Catholic News

• Biden to meet with Pope in January (Vatican News)
  Outgoing President Joe Biden will meet with Pope Francis in Rome on January 10. The White House announced that Biden had accepted an invitation from the Pope during a December 19 phone conversation, in which they had spoke about “efforts to advance peace around the world during the holiday season.” A Vatican News story about the announcement suggested another likely topic for the January 10 meeting, saying: “One of the issues that is particularly close to the Pope’s heart is the fate of prisoners on death row.” Most of the Vatican News story was devoted to the death penalty. President Biden will also meet with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during his stay in Rome. The trip will be his last overseas visit before he leaves the White House.
• Pope sends mobile hospital, ultrasound scanners to Ukraine (Vatican News)
  Pope Francis is sending a mobile hospital and six ultrasound scanners to war-torn Ukraine as a Christmas gift. The scanners will be sent to hospitals that have been damaged in the war. Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, will travel to Ukraine to deliver the gifts.
• Trump names conservative activist to be ambassador to Holy See (CatholicVote)
  President-elect Donald Trump has named Brian Burch, the president of the lay activist group CatholicVote, to serve as his ambassador to the Holy See. Having founded CatholicVote in 2005, Burch expanded the group’s influence steadily, reaching more than 200,000 people daily with an online news summary and appearing frequently on television and radio broadcasts. Trump cited him as a major factor in “having garnered more Catholic votes than any presidential candidate in history.” Burch said that he was “deeply honored and humbled” by the nomination, and looked forward to the Senate confirmation process. A graduate of the University of Dallas, Burch has worked to encourage Catholics in the promotion of Church moral teachings, clashing frequently with proponents of abortion and gender ideology. He and his wife Sara have nine children.
• Religious beliefs may allow mothers to abort their children, Indiana courts rule (Religion Clause)
  In a 3-2 decision upholding a lower court ruling, Indiana’s State Supreme Court is permitting some mothers to abort their children when “directed by their sincere religious beliefs.” In doing so, the court cited the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Indiana law currently protects most unborn children from abortion. The injunction applies to “plaintiffs whose sincerely held religious beliefs would require them to terminate a pregnancy under circumstances prohibited” by the law, ACLU of Indiana said in a statement. The organization filed the lawsuit on behalf of Hoosier Jews for Choice.
• Syrian archbishop fears imposition of shari'a (Aleteia)
  Archbishop Jacques Mourad of Homs has voiced his fears about the future of Christianity in Syria under a new government, telling the Aliteia news service that “the Islamic aspect of this group is very clear.” The archbishop—who was kidnapped by the Islamic State in 2015, and held captive for five months—was unpersuaded by statements from the new regime promising respect for religious minorities. He pointed out that government posts are being quickly filled by men who have embraced shari’a law. Under that sort of rule, he said, “there is no place for us minorities.”
• Pope names Dallas auxiliary bishop as successor to Bishop Strickland (Vatican Press Office)
  Pope Francis has named Auxiliary Bishop Greg Kelly of Dallas as the new bishop of Tyler, Texas. Born in 1956, Bishop Kelly was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Dallas in 1982 and named an auxiliary bishop in 2016. Bishop Kelly succeeds Bishop Joseph Strickland, who was removed from office in November 2023. Since that time, the Diocese of Tyler has been governed by an apostolic adminstrator, Bishop Joe Vásquez of Austin.
• 5 new auxiliary bishops named for Archdiocese of Chicago (Vatican Press Office)
  Pope Francis named five priests of the Archdiocese of Chicago—Fathers Timothy O’Malley, Lawrence Sullivan, José Maria Garcia Maldonado, Robert Fedek, and John Siemianowski—as auxiliary bishops there. The archdiocese currently has three active auxiliary bishops, in addition to five retired auxiliary bishops. Thus Chicago, an archdiocese of 2.1 million Catholics, will have eight auxiliary bishops—more than the Archdioceses of Lagos (3.3 million Catholics, no auxiliary bishops), Los Angeles (4.0 million Catholics, six auxiliary bishops), Manila (2.8 million Catholics, no auxiliary bishops), Mexico City (4.9 million Cathlics, six auxiliary bishops), Milan (4.9 million Catholics, three auxiliary bishops), New York (2.8 million Catholics, five auxiliary bishops), and São Paulo (5.1 million Catholics, six auxiliary bishops).
