Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish

Daughters of Charity Congregation in Cuba. / Credit: Archdiocese of Havana

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 15, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Cuba is facing a shortage of religious vocations to the point that the country is losing almost one women’s religious congregation each year. Even so, the presence of consecrated men and women remains an indispensable pillar for sustaining the Church’s evangelizing mission on the island.

In an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Father Ricardo Alberto Sola, president of the Cuban Conference of Religious, explained that consecrated life on the island “is very rich,” although it has suffered a significant decline in recent years.

“We are losing almost one women’s religious congregation per year, as they leave Cuba due to the vocational crisis and their inability to maintain their presence because of a shortage of people,” the priest warned.

The priest noted that there are currently about 118 religious congregations in Cuba, mostly female, with around 700 sisters and just over 140 priests from 65 different countries. According to figures from the pontifical institution Aid to the Church in Need, there are a total of 370 priests (religious and diocesan) in the country, for a ratio of one priest per 20,872 faithful.

Despite this situation, Sola said that “consecrated life in Cuba is fundamental to fulfilling the mission of faith and the Gospel in Cuba” and warned that, without them, “more than half of the services would collapse today; they wouldn’t be sustainable.”

He insisted on the urgent need to “nurture and strengthen” this presence, which is essential for pastoral work on the island.

To learn firsthand about the situation of vocations in Cuba, Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, pro-prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and Daniela Leggio, head of the promotion and formation section, visited the country from Nov. 22 to Dec. 2.

According to Sola, the cardinal traveled for 15 hours by road from Havana to La Caridad de Cobre, where he held several meetings in which he “spoke with everyone, gave them his blessing, listened to their problems and the urgent needs of the country.”

Sola said this visit reaffirmed the commitment of those in consecrated life to “be at the service of the people, and especially the most needy and the communities having the hardest time.”

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

Pope Leo XIV gives his apostolic blessing at the end of the general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Nov. 12, 2025. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, Dec 15, 2025 / 07:48 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Monday condemned a deadly attack on the Jewish community in Sydney and entrusted the victims to God in prayer.

“Today I wish to entrust to the Lord the victims of the terrorist attack carried out yesterday in Sydney against the Jewish community,” the pope said Dec. 15, referring to a shooting during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach that left at least 15 people dead and some 40 others injured.

The Holy Father expressed his spiritual closeness to those affected by the violence, which occurred as more than 1,000 people had gathered to mark the start of Hanukkah, also known as the Feast of Lights — one of the most important celebrations in the Jewish calendar.

According to local media reports, two armed assailants opened fire on the crowd, sparking panic and a mass flight toward the beach and nearby businesses. One attacker was killed during the police response, while the second remains in critical condition. Authorities are investigating possible links between the attackers and a jihadist terrorist organization. Among the victims were a child and a Holocaust survivor.

The pope made his remarks during a Vatican audience with delegations that donated this year’s Christmas tree and Nativity scenes for St. Peter’s Square and the Paul VI Audience Hall. During the same encounter, Leo also reflected on the meaning of Christmas, urging the faithful to “let the tenderness of the Child Jesus illuminate our lives.”

Catholic leaders in Australia also responded with prayer and a strong condemnation of antisemitism. Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney called for prayer and invoked the intercession of the Virgin Mary in the immediate aftermath of the Dec. 14 shooting.

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

A general view shows the West Kowloon court sign where jailed Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai’s national security trial was taking place in Hong Kong on Aug. 28, 2025. / Credit: VERNON YUEN/AFP via Getty Images

CNA Staff, Dec 15, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Jimmy Lai, the Catholic human rights advocate whose long-running national security trial in China has drawn criticism and charges of persecution, was found guilty on Dec. 15 of multiple violations of China’s national security laws, bringing an end to several years of what advocates have described as a politically motivated show trial against a popular Hong Kong publisher.

Lai, 78, is facing up to life in prison. His sentence will be handed down at a later date.

His U.K.-based attorneys at Doughty Street Chambers on Dec. 15 called the verdict “a stain on a once enviable Hong Kong legal system.” Lead counsel Caoilfhionn Gallagher described Lai as “a brave, brilliant 78-year-old man” convicted in a “vindictive and grossly unfair verdict.”

“After five long years of imprisonment, which violates international law, it is time to end this sham process and release Mr Lai,” she said. “If China fails to release him immediately and unconditionally, the international community must hold China to account.”

