News - December 2020 RSS Feed

In the homily prepared for New Year’s eve Vespers, Pope Francis asks how we can give thanks to God after such a difficult year. God, he says, always has compassion for us, and we are thankful for the acts of closeness, care, and solidarity that we have seen throughout 2020.

Blessings in the New Year

The execution date of Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, is currently undecided. In late December a federal judge said the Justice Department unlawfully rescheduled her execution while there had already been a stay in effect, granted because one of her attorneys tested positive for the coronavirus.

Few questions are as central to our lives as "Who am I?" Most of us encounter and answer this concern as young adults and then find ourselves returning to it at various times in our lives.

Attacked because of their faith, killed in a robbery, murdered in a general climate of violence or struck down by someone with obvious mental difficulties, the 20 missionaries who died violent deaths in 2020 were witnesses of the Gospel, said Fides, the Vatican's missionary news agency.

Helping children understand each week's Sunday scriptures with relatable cartoon characters and original music scores is how Isabella D'Angelo chooses to use her time and talents to help build the kingdom of God.

Durante cuatro años, Eleuterio "Teyo" Hernández-Ortiz ha trabajado en una granja lechera de Vermont para poder mantener a su esposa y cuatro hijas en su ciudad natal de San José Monteverde, en el sur de México.

Churches will ring bells at noon Dec. 30, during the octave of Christmas, to remember and honor the more than 336,000 people who have died in the United States from COVID-19.

20+C M B 21.” The numbers represent the current year and the letters stand for the first letters of the traditional names of the magi: Caspar (sometimes spelled “Kaspar”), Melchior and Balthazar. The letters are also an abbreviation for “Christus Mansionem Benedicat,” Latin for “May Christ bless this dwelling.”

Every day for 40 years, Pope Francis has challenged St Joseph. After saying Morning Prayer, Pope Francis writes in Patris corde, he recites a nineteenth century prayer from a French prayerbook.

Handing an important religious freedom victory to houses of worship in New York, the federal Second Circuit court ordered that the 10 and 25-person caps to worship had to be suspended while the case is pending. CNA

En la Fiesta de la Sagrada Familia, el Papa Francisco invita a seguir el modelo de la familia de Nazaret y da algunos consejos para un ambiente familiar sano: "si discuten, hagan las paces el mismo día, la guerra fría del día siguiente es muy peligrosa”.

Durante meses no ha habido la habitual afluencia de gente que llega del extranjero para visitar los lugares sagrados. Falta trabajo y las tensiones sociales van en aumento. La experiencia de la Hermana Corradin, del Caritas Baby Hospital, quien se enfrenta a las preocupaciones de salud y cuenta el sentido de la Navidad: acoger la novedad de la vida cada día.

El documento conjunto de la Comisión Vaticana Covid-19 y la Academia Pontificia para la Vida: es una responsabilidad moral aceptar la vacuna no sólo para la salud individual sino también para la salud pública.

Boko Haram, the jihadist terrorist group active in northeast Nigeria, struck again on Christmas Eve, killing at least 11 people

Armed men in Nigeria have kidnapped the Auxiliary Bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri, Imo State, in Eastern Nigeria.

The burning of two Christmas trees in the early morning of Dec. 26 in the northern Israeli Arab city of Sakhnine was carried out "intentionally and premeditatedly," said the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land.

Addressing political, social and economic concerns in their Christmas messages, Nigerian bishops urged their people to stay strong in hope but also warned the country's politicians to change their ways.

The Vatican's coronavirus commission and the Pontifical Academy for Life issued a joint statement calling for a coordinated international effort to ensure the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide .

The White House issued a proclamation honoring the 850th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket Dec. 29 and inviting "the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches and customary places of meeting with appropriate ceremonies."