• Pope exhorts the young: 'do not lose the capacity for wonder' (Vatican Press Office)
  “Please do not lose the capacity for wonder,” Pope Francis said to young members of Italian Catholic Action during an audience on December 20. The Pope encouraged the young people to be “fishers of men,” but quickly that in this context “fishing” must be properly understood. “God does not want us to ‘capture’ anyone,” he said, “because He respects our freedom.” The Pontiff then spoke about the importance of wonder, urging them to recognized that “each one of us is unique, and every day is special.” This applies in a special way to Christmas, the Pope concluded. He lamented: “Christmas, for many people, is a photocopy of many things and not the encounter, which is so beautiful.”
• CCHD, US bishops' anti-poverty program, announces $2.1M in grants for 2025 (USCCB)
  The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has published the Catholic Campaign for Human Development’s grant awards for 2025. The bishops’ Subcommittee for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development has approved 87 grants, totaling $2,165,000, for 2025. An additional $120,000 in funding for five grants awaits approval by local bishops. Earlier this month, the bishops’ conference released the controversial anti-poverty program’s grant recipients for 2022-24. 167 grants totaling $8,636,100 were awarded by the subcommittee in 2022-23; 141 grants totaling $7,434,000 were awarded in 2023-24. The release of the grants lists follows the November publication the program’s 2023 annual report. CCHD had $7,284,574 in revenue and $18,696,903 in expenses in 2023, leading to an operating deficit of $11,412,329. CCHD’s net assets, which stood at nearly $8.5 million at the beginning of 2023, stood at negative $2.3 million at the end of 2023. Ralph McCloud, who was named director of CCHD in 2008, resigned from his position in April.
• Biden administration: no prosecution for attacks on churches (LifeNews)
  Although the number of attacks on churches has soared in recent months, the Biden administration has not prosecuted a single case, hearings by the House Judiciary Committee have confirmed. The Freedom of Access to Clinics (FACE) legislation, which was passed in 1994 to safeguard abortion clinics, also included penalties for anyone who “intentionally damages or destroys the property of a place of religious worship.” But the Biden administration has not pursued church vandals under that law, despite hundreds of such incidents in the past year. Congressman Chip Roy of Texas, the chairman of the House committee, noted that the Justice Department has brought FACE charges in 24 cases, of which only two involved attacks on pregnancy-help centers. “To this day,” he observed, “the FACE act has never been used in defense of a church since it was passed in 1994.”
• Nigerian woman acquitted of blasphemy against Islam (CNA)
  A Nigerian Christian woman has been acquitted of blasphemy charge, in a key legal victory for religious freedom. Rhoda Jatau, the mother of five children, was arrested in May 2022 after she shared a video message denouncing the lynching of a Christian college student. She was charged with blasphemy against Islam—an offense that can be punished by the death penalty in the Bauchi state—and had spent 19 months in prison.
• Irish high court frees Enoch Burke for Christmas (RTE)
  Ireland’s High Court has ordered the release of Enoch Burke, the teacher who has been jailed since September for contempt of court after being barred from the classroom because he would not accept an order to address “trangender” students using their preferred pronouns. But in allowing Burke to be home for Christmas, the court made it clear that he was not released from his contempt conviction. In fact Judge David Nolan, in his ruling, warned that Burke would be fined heavily if he violated the order to stay away from the school where he had taught, and insisted that the government should make provisions to attach his salary in order to collect outstanding fines for Burke’s “fruitless campaign of contempt.”