Lai’s son Sebastien described the ruling as “a dark day for anyone who believes in truth, freedom, and justice.”

“My family and I are saddened but not surprised by the guilty verdict in my father’s case,” he said. “We have always known that my father was being prosecuted solely for his courageous journalism and unwavering commitment to democracy.”

Lai’s daughter Claire, meanwhile, said the verdict “proves that the authorities still fear our father, even in his weakened state, for what he represents.”

“We stand by his innocence and condemn this miscarriage of justice,” she said, calling on the United States to “continue to exert pressure for my father to be returned to our family so that he can recover in peace.”

The verdict caps off a yearslong legal process that has seen Lai prosecuted and convicted on numerous other charges including fraud and unlawful assembly. The former publishing mogul had already been handed multiple lengthy prison sentences ahead of Monday’s verdict.

‘Our Lady is protecting him’

Lai, who converted to Catholicism in 1997, was previously known as one of Hong Kong’s most outspoken human rights advocates. For several decades he sat at the helm of a small media empire that included Apple Daily, an outspoken pro-democracy tabloid in a political environment tightly controlled by the Communist Party of China.

Arrested in 2020, Lai was charged with violations of China’s then-new Hong Kong national security law. The security measure was broadly viewed as a means for Communist Party leaders to exert greater control over the special administrative region, particularly after widespread human rights protests in 2019.

In the coming years Lai would be sentenced multiple times to prison sentences ranging from 14 months to nearly six years on charges that included participating in the 2019 protests and lease fraud.

Lai’s plight has drawn support and advocacy from around the world, including from Catholic leaders and organizations. In 2021 he was awarded the Christifidelis Laici award by organizers of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, while the next year he was given an honorary degree from The Catholic University of America.

In 2023 Lai was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize alongside Cardinal Joseph Zen and numerous others for their work in promoting human rights in Hong Kong. That same year nearly a dozen bishops and archbishops from around the world called for Lai’s release, criticizing the “cruelty and oppression” to which he had been subject for years.

Lai’s family has periodically spoken out in favor of the jailed activist. Speaking to EWTN News in August, Lai’s son Sebastien described his father’s legal trial as a “kangaroo court,” though he said his father was “still strong in spirit and still strong in mind” even as his health faltered.

Lai’s daughter Claire, meanwhile, told EWTN News President and COO Montse Alvarado this month that the family has “waited a very, very long time for his cases to be resolved.”

“As a daughter, every day I wake up and I hope that today is the day we get my dad home ... the day we get to go to Mass together, or to eat dinner around the table, things that years ago I almost took for granted,” she said.

Claire described her reaction to hearing that her father had fallen down in prison one day and was unable to get up: “When you’re a daughter … and you hear stories like that, you wish you could yourself physically pull him up when he is in pain like that.”

Yet Lai reportedly prayed to the Blessed Mother upon falling, Claire said, at which point he was able to regain his feet. “[Y]ou find such great comfort in the fact that Our Lady is protecting him,” she said.

Support from President Trump

Lai’s imprisonment and trials have even drawn support from President Donald Trump. In August the Republican president said he intended to do “everything” possible to free Lai from prison. Trump subsequently spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping in October, urging him to release Lai.

He has further drawn support from the U.S. Congress, including the Nobel Prize nomination and a call for sanctions against Hong Kong officials if Lai isn’t released from prison.

British political leaders have also called for his release, as have advocates at the United Nations. The “Support Jimmy Lai” initiative says Lai has spent just over 1,800 days in prison.

On Dec. 15 U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the government condemned the “politically motivated prosecution” that handed down the verdict.

“Jimmy Lai has been targeted by the Chinese and Hong Kong governments for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression,” she said, adding that British leaders will “continue to call for Mr. Lai’s immediate release, for all necessary treatment, and for full access to independent medical professionals.”

In addition to his other awards, Lai in October was given the 2025 World Press Freedom Hero award by the International Press Institute. The Bradley Foundation this year also named him an honorary recipient of its Bradley Prize.

Mass at Arizona State University’s Newman Center chapel. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Father Bill Clements, director of ASU Newman Center

Ann Arbor, Michigan, Dec 15, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Several college campuses across the country are witnessing a notable rise in baptisms and confirmations among students. Catholic evangelists tell CNA that this growth reflects a deepening desire among young adults for certainty, stability, and faith amid today’s turbulent cultural landscape.

