a siren, and a police car pulls up beside him and stops him. A young policeman comes up to the darkened window. The pope rather nervously lowers it and the policeman turns white. “Excuse me a moment,” he says, and goes back to his vehicle to call headquarters. “Boss, I think I have a problem.”

“What problem?” asks the chief.

“Well, I’ve stopped a car for speeding, but there’s a guy in there who’s really important.” “How important? Is he the mayor?”

“No, no, boss … more than the mayor.”

“And more than the mayor, who is there? The governor?”

“No, no, more. …”

“But he can’t be the president?”

“More, I reckon. …”

“And who can be more important than the president?”

“Look, boss, I don’t know exactly who he is, all I can tell you is that it’s the pope who is driving him!”

Holy Mass is celebrated in Mariamite Greek Melkite Catholic Cathedral, Damascus, on Dec. 15, 2024. / Credit: Lama Ghosn/ACI MENA

ACI MENA, Dec 17, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

After more than 13 years of death, oppression, and destruction, the bells of Syrian churches are once again ringing with hope. It is a hope for the rebirth of Syria — a once-lost aspiration whose absence has been a source of profound anguish for Syrians everywhere.

This past Sunday, churches in Syria witnessed a remarkable surge in attendees across cities and towns as people gathered to pray freely with a renewed spirit of hope.

Not a single incident of assault or restriction was reported. Christmas decorations adorned church facades and even some neighborhoods with a significant Christian presence. The Latin Church in Latakia announced plans to illuminate its Christmas tree on the evening of Dec. 17.

During the Sunday Mass at the Holy Cross Church in Damascus, the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Antioch and all the East, John X (Yazigi), emphasized that Christians are not mere guests in this land but rather “a deep-rooted part of Syria, as ancient as the jasmine of Damascus and the apostolic heritage of Antioch — this land that has marked the world with the name of Jesus Christ.”

He addressed Muslims directly, declaring: “My Muslim brothers, between the ‘you and us,’ the divisive ‘and’ should fall… Leaving behind it ‘we.’ We are one, sharing a history filled with victories and downfalls, and we share one destiny.”

Articulating the vision for Syria’s future, Yazigi explained: “We want a civil state where everyone is equal in rights and duties, preserving the personal status laws for all components. We want a state of citizenship, coexistence, and civil peace. A state governed by laws, where religion, freedom, and human rights are respected. A democratic state, where power transitions peacefully.”

The patriarch stressed that achieving these goals hinges on drafting a new constitution. He cautioned against misappropriating Christian narratives in the media and warned of false rumors propagated through media outlets and social media.

In a similar vein, Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan called for the establishment of a transitional government that upholds transparency, reconciliation, and justice for all citizens. He urged a smooth political transition that shields Syrians from retaliation and revenge. Younan also warned against any ventures aimed at demographic or religious changes in the country.

The Sunday liturgies coincided with the return of students to schools and universities. 

George Daekh, principal of the Melkite Catholic Al-Woroud School in Aleppo, revealed to ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, that Christian schools resumed on Monday, maintaining Sunday as a day off along with Saturday. He shared that the administrative and support teams had spent hours in the preceding days removing symbols of the old regime and raising Syria’s new flag.

As Christmas approaches, church groups and associations across Syria have launched humanitarian, service-oriented, and spiritual initiatives. These include visiting the elderly, cleaning and painting streets and sidewalks, distributing awareness flyers, organizing Christmas markets with sales stalls, and hosting evenings of carols and prayer.

Bishop-elect Iyad Twal was appointed by Pope Francis on Dec. 17, 2024, as auxiliary bishop of the patriarchal diocese of Jerusalem of the Latins for Jordan and as titular bishop of Siminia. / Credit: Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem

Vatican City, Dec 17, 2024 / 13:15 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Dec. 17 appointed Father Iyad Twal as auxiliary bishop of the patriarchal diocese of Jerusalem of the Latins for Jordan and as titular bishop of Siminia.

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, expressed his gratitude to Pope Francis for Twal’s appointments and asked for prayers for the new bishop-elect who will begin “a new mission as patriarchal vicar for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.” 

“After years of priestly ministry, he is now called from the very heart of the Mother Church to be a successor of the apostles with the mandate to teach, govern, and sanctify the people of God,” the Latin patriarch said in a statement released Tuesday.