• Russian woman fined after sharing Vatican statement Dignitas Infinita (Forum 18)
  A Russian woman has been fined for “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” after she posted material on the internet that included the Vatican statement Dignitas Infinita, which allowed for blessings of same-sex couples. The woman, a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church in Russia, had also posted an essay by a co-religionist defending same-sex marriage, and a news item about an Episcopalian priest who was involved in a same-sex union.
• Muslim World League delegation meets with Pope (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))
  Pope Francis received a delegation from the Muslim World League in a December 19 audience. The Vatican issued no statement on the meeting. When Muhammad al-Isa, the organization’s leader, met with the Pontiff last year, the two discussed common values and the promotion of dialogue and understanding, according to the Muslim World League.
• 12th-century French church defaced with Satanic graffiti; Mass of reparation scheduled (La République de Seine et Marne)
  The 12th-century church in Guercheville, a hamlet of 260 in north-central France, has been defaced with Satanic graffiti. “This desecration is a serious offense for the Church and the inhabitants, a few days before Christmas,” said Father José Antonini, the regional episcopal vicar for the Diocese of Meaux, who announced that a Mass of reparation will soon be held in the church. With police approval, parishioners and other local residents “came spontaneously to erase the inscriptions,” La République de Seine et Marne reported.
• AP story profiles young Catholic woman choosing religious life (AP)
  An Associated Press story profiles a young woman who has entered religious life, and in the process notes the overall decline of women’s religious orders in the US. Among American women in religious orders, only 1% are under the age of 30. The AP story notes: “That number has remained steady in the past decade but shows little signs of increasing.” Most of the 500 communities of women religious in the US have 50 or fewer members. The overall number of women religious in the US peaked in 1965 at over 178,000; it is now under 40,000. although AP notes who are under the age of 30
• Synod Council holds 'rich debate' on synod's final document (Synod of Bishops)
  At their first meeting, the members of the 16th Ordinary Council of the Synod of Bishops held a “rich debate” on the synod on synodality’s final document, the Synod of Bishops said in a statement. At the conclusion of each assembly of the Synod of Bishops, an Ordinary Council is chosen to help implement the previous synod assembly and prepare for the next synod assembly. The synod on synodality was the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops; the members of the 16th Ordinary Council include 12 chosen by synod participants, four chosen by the Pope, and the curial prefect, yet to be named, of the dicastery associated with the next synod assembly’s topic. The “rich debate” followed a presentation on the final document by Msgr. Piero Coda, Secretary General of the International Theological Commission. During the meeting, Cardinal Mario Grech, the Synod of Bishops’ Secretary General, also called on members of the Council to be “ambassadors of synodality to your local churches so that the People of God may increasingly fall in love with the synodal Church.”
• Iraqi official denies that Pope's life was threatened (Shafaq)
  A former Iraqi official has denied that would-be assassins were thwarted in their bid to kill Pope Francis during his trip to Iraq in 2021. After Pope Francis said that two assassination plots were broken up by Iraqi police, Naim al-Jubori said that no such incidents occurred. The former governor of the Nineveh province said that tight international security protocols were in place for the papal visit, and any threat would have caused the papal visit to be cancelled. The Iraqi official said that reports of a plot against the Pope “might stem from some security entities’ attempts to achieve media gains or draw attention, or possibly from incorrect intelligence reaching the Pope.”
• Pope, in Italian newspaper article, reflects on 2025 jubilee (Vatican News)
  Pope Francis has written an article for the Roman newspaper Il Messaggero on the upcoming jubilee year. In the brief article, the Pontiff discusses the biblical roots of the jubilee and the significance of pilgrimages to Rome.
• Pope continues to call Gaza parish daily (Aid to the Church in Need)
  Pope Francis continues to call Gaza’s sole Catholic parish every evening, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem said. “He might speak for only half a minute, more on some days, less on others, but he has become the grandfather of the children, because they know that he is calling,” said Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM. “For the community in Gaza, it is a very big psychological, emotional, and spiritual support.”
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