For example, at Arizona State University, the Newman Center is experiencing its largest group of students entering the Church. Ryan Ayala, a former seminarian and campus minister who has served at ASU for three years, oversees the evangelization efforts. 

“This past semester, we welcomed 52 students into the Church at Christ the King Parish” in Mesa, Ayala said. “And we are expecting 50 more for the Easter Vigil this spring.” According to Ayala, this year marked a record number of students received into the Catholic Church at ASU.

Each year, ASU’s campus ministry prepares students for baptism, confirmation, and full communion through a fall vigil held in collaboration with Christ the King Parish. Students enter the Church from a wide range of backgrounds: Some encounter Christianity for the first time, others come from Protestant communities, and still others are baptized Catholics preparing to complete their sacraments. 

This year’s group included eight catechumens who were baptized, 26 Christians who made affirmations of faith, and a significant number of Catholics who received confirmation. The ceremony took place on the feast of Christ the King, Nov. 23.

Ayala attributes the growth in part to simple, consistent outreach. “No phone call goes unanswered,” he said. Students come from Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and nondenominational evangelical backgrounds. Those not yet baptized often come from nonreligious homes, and two identified as atheists. One Muslim student is expected to join the program in January. ASU enrolls approximately 200,000 students.

Overall, participation in ASU’s OCIA (Order of Christian Initiation of Adults) program has more than doubled. “This is by far the biggest class we’ve had,” Ayala said.

Supporting this expansion are missionaries from the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), who lead Bible studies and accompany students in their growing faith. Ayala supervises the missionaries and has completed FOCUS formation himself. The Newman Center offers a focused nine-week OCIA process — shorter than the traditional yearlong program — requiring weekly sessions alongside FOCUS Bible studies.

Reflecting on the surge of interest, Ayala sees both cultural and pastoral dynamics at work. “Two things are going on in this surge. There’s a trend in Gen Z. They are asking deeper, philosophical, and theological questions. Some students were shaken up by the shooting of Charlie Kirk. The other thing is simply responding to emails. I ask my staff to be diligent to inquirers. The most important thing is to respond and give them clarity about how to become Catholic.”

“Our main strategy is to have an urgency to respond to them,” he added. “It was so moving to see all those students from other faith traditions stand up and make the commitment to become Catholic.”

Ayala also noted the role of Catholic media, highlighting one student influenced by Father Mike Schmitz’s online ministry. He further praised the spiritual guidance of Father Bill Clements, who leads the Newman Center. “He does a great job humanizing the priesthood but also removing a lot of the anxieties that newcomers to the faith may have.”

Clements, who has directed the Newman Center for 15 years, reports that about 400 students participate in weekly FOCUS Bible studies, and approximately 1,500 attend one of the six weekend Masses. He said he has seen a clear shift in the past two years.

“In the last two years, a switch was flipped. I think people are tired of crazy. They’re hungry for some direction, truth, goodness, and beauty. We have one of the most beautiful Newman chapels in the country,” he said, “and that has been a huge attraction.”

To meet the growing demand, Clements expanded the OCIA schedule. “I revamped the OCIA process here. When people would hit me up at this time of year, I would have to tell them that we start that in the fall. But I couldn’t stand making people wait. So now I have three sessions: fall, spring, and summer.”

He credited FOCUS missionaries for their close accompaniment of students. “They appeal to students. It affords students a chance to connect with other Catholics, and it’s been instrumental in reviving interest in the Church. The missionaries work hard,” he said.

One student, Yailen Cho, received baptism and confirmation on Nov. 23 at the ASU Newman Chapel. She told CNA: “I didn’t grow up very religious at all. My dad became Catholic two years ago, but I didn’t have any religious background.” 

Cho now regularly attends Mass and says the FOCUS program helped deepen her reading of the Gospels. Reflecting on her journey, she shared: “I’d had a prayer relationship with God for a while, and I had prayed that my heart would be softened towards God.”

After wrestling with questions of faith, she reached out to the Newman Center, which she said she found “very warm and welcoming.”

Directing a message to others considering the Catholic faith, she said: “I want everyone to be happy, and I want to be happy. If you live by the Word, as the Bible says, you can be happy in heaven forever.”

