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CNA Staff, Dec 23, 2024 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

Papal preacher Father Roberto Pasolini urged Church leaders to embrace the quality of "littleness" ahead of the Christmas holiday, calling on the faithful to imitate Christ and arguing against the need to feel "important in the eyes of others." 

Pasolini, who was appointed to the role of papal preacher last month, told members of the Roman Curia on Dec. 20 that God "sees littleness not as a limitation but as a precious resource."

He cited the teachings of Christ, who stipulated clearly that "only those who make themselves small, like little children, will enter the kingdom of God," reported Catholic News Service (CNS), the news agency of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. 

The preacher's remarks came as part of Advent reflections given in the Vatican's Paul VI Audience Hall. The Capuchin priest has given similar remarks regularly throughout the Advent season, with Friday's address the last before Christmas on Dec. 25.

Pasolini pointed to the example of St. Francis of Assisi — from whom Pope Francis drew his pontifical name — as one who "took seriously this destiny of littleness."

The earlier Francis "understood that the primary task of the Church was not just to do good for others but to allow others to do good for us," Pasolini said, according to CNS. 

Pride, the priest said, "has created a discomfort toward our littleness." 

"At first, we were all naked and unashamed, but now this littleness has become a source of embarrassment," he said. 

"The fear and shame of not being enough, of not being capable, drive us to assume roles and actions to feel important in the eyes of others."

Pasolini urged leaders to "take the liberty to present ourselves with a little less fear and without the unnecessary shame of being smaller than what we once were, or perhaps even than what we thought we should be, to manifest ourselves as witnesses of the Gospel."

"In Christ Jesus, we can present ourselves to one another and to God in one spirit, to share the same inheritance and to be partakers in the same promise through the Gospel," he said.

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Vatican City, Dec 23, 2024 / 14:30 pm (CNA).

The Knights of Columbus have donated a state-of-the-art mobile broadcasting van to the Vatican, just in time for the start of the Catholic Church's 2025 Jubilee Year. 

The new vehicle, unveiled on Dec. 21, was blessed by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, in a ceremony attended by Paolo Ruffini, the prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication, and Patrick Kelly, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus.

Ruffini expressed his gratitude for the donation, which he said makes it possible "to broadcast the images from the Vatican, the heart of our Catholic Church," and to "share the images of the jubilee, to narrate our pilgrimage of hope," according to Vatican News.

"It really is an honor for us to be able to do this, to provide a van like this, which is top-notch technology and really is able to reach so many people who may never have the chance to come to Rome," Kelly said in an interview with Vatican Radio. 

"We are so pleased, as Knights, to partner with the Church on something that is so important to get the message of Christ to the world," he said.

This is the fourth broadcasting van donated to the Vatican by the Knights of Columbus in the 60 years of collaboration between the Knights and the Vatican's communication office.

"It's been a tremendously beneficial collaboration that has brought the message of the Church, the message of the vicar of Christ, and the message of Christ to the world," Kelly said.

The Knights' support of the Vatican is not limited to broadcasting technology. The organization also funded a significant restoration in St. Peter's Basilica of Gian Lorenzo Bernini's baldacchino and the Cathedra of St. Peter, a project originally valued at more than $760,000. 

With over 2 million members, the Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization and a powerful force for charitable work.

"We always say, 'Where there's a need, there's a Knight," Kelly said.

As Supreme Knight, Kelly recently had a private audience with Pope Francis on Dec. 20, which he described as "a very warm meeting."

"The Holy Father was in very good spirits," Kelly said. "[We] talked about the worldwide reach of the charitable side of the Knights of Columbus, what we do for charity around the world."

"Since our very founding by Blessed Michael McGivney, we've always been in solidarity with our bishops and priests, and we've always enjoyed a very strong union with the Holy Father, the vicar of Christ on earth," he added.

Looking ahead, Kelly expressed excitement for the 2025 Jubilee Year, which begins on Christmas Eve and is expected to draw more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome. 

He expressed hope that the new restorations in St. Peter's Basilica will "really inspire pilgrims who come here to see the beauty of the Church and to lift their hearts and their spirits to the Lord in this great Jubilee of Hope."

"Because hope is our anchor. And I think at this point in our culture, in our history, we could all use some hope," Kelly said.

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ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 23, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Juan Manuel Gutiérrez is a Mexican priest who now serves in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the largest and probably the most diverse in the United States. His name is now forever linked to the young Italian Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, who died at the age of 24 and who next year, during the 2025 Jubilee, will be declared a saint thanks to the miracle the 38-year-old priest experienced through his intercession.

On Nov. 25, Pope Francis approved the decree of the miracle Gutiérrez received through the intercession of Frassati.

'I declared myself an atheist'

"My Mexican family was Catholic, my mother was a very Catholic woman; she belonged to the group of women at the church devoted to Our Lady of Guadalupe … I received my sacraments as a child, my first Communion, baptism, confirmation, but at the age of 14 or so I began to separate myself from the Church to the point that I stopped attending Mass, I stopped praying," the priest recounted in an interview with EWTN Noticias, the Spanish-language evening news program of EWTN News.

