Catholic News
- Pope, in Christmas message, proclaims Christ as our peace, says responsibility is 'sure way to peace' (CWN)
In his Christmas message urbi et orbi [to the city and the world], delivered from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Leo XIV said that Christ is our peace and that “responsibility is the sure way to peace” (video). - Follow the Incarnate Word on the 'rugged road of peace,' Pope preaches on Christmas Day (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at 10:00 AM on Christmas Day and reflected on the peace that the newborn Christ brings (booklet, video). - 'Born in the night is the One who redeems us from the night,' Pope preaches on Christmas night (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV celebrated the Mass of Christmas night in St. Peter’s Basilica at 10:00 PM on Christmas Eve and preached that Christ’s nativity is the light that illumines human darkness (booklet, video). - In Bethlehem, Christmas celebrations make a comeback for first time since 2022 (NBC )
Christmas was celebrated with public festivity in Bethlehem for the first time since 2022. “Caesar’s decree seems to dominate the scene: the emperor who counts, records, organizes and govern,” Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, preached at Midnight Mass there (video). “Yet, without knowing it, that very decree becomes an instrument of a greater design.” “This is one of the great announcements of Christmas: God does not wait for history to get better before He enters it. He enters while history is what it is,” Cardinal Pizzaballa continued. “Thus, He teaches us that no time is definitively lost and no situation is too dark for God to dwell in.” - Nuncio condemns arson attack on West Bank parish (Vatican News)
Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana, apostolic nuncio to Israel and apostolic delegate to Jerusalem and Palestine, condemned an arson attack on the parish in the West Bank city of Jenin. Vatican News reported that during the December 22 attack, “alleged radicalized young Muslims” vandalized a Christmas tree. Auxiliary Bishop William Shomali of Jerusalem traveled to Jenin to dedicate a new Christmas tree the next day. The attack cast “a big, heavy shadow on the Christmas spirit’s joy that all our Christian communities, and even non-Christian, have begun to celebrate after two years of being limited to very simple manifestations,” said Archbishop Yllana. “We condemn this absolutely, because we are supposed to live as brothers here.” - 18th-century church in Edinburgh desecrated on Christmas Eve (The Times )
An 18th-century church in Edinburgh, Scotland, was desecrated on Christmas Eve, during the hours when the church was open for prayer between the Christmas Eve Vigil Mass and Midnight Mass. “We ask prayers for reparation tonight on this Vigil of the Lord’s Nativity, for the attack upon the Child Jesus, taken from the throne above the altar; also for the desecration of relics in the Lady Chapel, violence at the crib in the side aisle, and blood spilled in the sanctuary, side chapel and nave,” St. Patrick’s Church said in a statement. - Archpriest closes holy door at Santa Maria Maggiore (Vatican News)
Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas, Archpriest of the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major, closed the basilica’s holy door on Christmas evening, as the 2025 jubilee year begins to come to a close. “What is being closed is not divine grace, but a special time for the Church; while what remains open forever is the heart of merciful God,” said Cardinal Makrickas, who noted that 2025 was the first jubilee year since 1700 with two popes. Under the altered schedule for the conclusion of the jubilee year, the archpriest of the Lateran Basilica will close the holy door there on December 27. The archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls will close the holy door there on December 28, and Pope Leo XIV will end the jubilee year with the closing of the holy door at St. Peter’s Basilica on January 6. - Jerusalem cardinal, in Christmas message, highlights Christian way of 'care, tenderness, and love' (Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem)
In his Christmas message, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem contrasted the “common refrain” of “violence, strength, and hatred” with the tenderness and love awakened by the birth of the Incarnation Son of God. “God, through Jesus Christ, enters in our history, enters in our nights in the reality of the most fragile element we know, a newborn child, who is very fragile, in need of everything, dependent on everything, and very weak,” said Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM. “A newborn child awakes in everyone tenderness and love, and this is what we need especially in our time,” he added, “and we will continue to be as Christians a place of care, tenderness, and love, without limitations without borders; love without borders; this is what we need right now.” - Christ comes to transform us, Ukrainian Catholic leader says in Christmas message (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church)