Meanwhile, in Michigan and Nebraska

Similar momentum is evident at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Rita Zyber, OCIA coordinator at St. Mary Student Parish, said 50 students are currently preparing to enter the Church. Last Easter, 30 students were received, compared with about 20 in 2024.

With daily liturgies and seven weekend Masses, the parish remains consistently full. One Mass was added this year to accommodate greater attendance. “They are packed,” Zyber said.

Reflecting on the increase, she noted: “There is so much chaos in the world. They are looking for structure, stability, and some grounding in God.”

The parish is staffed by Jesuit priests whose Ignatian spirituality resonates strongly with students, Zyber said. She added that other campus and parish OCIA programs across Michigan are seeing similar growth.

In a report last month in the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, Father Ryan Kaup, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Church and Newman Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, characterized the current situation as “a golden age of campus ministry.”

Kaup reported that this past spring, 72 converts entered the Church at the Easter Vigil. So far this semester, they already have 125 students interested in joining the Church, he said.

Pope Leo XIV places a crown on the Madonna of Sinti, Roma, and Walking Peoples during the audience of the Jubilee of the Roma, Sinti, and Traveling Peoples in Paul VI Hall at the Vatican on Oct. 18, 2025. / Credit: Filippo Monteforte/AFP via Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 15, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Some Protestant scholars who spoke with CNA welcomed a Vatican document that clarified titles for the Blessed Virgin Mary that discouraged the use of Co-Redemptrix/Co-Redeemer and put limits on the use of Mediatrix/Mediator.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) issued the doctrinal note Mater Populi Fidelis on Nov. 4. It was approved by Pope Leo XIV and signed by DDF Prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández on Oct. 7.

According to the document, using “Co-Redemptrix” to explain Mary’s role in salvation “would not be appropriate.” The document is less harsh about using “Mediatrix” and says “if misunderstood, it could easily obscure or even contradict” Mary’s role in mediation.

The document affirms Mary plays a role in both redemption and mediation because she freely cooperates with Jesus Christ. That role, it explains, is always “subordinate” to Christ, and it warned against using titles in a way that could be misconstrued to mitigate Christ as the sole Redeemer and sole Mediator.

Catholic reactions have been mixed, with some seeing the clarification as helpful and others defending the titles as consistent with the understanding of Mary’s role as subordinate and asking the Vatican to formally define the doctrines themselves rather than simply issue a note on the titles.

Positive reactions from Protestants

CNA spoke with three Protestant scholars, all of whom welcomed the Vatican’s doctrinal note on titles for Mary.

David Luy, theology professor at the North American Lutheran Seminary, told CNA he does not see the document as “Roman Catholics conceding anything to their tradition” but did see it as being written “with an attentiveness” toward certain concerns that Protestants raise.

Although Protestant communities vary widely on how they view Mary and what titles are proper, he said concern over the titles in question “sprouts from a desire to uphold the distinctiveness of Christ as the one mediator.”

Luy cited the second chapter of First Timothy. The translation of the text approved by the U.S. Catholic bishops states: “For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as ransom for all.”

He said Protestants often emphasize the need to “uphold the distinctive mediatorship of Christ” and saw the document as expressing a “sensibility to that central Protestant concern” while also being careful “in the way it develops Mary’s role in the economy of salvation.”

“Does it relieve potential strain between Protestants and Catholics? The short answer would be yes,” Luy said.

However, he said the concept of mediation “is probably where there’d be a need for just ongoing conversation.” He said Lutherans understand the term “mediation” as being “the means through which God acts in the world” and that “most Lutherans are going to be cautious” of language that describes Mary in terms of mediation.

Catholic teaching recognizes Christ as “the one mediator,” according to Lumen Gentium, the dogmatic constitution on the Church issued by the Second Vatican Council in 1964. It teaches that humans cooperate with Christ’s mediation in a subordinate way and “the Church does not hesitate to profess this subordinate role of Mary.”

The Rev. Cynthia Rigby, a theology professor at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and co-author of “Blessed One: Protestant Perspectives on Mary,” told CNA she thinks the document could mark “a watershed moment” for relations between Catholics and Protestants.

Rigby said Mary should be understood as a woman with “great faith,” and, under that framing, “Christians will identify her less as a secondary savior but as an exemplary Christian.” She said “the weight will shift from trying to explain how it is that Mary brokers salvation without rivaling Christ … to what we can learn about the joy of salvation through her example.”

