Most Popular News Within Last 30 Days
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Vatican newspaper headline: ‘Washington: Democracy Wounded’
“Politics cannot ignore individual responsibility, especially on the part of the person who is in power and is able—through a polarizing narrative—to mobilize thousands of people,” the Vatican newspaper’s assistant director, Giuseppe Fiorentino, wrote in an op-ed. “He who sows the wind reaps the whirlwind, and at this point it is easy to tie the events in Washington to the accusations of fraud launched by Trump after the voting Nov. 3, accusations that never found objective confirmation.”
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Vatican approves, encourages Covid vaccine use
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has issued a statement concluding that “it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that used cells lines from aborted fetuses in...3
Crisis is healthy for Church, Pope tells Curia
In his Christmas address to the Roman Curia, Pope Francis said that crisis can be beneficial to the Church, but conflict is always destructive. The annual address to the Vatican leadership has...4
Gloria Purvis’ radio show ‘Morning Glory’ pulled from EWTN’s airwaves
Purvis is a member of the National Black Catholic Congress’ Leadership Commission on Social Justice and chairperson for Black Catholics United for Life. Our Sunday Visitor listed her among its 2020 Catholics of the year.5
Cardinal Dolan: The radicals who defaced St. Patrick’s Cathedral are pure bigots
New York’s cathedral has “been defaced with vile graffiti attacking both the Catholic faith and the men and women of the New York Police Department,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan said. “A similar outrage occurred last summer amid the sad violence afflicting American cities. At that time, I let it go, figuring I needn’t stoke the embers of anger that were burning throughout our country. Not this time.”6
Pope Francis: Christmas Message Urbi et Orbi (To the City and the World)
“I would like to bring to everyone the message that the Church proclaims on this feast with the words of the prophet Isaiah: ‘To us a child is born, to us a son is given’” (Isaiah 9:6), the Pontiff said at the beginning of his message, delivered in the Hall of Benediction of St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Day (video).7
‘To us a son is given,’ Pope Francis emphasizes at Christmas Eve Mass
Pope Francis celebrated the Holy Mass of Christmas night in St. Peter’s Basilica on the evening of December 24 (video, booklet). “Tonight, the great prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: ‘For to us a child is born, to us a son is given’” (Isaiah 9:6), Pope Francis preached at the beginning of his homily.8
Incoming Dublin archbishop open to female deacons, blessings for same-sex couples
The newly appointed Archbishop of Dublin has expressed support for the ordination of women as deacons, and suggested that Church tradition is the main impediment to a female priesthood. “That’s the hurdle that has to be overcome,” he said. The archbishop-elect also said that “I don’t have a difficulty” with a priest who blesses rings for a homosexual couple, as long as the blessing is conferred privately, rather than in a church ceremony that might appear equivalent to a wedding.9
Pope will not preside at New Year’s Eve Te Deum, January 1 Mass in St. Peter’s
Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, announced that Pope Francis is suffering from painful sciatica. Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re (the Dean of the College of Cardinals) will preside at the Te Deum, and Cardinal Pietro Parolin (the Vatican’s Secretary of State) will preside at the January 1 Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. Pope Francis will deliver an Angelus address on January 1 from the library of the Apostolic Palace.10