“I wish the bishop-elect every success, and through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, queen of Palestine, I invoke upon them the blessing of Almighty God,” he added.

Twal succeeds the late American Bishop Robert Patrick Maginnis as titular bishop of Siminia. The titular see was vacant for two years prior to Twal’s appointment.

Born in Jordan’s capital city Amman, Twal, 51, was ordained to the priesthood in July 1998 after studying philosophy and theology at the Latin Patriarchate Seminary.

Between 1998 and 2005, Twal served Catholic communities belonging to the Immaculate Conception Latin Parish Church in the West Bank town of Birzeit. He was appointed parish vicar from 1998–1999, then elevated to parish priest from 2000–2005.

In addition to his pastoral activities with the parish, Twal also held educational offices in Birzeit for two years between 2003–2005. He was made director of the School of the Latin Patriarchate and also taught at the Patriarchal Minor Seminary.  

Moving to the northern West Bank in 2005, Twal was appointed parish priest of Our Lady of the Visitation Church in Zababdeh as well as director of the School of the Latin Patriarchate of the same city.

Continuing his association with the School of the Latin Patriarchate, Twal was later made director-general of its schools in Israel and Palestine from 2016–2017. 

Since 2013, Twal has also held prominent positions at Bethlehem University. 

From 2013–2016, he was professor of philosophy and head of religious studies there. He was also promoted as director of the university’s department of humanities and religious studies for two years from 2019–2020. He is currently the department’s executive vice president.   

The date and place of his episcopal consecration to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem has yet to be confirmed. 

A family gathers in a prefabricated house donated by the Philokalia Foundation in Kerala state in India. / Credit: Anto Akkara

Bangalore, India, Dec 17, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

Amid a lack of government response to the worst landslide in the history of Kerala state in southern India, Catholic groups have responded with programs to help victims of the catastrophe.

The devastating July 30 landslide that virtually wiped out the bustling townships of Chooralmala and Mundakai in the mountain areas of Wayanad district claimed more than 400 lives and rendered over 1,500 families homeless.

Project Vision, a Catholic action group led by Claretian Father George Kannanthanam that serves the blind, leprosy-affected, and distressed from Bangalore, facilitated the recent distribution of half a dozen prefabricated houses, imported from China, to those rendered homeless by the deluge.

“This is a timely and model initiative for the suffering people. I congratulate those behind it,” T. Siddique, a member of the Kerala Legislative Assembly representing the region, said after handing over house keys to Lijo Thekkilakattil, whose house had been washed away along with his parents, Joseph and Leelama.

“The government should have done it to soothe the struggling people. I congratulate the priests behind it,” Siddique told CNA.

“I will certainly ask the government to provide such interim shelters without further delay ahead of building permanent houses for the families,” he added.

Kannanthanam explained to CNA: “Our target is to provide immediate relief to the people with these temporary houses that will last for three years until they get a permanent house the government has promised.”

“We do not want to discriminate and are giving two houses each to Christians, Hindus, and Muslims,” the priest said. The network has been setting up shelters for hundreds of houses for distraught families in India.

“I am very happy that we have a house near our church to attend Sunday Mass now,” Thekkilakattil, who works in a tea factory up the hills, told CNA.

“If we had been at home, we too would have been washed away with our parents and the house. Only the floor is left now,” Thekkilakattil said.

“Our parish with just 40 families suffered a big trauma as eight members besides an engineering student who had come to visit his relatives were washed away,” Father Jibin Vattukulam, the parish priest of Chooralmala’s St. Sebastian Church, told CNA. The priest helped identify the beneficiaries for the house distribution.

After its biannual assembly on Dec. 6, the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC) urged the Kerala government to finalize the locations to start building 100 houses for the displaced under the leadership of the local Mananthavady Diocese.

Meanwhile, the Philokalia Foundation, headed by Muslim convert to the Catholic Church and evangelist Mario Joseph, has already built and handed over 14 two-bedroom houses to distressed families including four on Dec. 7 at Sita Mount, 40 miles from the disaster spot.

“We are building the houses with donations from good Samaritans at four plots, donated by those who responded to our appeal,” Joseph told CNA on Dec. 12.