The Vatican document, however, goes much further than Rigby on Mary’s role. It states that she freely cooperates “in the work of human salvation through faith and obedience” during the time that Christ walked the earth and throughout the ongoing life of the Church rather than simply viewing her as an example to follow.

Tom Krattenmaker, a Lutheran pastor and theology professor at Yale Divinity School, told CNA the document is “very welcome” and called Mariology “one of the major points distinguishing Christian traditions since the Reformation.”

He said the guidance on titles and the explanation provided in the document are “extraordinarily helpful for ecumenical dialogue” because they affirm Christ as the sole redeemer and mediator and Pope Leo XIV “makes very clear that we can say so in ecumenical communality.”

Krattenmaker said this “is a reason for Protestants to embrace the clear step forward he is making toward Christian unity."

The Vatican document did not expressly state that ecumenism was the intended goal. However, the subject of Catholic Marian devotions is a frequent point of contention. The document did not alter any doctrines in dispute but instead focused on titles the dicastery felt may cause confusion about what the Church actually teaches about Mary.

Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney, Australia. / Credit: EWTN News

EWTN News, Dec 14, 2025 / 23:02 pm (CNA).

Catholic leaders in Australia have issued strong condemnations of what they described as a “festering” atmosphere of antisemitism, following a terrorist attack on a Hanukkah celebration on Sunday at Sydney’s Bondi Beach that left 16 people dead.

Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney issued a statement expressing “profound grief and righteous anger” at the violence.

“That a celebration of the Jewish feast of Hanukkah could end in at least 16 dead, including a young child, and many more injured, horrifies ordinary Australians,” Fisher said.

“The brazen and callous disregard for human life, and the hatred of some people toward all Jews, is an unspeakable evil that must be repudiated by every Australian.”

Personal connection for the archbishop

Fisher warned that an “atmosphere of public antisemitism has festered” in Sydney for more than two years, pointing specifically to inflammatory activity near the city’s Catholic cathedral.

“Opposite my own cathedral in Hyde Park there have been weekly demonstrations where inflammatory messages have been regularly articulated, which could only have ‘turned up the temperature’ and perhaps contributed to radicalisation,” he said. “This must stop.”

The archbishop also revealed a personal connection to the tragedy, noting his own Jewish ancestry: “My great-grandmother was a Jew… Christians are children of the Jews,” he wrote. “And so, an attack on the Jews is an attack on all of us.”

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, SDB, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, joined Fisher in condemning “the scourge of antisemitism,” saying the violence had “shaken Australians to the core.”

“The twisted motives behind those who perpetrated these terrible acts are now clearly linked with the scourge of antisemitism,” Costelloe said. “This is a shocking and deeply distressing reality that calls into question our own understanding of ourselves as Australians.”

He warned that “blind prejudice and hatred point to a dark and destructive stain in our society that threatens not just our Jewish brothers and sisters but, in fact, all of us.”

Fisher announced that the Catholic community would “redouble its efforts” to combat antisemitism through education and preaching. He also offered Catholic educational and counseling services to the Jewish community while their own institutions are “locked down or overwhelmed.”

“We love our Jewish neighbors and friends, and we must do all we can to keep them safe,” Fisher said.

Terrorist incident declared

Authorities confirmed that a 10-year-old girl was among those killed when two gunmen opened fire on the “Chanukah by the Sea” gathering on Sunday evening. More than 40 others were injured.

New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner Mal Lanyon confirmed the attackers were a father and son, identified by local media and police sources as 50-year-old Sajid Akram and his 24-year-old son, Naveed Akram.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that Naveed Akram had been investigated six years ago by Australia’s domestic intelligence agency, ASIO, for his links to a Sydney-based Islamic State cell.

ABC cited an unnamed senior official from the joint counterterrorism task force who said Naveed was believed to have had close ties to Isaac El Matari, an Islamic State member arrested in July 2019 and later convicted of preparing a terrorist act.

The elder Akram was shot and killed by police at the scene. His son remains in critical condition under police guard.

Authorities raided the family’s home in the Sydney suburb of Bonnyrigg on Sunday night, where police said they discovered improvised explosive devices in a vehicle linked to the attackers. The shooting has been formally declared a terrorist incident.

Costelloe praised the “remarkable courage of the police and other first responders.”