The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church said in his Christmas message that “Christ comes to people in human flesh to transform them, to open up new perspectives for them, to bring joy where there is sadness, to warm where there is cold, to bring the heavenly light of hope where the enemy wants to plunge us into darkness.” Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk offered Christmas greetings to “places that no human power can reach,” to “our brothers and sisters in the occupied territories and all those who remain in Russian torture chambers.” Addressing children, the Major Archbishop said, “Do not be like those who are scared and shut themselves in their homes, but, like shepherds with joyous carols, go out to your neighbors, relatives, and friends and sing to them that ‘Heaven and earth are now rejoicing. Angels and people are celebrating joyfully!’” - Nigerian priest shot on Christmas Eve (Vanguard)
Father Raymond Njoku, an assistant priest at a parish in Ogbaku in Nigeria’s Imo State, was shot on Christmas Eve as he drove back to the parish rectory. “His vehicle was riddled with bullets, but by God’s grace, none hit any vital organ,” an official of the Archdiocese of Owerri told the Lagos-based Vanguard. “His right hand was injured. He feigned death, and the gunmen fled.” - Indian cardinal sees disconnect between attacks on Christians, government assurances (Catholic Connect)
On Christmas Day, the head of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church (CNEWA profile) spoke of a “contradiction” between the continued violence against Christians in India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s expressions of respect for Christians. “On one side, the prime minister is taking part in Christmas celebrations,” said Cardinal Basilios Cleemis. “In another place, the opposite is happening.” “Even after informing those in power and hearing assurances, when it comes to putting those statements into action, they have failed,” he added. Cardinal Cleemis’s comments followed a statement from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India condemning the “alarming rise in attacks on Christians in various states of our country.” - Do not despair over possibility of Venezuelan bombing, Trinidad vicar general preaches (Trinidad & Tobago Guardian )
In his Christmas homily, the vicar general of Trinidad and Tobago’s sole diocese spoke of fears that “Venezuela might bomb Trinidad, and so we have this specter. We have this darkness that is over us.” “It is not a cause for despair, because Scripture tells us a light shines in the dark, and the darkness did not overcome,” said Father Martin Sirju, as he preached at the cathedral in Port of Spain, the nation’s capital. Father Sirju also called on the wealthy not to hoard toilet paper and other supplies, but instead to remember the poor. - El Paso bishop, in Christmas interview, says President Trump's immigration policies are 'great source of sadness' (NPR)
In a Christmas Day interview, Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, told NPR that the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies are “a great source of sadness for me, because I’ve had the opportunity to know so many [migrants] and know their stories, know their suffering.” “I know that what they’re doing is exactly what any of us would’ve done to protect my family, to provide for their needs and protect them from danger,” he said, adding: I think certainly my faith says that I need to welcome the stranger. I need to be concerned about the poor. And I don’t think that you can put a national designation on the person that Jesus would call us to care about and to serve. And I don’t think that we should look at that ability as being one that is limited by merely human limits, because we believe that it’s something that the Lord helps make possible when we work together in His name. - Pope calls for Christmas truce, criticizes Illinois governor for signing assisted-suicide bill (Vatican News)
Speaking with journalists yesterday as he departed from his weekly visit to Castel Gandolfo, Pope Leo XIV called for a 24-hour Christmas truce around the world. “I once again make this appeal to all people of good will: that, at least on the feast of the birth of the Savior, one day of peace may be respected,” Pope Leo said. The Pope also criticized Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois for signing assisted suicide legislation. The Pontiff revealed that during a recent meeting with the governor, “we were very clear about the need to respect the sacredness of life, from beginning to end.” The Pope invited all “to reflect on the nature of human life, on the value of human life. God became human like us in order to show us what it truly means to live human life.” The Pope prayed that “respect for life may grow once again at every moment of human existence, from conception to natural death.” - Your work, done with dedication, gives glory to the Lord, Pope tells Vatican employees (Dicastery for Communication)