Due to government restriction on building houses near the disaster zone, Joseph said, the Philokalia Foundation (meaning “attaining bliss through goodness, holiness, and love”) opted for the distant locations.

“Our priority is to provide comfortable houses for the suffering people, and we hope to complete 25 houses by [the] new year and 100 houses at the earliest,” Joseph said.

Aneesh Rangaswami, a 39-year-old Hindu, is “thrilled” with the two-bedroom house the Philokalia Foundation gave to his family of five on Nov. 12 at Sita Mount near Pulpally.

“Though we are in a far-off place, we are very happy. I have got a job as a tile worker here and our three children have already enrolled in a nearby school,” Rangaswami told CNA.

“When we heard the huge thud of earth breaking [the landslide] on the mountains, all of us including my parents ran off to higher places. That saved our lives,” Rangaswami recounted.

“While we were staying in the relief camp, sisters [nuns] in Mepadi school got us connected with this group, offering houses. We could not have dreamed of a house like this,” he said. 

Sumita, Rangaswami’s wife, was equally elated with the “blessing” of the free house and the foundation’s assurance to get her a job soon in the nearby coffee estates, a job she is familiar with.

“The calamity has brought a blessing to us. We thank God for it,” 75-year-old widowed Rosily, who has been struggling to take care of her specially-abled unmarried daughter Philomina and her two orphaned granddaughters, told CNA from the new house they were given.

The Sisters of Charity running the nearby Catholic school connected the family to the Philokalia Foundation.

“Three of our schools were used as relief camps for over a month. We had seen and listened to their misery. So, we knew the needy people closely and have been recommending them for rehabilitation,” Sister Maria told CNA.

Members of the German Synodal Committee meet for their third session at the Wilhelm-Kempf-Haus in Wiesbaden-Naurod, Dec. 13, 2024. / Credit: Deutsche Bischofskonferenz/Ewelina Sowa

Rome Newsroom, Dec 17, 2024 / 11:40 am (CNA).

Following a series of meetings at the Vatican this year, the German Synodal Committee took further steps toward establishing a national synodal body after the Vatican rejected a permanent council.

At a meeting Dec. 13–14 in Wiesbaden, delegates discussed drafting the composition, competencies, and decision-making processes of a body that initially was proposed to be a synodal council — while facing renewed internal tensions, including the withdrawal of spiritual advisers, CNA Deutsch reported.

Tailwind from the synod

Pointing to the recent Synod on Synodality in Rome, Bishop Georg Bätzing, chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference, expressed optimism about the latest developments in Germany.

“We feel tailwind for our proceedings in Germany through the results of the world synod,” he said at the meeting, according to CNA Deutsch.

Irme Stetter-Karp, president of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), said that the final document of the synod in Rome required broader outreach in Germany: “It needs mediation to the parishes, to the grassroots,” she said during the committee’s third session.

Confrontations with spiritual advisers

The departure of two spiritual advisers overshadowed the recent developments.

CNA Deutsch reported that Sister Igna Kramp from the Diocese of Fulda and Peter Hundertmark from the Diocese of Speyer stepped down following what sources described as “confrontations between participants” during preparatory meetings.

According to the organizing committee’s statutes, the presidium is meant to appoint “two spiritual companions of different genders who are not members of the synodal committee” to provide spiritual guidance and reflection. Replacements were swiftly appointed.

Meetings in Rome

Warning of a threat of a new schism from Germany, the Vatican intervened as early as July 2022 against plans for a German synodal council.

The interventions were followed by several meetings between German bishops and high-ranking Vatican officials earlier this year.

Most recently, on June 28, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandéz, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity; Cardinal Robert Prevost, prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops; and Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, met with a German delegation. 

Archbishop Filippo Iannone, prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, joined the cardinals.

Bishops Bätzing, Stephan Ackermann, Bertram Meier, and Franz-Josef Overbeck represented the Synodal Way on the German side.

The talks centered on the proposed synodal council: According to a joint press release, both sides want to “change the name and various aspects of the previous draft” for the controversial body.

Both sides also agreed that the synodal council would not be “above or equal to the bishops’ conference.”

The committee now setting up a “national synodal body” is scheduled to meet again in early 2025.

German dioceses will reportedly be surveyed about the implementation of resolutions in February and March of next year.