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns highlighted the actions of a bystander who tackled one of the gunmen, calling him a “genuine hero” who saved lives.

‘An act of evil’

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the violence as a “targeted attack on Jewish Australians” and an “act of evil.”

“To the Jewish community, we stand with you,” Albanese said. “You have the right to worship and study and live and work in peace and safety. An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian.”

Last update on Dec. 14 at 11:34 p.m. ET with further details.

Pope Leo XIV greets pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican for the Angelus on December 14, 2025. / Vatican Media

Vatican City, Dec 14, 2025 / 08:05 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday voiced deep concern over renewed fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, urging an immediate end to violence and a return to dialogue in line with ongoing peace efforts.

After leading pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square in praying the Angelus on the Third Sunday of Advent, the pope said he was “following with deep concern the resumption of fighting in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

“While expressing my closeness to the people, I urge the parties in the conflict to cease all forms of violence and to seek constructive dialogue, respecting the ongoing peace process,” he said.

The pope’s appeal came amid reports of intensified clashes involving the M23 rebel group in the mineral-rich eastern region, despite a recently signed peace agreement between Congolese and Rwandan leaders.

Pope Leo also recalled recent beatifications of martyrs in Spain and France, praising their fidelity to the faith amid persecution. “Let us praise the Lord for these martyrs, courageous witnesses to the Gospel, persecuted and killed for remaining close to their people and faithful to the Church,” he said.

Earlier, in his catechesis before leading the Angelus, Pope Leo reflected on the Gospel reading for the Third Sunday of Advent, which presents John the Baptist imprisoned for his preaching yet still seeking the truth about Jesus.

From prison, John hears “about the works of Christ” and sends his disciples to ask whether Jesus is truly the one who is to come, the pope noted. Jesus’ response, he said, points not to abstract claims but to concrete signs.

“Christ announces who he is by what he does. And what he does is a sign of salvation for all of us,” Pope Leo said. Encountering Jesus, he explained, restores meaning to lives marked by darkness and suffering: “The blind see, the mute speak, the deaf hear… Even the dead, who are completely lifeless, come back to life. This is the Gospel of Jesus, the good news proclaimed to the poor.”

“The words of Jesus free us from the prison of despair and suffering,” the pope said, adding that Christ “gives voice to the oppressed and to those whose voices have been silenced by violence and hatred” and “defeats ideologies that make us deaf to the truth.”

Concluding his reflection, Pope Leo said that Advent calls Christians to unite their expectation of the Savior with attentiveness to God’s action in the world. “Then we will be able to experience the joy of freedom in encountering our Savior,” he said, echoing the Church’s celebration of Gaudete Sunday.

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

Holy Week in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa sector. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Holy Week Organizing Committee in Iztapalapa

Puebla, Mexico, Dec 14, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

The perennially popular representation of the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ, held every Holy Week in the Iztapalapa sector of Mexico City, has been declared a Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The decision was made during a UNESCO meeting in New Delhi, India, where the nomination of the Iztapalapa Way of the Cross was reviewed and approved.

Speaking at the event, Edaly Quiroz, deputy director of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, said that Holy Week in Iztapalapa is not merely a theatrical performance but a manifestation “of unity, faith, and resilience that brings together thousands of people in a collective exercise of memory, identity, and participation.”

On its website, UNESCO states that this list includes “practices, knowledge, and expressions that communities recognize as part of their cultural identity” and emphasizes the need to protect them for future generations.

Juan Pablo Serrano, custodian of the image of the Lord of the Little Cave in the Iztapalapa Cathedral, explained in an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that this tradition is closely linked to the origin of the image and a 19th-century promise made by the community.

He recounted that in 1687, an image of Christ was being transported from Oaxaca to Mexico City for restoration. During the journey, those carrying it rested in a cave in the Hill of the Star, and when they tried to resume their trip, “they could no longer move the image.”

“It was understood that the image representing Christ in the tomb wanted to remain there. [Being in a cave] a very particular devotion began to develop,” he noted.

Serrano explained that the direct connection with the depiction of the Stations of the Cross arose in 1833 during a cholera epidemic. Faced with the high death toll, the inhabitants carried the image in procession and asked for Christ’s intercession. After several days of prayer, the plague ceased, an event that was interpreted as a miracle.