"I even began to believe that God didn't exist, that he was a human invention that, as some philosophers say, was like a drug for the masses to control them. And I distanced myself from the Church. For many years I didn't go to Mass and I declared myself an atheist, that I did not believe in God," he continued.

His parents separated when he was just 2 years old. His mother stayed in Texcoco, northeast of Mexico City, and his father moved to Omaha, Nebraska. At 19, he decided to join his father and, while there, "by God's providence, someone also invited me to a retreat, which I didn't want to go to, but I ended up going and that's where my return to the Church began."

He wanted to be convinced in the faith and began to study the history of the Church and about Jesus, and discovered that "there is a lot of historical evidence, even non-Catholic, nonreligious, that gives reasons to believe that Jesus walked the Earth."

"And what convinced me to remain Catholic is the reality that Jesus is present in the Eucharist, which even with the research of Eucharistic miracles has been scientifically proven. When I began to find all this evidence, all my objections against faith and religion fell one after another."

Entering the seminary after 'fighting with [the Lord] for a long time'

According to Angelus News, Gutiérrez began his formation for the priesthood when he was 26 years old, in 2013, at the Juan Diego House of Formation of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. 

He graduated in 2017 and together with his classmates went on to St. John's Seminary to continue their priestly formation. He was ordained in June 2022.

"It was a very long fight with the Lord, because I had other plans, good plans in my opinion, Catholic, to have my family, to have my children, to dedicate myself to the ministry or any opportunity I had, but it never crossed my mind to be a priest," he shared with EWTN News.

It was not until "by the providence of God, those questions came to me from different directions, priests who knew me, people from the parish who saw me go to Mass every day, being involved in different activities of my church."

"Even in prayer the Lord began to present the proposal of a vocation to the priesthood and after fighting with him for a long time, as Jeremiah said, 'Lord, you have seduced me,' and I let myself be seduced, I decided to give myself the opportunity to enter the seminary," he recalled.

The heat, the Holy Spirit, and the miracle by Pier Giorgio Frassati

In October 2017, while playing basketball with other seminarians, Gutiérrez tore his Achilles tendon. An MRI on Oct. 31 confirmed the injury, and on Nov. 1, the solemnity of All Saints, he decided to pray a novena to Blessed Frassati to ask for help with his ailment.

"I was inspired to pray to Pier Giorgio Frassati, and that same day I began [the novena]. A few days after beginning my novena, I went to pray in the seminary chapel. I was alone, there was no one else, and I knelt down to pray. And while I was praying, I began to feel a sensation of heat in the area of ??my injured heel."

"I initially thought it was due to a fire, that maybe an electrical outlet was on fire, and since we have books under the pews, I thought maybe the fire was due to that. But when I checked, there was no sign of fire, there was no burning smell, and I began to notice that the sensation of heat was in the area of ??my injury, of the tear," the priest continued.

"And I began to remember that in many Catholic spiritualities, such as the charismatic, people described that when the Holy Spirit is doing a healing in a person, the person describes the sensation of heat."

The priest confessed that he didn't believe it was possible that he was healing, "not because God didn't have the power to do so, but because I believed that I didn't have the faith for such a thing, and that moved me deeply, and moved me to tears. And after I finished praying that day, I continued with my normal activities."

The doctor's surprise: 'Someone up there is taking care of you'

Since he suffered the injury, Gutiérrez had been wearing an ankle brace, but he stopped wearing it after what happened in the chapel. On Nov. 15, six days after finishing his novena, he went to see the surgeon who was going to operate on him.

The priest said the surgeon looked at the images of the injury on the computer, did the Thompson test on him, which checks for a tear, but found nothing and, in addition, the then-seminarian simply felt no pain in the area that had been affected.

The doctor then told him that surgery didn't seem to be necessary. "And I asked him why and he told me that when he examined me, when he tried to touch the place of the fissure with his finger, he should be able to touch the hole, the fissure that the tear leaves, but he couldn't, he couldn't find it. And since he knew that I was a seminarian, I only remember that he told me 'there must be someone up there who is taking care of you.'"

"And when he told me that, I felt like a shiver that ran through my entire body because at that moment I remembered the event in the chapel where I had the sensation of heat in the area of ??my injury, of the tear. And I remembered my novena to Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati."

The doctor told him that the MRI was correct, that on Oct. 31 a tear in the Achilles tendon was seen, that these types of injuries did not heal on their own but, on the contrary, worsen over time. Then, at the request of the then-31-year-old seminarian, the doctor gave him the medical documents of the case because he simply did not require any medical attention.

"I returned to the seminary. It gave me great joy, I felt a lot of emotion, but at the same time I didn't want to draw attention to myself, so I tried to keep it as secret as possible." In fact, he didn't even mention it to his family, only to a few people.

His relationship with Frassati: 'A friendship that cannot be described'

The priest recalled that when he prayed the novena "I wasn't asking for healing, I was asking for God's help with my injury. And I initially thought of doing it to all the saints, because it occurred to me, 'Well, today is the day of the solemnity of All Saints and I need all the help I can get.' But then I received this inspiration that said to me, why don't you do the novena to Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati? And I was a little surprised, but it seemed like a good idea, and that's why I did it to him."