Following his address to the Roman Curia, Pope Leo XIV held a separate audience in which he exchanged Christmas greetings with employees of the Curia, the Vatican City State, the Vicariate of Rome, and their families. Pope Leo thanked the employees for the work and reflected on the presence of various kinds of laborers in the Nativity scene. “While Mary and Joseph adore the Child and the shepherds approach in wonder, the other characters go about their daily business,” Pope Leo said. “They seem detached from the central event, but this is not the case: in reality, each one participates in it just as they are, staying in their place and doing what they have to do, their job.” “I like to think that this can also be true for us in our working days: each of us carries out our task and we praise God precisely by doing it well, with commitment,” the Pope added. “Sometimes we are so caught up in our occupations that we do not think about the Lord or the Church; but the very fact of working with dedication, trying to give our best, and also—for you lay people—with love for your family, for your children, gives glory to the Lord.” - Vatican prefect sees no future for the priesthood without fidelity (Vatican News)
Cardinal Lazarus You Heung-sik, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy, said in an interview that “there can be no future” for the priesthood “without fidelity.” “Fidelity, especially in the Western world, tends to be considered almost a negative value, something for immobile, static people of another era,” he said. “Nothing could be further from the truth ... Fidelity, in fact, is the very measure of charity.” The prelate also said that the crisis in priestly vocations is not universal and that, where it exists, it affects marriage and the religious life as well. “A world that encourages temporary, partial relationships and discourages stable, lasting commitments—let’s say faithful ones—is a world that distracts everyone from seeking their vocation, let alone persevering in it,” he said. - Odisha bishop calls for low-key Christmas celebrations in solidarity with threatened farmers (UCANews)
A bishop in the eastern Indian state of Odisha called on the faithful to “keep the Christmas celebrations low profile, i.e., without purchasing new clothes and without big feasting.” Bishop Kishore Kumar Kujur of Rourkela did so in order to express solidarity with area farmers, some of whom are Catholic, whose land is being taken by the state and given to a cement company for expanded mining operations. Odisha, formerly called Orissa (map), was the site of a 2008 anti-Christian pogrom in which an estimated 100 Christians were murdered, and 50,000 fled their homes. - India's bishops condemn attacks on Christians, call for police protection at Christmas (CBCI)
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India issued a statement yesterday condemning the “alarming rise in attacks on Christians in various states of our country.” “These targeted incidents, especially against peaceful carol singers and congregations gathered in churches to pray, gravely undermine India’s constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion and the right to live and worship without fear,” the bishops said, before citing specific incidents. The bishops called on Amit Shah, the nation’s Minister of Home Affairs, to “ensure strict enforcement of law and proactive protection for Christian communities so that the joyful festival of Christmas may be celebrated peacefully, in an atmosphere of security and harmony, across our beloved nation.” - Cardinal Tagle celebrates Mass for 30,000 in Dubai (Vatican News)
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, one of the two pro-prefects of the Dicastery for Evangelization, recently concluded a visit to the United Arab Emirates, where he celebrated Mass for 30,000 in Dubai (the nation’s largest city) and 18,000 in Abu Dhabi (the nation’s capital). Islam is the official religion of the Middle Eastern nation of 10 million (map); because of a large migrant population, only 75% of its residents are Muslim, while 13% are Christian (12% Catholic), 6% are Hindu, and 3% are Buddhist. Pope Francis made an apostolic journey there in 2019. - World Council of Churches' Christmas message: 'Holy Family, Holy Faith' (World Council of Churches)
Dr. Jerry Pillay, the South African Presbyterian minister who leads the World Council of Churches, has issued a Christmas message, entitled “Holy Family, Holy Faith.” “Our gauzy picture of the Holy Family and the Lord’s nativity often fails to capture the fraught situation that Luke’s gospel portrays,” he said. “Mary and Joseph’s betrothal was jeopardized by her pregnancy and potential scandal. Her confinement was upended by an imperial edict to traversing a difficult journey to a far-away town.” “Jesus himself was born on a cold night in a humble stable, and his first days were spent as a refugee fleeing danger from a mad king,” he continued. “In such desperate and unlikely circumstances did the Holy Family begin.” 350 Protestant and Orthodox communities are members of the World Council of Churches, which is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Pope Francis made an ecumenical pilgrimage to Geneva in 2018 for its 70th anniversary. - More...