Approximately 2 million attendees in 2025

Following that event, the community vowed to reenact the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ every year as a sign of gratitude, and each year the tradition has grown, both in the number of participants and the audience. In Holy Week 2025 alone, it drew approximately 2 million people.

Serrano expressed his joy at the recognition, which he said “is something we [the residents] always boast about with pride and honor.”

He noted that during the years he has been in charge of the image he has witnessed the arrival of thousands of visitors, including people who do not identify as Catholic, who “when drawn by the representation, visit the image, visit the church, and experience a true reflection in their hearts and a real conversion.”

Serrano emphasized that this new status represents a greater commitment for the community so the celebration can continue to be “an expression of gratitude to God. Everything done as an offering to God ultimately becomes [a form of] catechesis and evangelization.”

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

The fir tree and the Nativity scene are ready for the dedication in St. Peter’s Square on Dec. 15, 2025. / Credit: Victoria Cardiel/EWTN News

Vatican City, Dec 14, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

The Governorate of Vatican City State has announced the origins of the fir tree and Nativity scenes that will adorn St. Peter’s Square and the Paul VI Audience Hall this Christmas as well as those who prepared the tree’s decorations.

The decorations in St. Peter’s Square will once again have an Italian touch.

The chosen tree, an imposing 80-foot Norway spruce, comes from the town of Val d’Ultimo in Ultental, one of the most picturesque and lesser-known valleys of South Tyrol in the Alto Adige region of Italy. Along with the large tree, 40 smaller trees destined for Vatican offices and buildings will arrive soon.

In a novel initiative to ensure environmental sustainability and respect for nature, after Christmas, the main fir tree will be used to produce essential oils — a process that will be handled by the Austrian company Wilder Naturprodukte — and the rest of the wood will be donated to a charitable organization.

The Nativity scene, which is more of a village scene and will include life-size figures, will also be monumental in size. It measures 56 feet in length and is nearly 40 feet wide with a height of 25 feet and comes from the Diocese of Nocera Inferiore-Sarno, one of the oldest in Italy whose origins date back to the third century, when Nuceria Alfaterna — the ancient Roman city in the Sarno Valley — already had an organized Christian community.

The scene recreates emblematic elements of early Christian art from this region of Italy and includes a reproduction of the sixth-century baptistery from St. Mary Major Basilica, one of the best-preserved in the country. It also features an octagonal baptismal pool and frescoes that reveal Byzantine influences.

Also represented is the Helvius Fountain (“Fons Helvii”), an ancient monumental Roman fountain built between the first and second centuries A.D. associated with a local aqueduct that supplied water to the Roman population.

Upon this symbolic architecture unfolds a narrative that fuses sacred art, cultural heritage, and local identity.

The life-size figures of the Holy Family have been created by craftsman Federico Iaccarino, and the rest of the Nativity scene will include characters inspired by saints associated with this Italian region.

For example, among those represented are St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, who in 1732 founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists), dedicated to evangelizing the most abandoned, especially in rural and marginalized areas; and a shepherd inspired by the Servant of God Don Enrico Smaldone, a priest who dedicated his life to caring for orphans, poor young people, and people with intellectual disabilities, for whom he created educational initiatives and welcoming spaces within the Church.

Around them, shepherds and animals parade across a pavement that evokes the ancient Roman roads.

In the central scene, Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus are accompanied by the ox and the donkey, the three Wise Men, and a shepherdess offering local produce — artichokes, San Marzano tomatoes, and dried fruit — as a tribute to the land that inspired the work.

The ensemble includes elements that invite spiritual reflection: a pendulum clock that alludes to the passage of time, an observer leaning over a balcony representing the human perspective on the mystery, and a fisherman holding an anchor, a symbol of faith and the spiritual journey of the jubilee.

The luminous star with a tail in the shape of an anchor that crowns the composition stands out, uniting the celestial and the earthly in a single gesture of hope.

The dedication will take place Monday, Dec. 15, at 5 p.m. local time in a ceremony presided over by Sister Raffaella Petrini, president of the Governorate of Vatican City State, accompanied by Archbishop Emilio Nappa and lawyer Giuseppe Puglisi-Alibrandi, general secretaries of the Vatican body.

The day will begin with several audiences with Pope Leo XIV, who will receive in the morning the delegations that donated the tree and those responsible for the huge Nativity scene that will adorn the square.

Among others, the afternoon ceremony will be attended by Bishop Ivo Muser of Bolzano-Bressanone; the mayor of Lagundo, Alexandra Ganner; and the mayor of Ultimo, Stefan Schwarz.

During the morning, the official presentation of a Nativity scene from Costa Rica, which will be installed this year in the Paul VI Audience Hall, will also take place.

Titled “Nacimiento Gaudium” (“Nativity of Joy”), the work by Costa Rican artist Paula Sáenz Soto, is an “affirmation of life from conception.” The piece consists of a figure of a pregnant Virgin Mary and 28,000 colored ribbons that symbolize lives preserved thanks to the support provided by Catholic organizations to pregnant women in vulnerable situations.

The Nativity scene — 16 feet long, 10 feet high, and 8 feet deep — will feature two interchangeable representations of the Virgin Mary: an image of her pregnant during Advent and another of her adoring the newborn child from Christmas Eve onward. In addition, 400 ribbons with prayers and wishes from children at the National Hospital of San José, Costa Rica, will be placed in the manger on Dec. 24.

The Costa Rican delegation that will meet with the pope will be composed of First Lady Signe Zeicate; her daughter, Isabel Chaves Zeicate; and the country’s ambassador to the Holy See, Federico Zamora.

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

The Rorate Caeli Advent Mass celebrated at The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion. / Credit: The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion

CNA Staff, Dec 14, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Advent is a season filled with rich Catholic traditions, but a slightly lesser-known one is growing in popularity among younger Catholics.

The ancient liturgy of the Rorate Caeli Advent Mass honors the Blessed Virgin Mary through a Mass celebrated at dawn, in complete darkness, and lit only by candles, which symbolizes Christ, the Light of the World, entering into the world with Mary as the vessel. 

Emerging in the Middle Ages, the Rorate Caeli Mass gets its name from the prophecy of Isaiah. Rorate Caeli is Latin for “drop down, ye heavens.” These are the opening words of this liturgy’s Introit, which is used as an opening psalm or entrance antiphon and comes from Isaiah 45:8.

Father Tony Stephens, rector at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Champion, Wisconsin, calls this Mass “a teachable moment.”

“As all of us are gathered in the church, only lit with the candles, slowly the light begins coming in through the windows and it’s like the light of Christ,” he told CNA. The process symbolizes “the light of Christ coming into our lives, slowly but surely and progressively as we go through life.”

“And just like that light begins to come in through the windows, as the physical sun rises, so in our journey as Catholics, the closer we get to Christ, the more his light shines in our life,” he said.

Stephens has been rector of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion for two years but was scheduled to celebrate the Rorate Caeli Mass there for the first time on Dec. 13. The shrine is the first and only approved Marian apparition site in the United States. It was here that the Blessed Mother is believed to have appeared to Adele Brise in 1859. 

When speaking about the Blessed Mother’s role in Advent, Stephens described it as “a season of anticipating Our Lord, but when you look at the subtext of Advent, things about Mary are everywhere — in the readings and her role in salvation history is so important. And so that’s, again, part of the reason you have these special Marian Masses honoring her during this Advent season.”

He also highlighted the fact that this ancient Mass is seeing a resurgence in popularity and credited Pope Benedict XVI, in part, for reintroducing Catholics to older, traditional practices and his “desire of the hermeneutic of continuity.” 

“He in his pontificate really emphasized a desire to have that continuity between the earlier traditions of the Church, even prior to the [Vatican II] council … looking at all of the rich liturgical heritage that we have as Catholics,” he added. 

The priest pointed out that young people are also searching for more traditional practices.

“There is a great love, especially amongst young people, for things that are traditional,” he said, adding that the Mass also “appeals to the senses in a way that technology and phones don’t.” 

“The real light of a candle is way different than the electronic light put off by a cellphone screen,” he said. “A burning, living candle, the way it flickers, and you can’t recharge a candle — it gives everything it has like Jesus did on the cross. A candle burns with all its might to put off that light. And so there is a selflessness about that light of that candle that’s different than technology, and young people desire that kind of self-gift and authenticity.”

Stephens said he hopes those who attend a Rorate Caeli Mass will leave with “an eager anticipation of Jesus coming at Christmastime.”

“A Rorate Caeli Mass is one of those times that we can have a little consolation and we’re reminded of the author of all consolation and his mother,” he said.