"I thought that this secret, so to speak, I was going to take with me to the grave. I did promise during my novena that if something unusual happened, I would report it to whoever I needed to report it, [but] I never imagined that this would become the miracle that the Vatican would accept for the canonization of Pier Giorgio."

One of the people with whom he shared what had happened was a professor of his, who then took the case to the Vatican. Then it was decided to open a formal investigation.

After pointing out that the investigation being conducted by the Vatican, in which one of his professors at the seminary participated, is "extremely rigorous," Gutiérrez commented that "the Lord is the one who chose to give me this connection, this friendship with Pier Giorgio. And it was the Lord who planned that of all the miracles and graces that people have received around the world through Pier Giorgio's intercession, this would be the event that would lead to his canonization."

Regarding his relationship with the future Italian saint, the priest said that "it's like a friendship that cannot be described. One has human friendships, good ones and so on, but this is something different. It's something that fills me with joy, that fills me with peace, that also challenges me now as a priest to be a better witness of being a Christian."

The Mexican priest also highlighted that "Pier Giorgio was very fond of mountain climbing, of going on hikes in the mountains. And it was not a quality that I thought I had much, but it is something that little by little I am embracing a little more and I feel, when I have done it and I have gone to the mountains to walk, I even feel his closeness."

"Also to be brave: that the Christianity that one lives also comes to manifest itself in social areas of life, because that's something that he did a lot. At his young age, in his youth, he knew that his Christianity was not just to stay within the walls of the church. In his social life, in the context of society, of politics, of his country, he knew that the values ??of the Gospel, of Christianity, had to influence those areas of human life," Gutiérrez emphasized.

Speaking about the canonization during the 2025 Jubilee, the priest from Los Angeles affirmed that "once again, providence, the hand of the Lord that writes our history is everywhere, because next year also marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Pier Giorgio." It's "a gift of God's providence that is amazing," he added.

"I am hoping to go, this is my hope, to be able to go," he said.

Who was Blessed Pier Gorgio Frassati?

Pier Giorgio Frassati was born on Holy Saturday, April 6, 1901. He was the son of the founder and director of the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

At the age of 17, he joined the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and devoted much of his free time to caring for the poor, the homeless, and the sick, as well as veterans returning from World War I.

Frassati was also involved in the Apostleship of Prayer and Catholic Action. He was a daily communicant.

Frassati died of polio on July 4, 1925, a disease he apparently contracted while caring for the sick. He was only 24 years old.

St. John Paul II, who beatified Frassati in 1990, called him "a man of the Eight Beatitudes," describing him as "totally immersed in the mystery of God and totally dedicated to the constant service of his neighbor."

Pope Francis praised Frassati for sharing Jesus' love with the poor in a talk on June 24: "Pier Giorgio was from a well-off upper-middle-class family, but he didn't grow up in the lap of luxury, he didn't get lost in the 'good life,' because inside him there was the life-giving presence of the Holy Spirit, there was love for Jesus and for his brothers."

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

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CNA Newsroom, Dec 23, 2024 / 09:40 am (CNA).

President Joe Biden on Monday commuted the death row sentences of more than three dozen federal prisoners, ordering that the formerly condemned inmates serve out life sentences instead of being executed by the government. 

The White House announced the clemencies on Monday morning, stating that the president was "commuting the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row."

"Those individuals will have their sentences reclassified from execution to life without the possibility of parole," the White House said. 

The White House noted that the order leaves in place the death sentences of three federal prisoners guilty of "terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder." Those sentences apply to Robert Bowers, who committed the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue massacre; Dylann Roof, who in 2015 killed nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the perpetrators of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. 

The commutations come after significant campaigns from Catholic advocates who urged the president to issue broad clemency in the waning days of his administration. 

Pope Francis earlier this month called for the death sentences of U.S. prisoners to be thrown out, praying that "their sentences may be commuted or changed."

Also this month, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) launched a campaign urging Catholics to contact Biden and ask him to commute the federal death sentences, describing the proposal as "an extraordinary opportunity to advance the cause of human dignity."

In November, meanwhile, the anti-death penalty group Catholic Mobilizing Network (CMN) similarly urged Biden to commute the sentences, with the group pointing to the looming 2025 Jubilee Year and describing it as "fitting that [Biden] should act on his faith and do what is squarely within his constitutional authority to do."

In a statement on Monday, CMN Executive Director Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy said Biden's order "advances the cause of human dignity and underscores the sacred value of every human life."

"The system of capital punishment anywhere leaves in its wake ripples of suffering in families, in communities, and in our social systems," Murphy said. "Indeed the death penalty's very existence epitomizes a throwaway culture."

The group noted that, though more than three dozen inmates were spared execution by the order, the measure "places the remaining three men on federal death row … at risk of execution in the future."

"While we celebrate the distinctive progress that today's commutation action brings, we will continue to pray fervently that President Biden's bold move will spur legislative action that ultimately leads to the abolition of the death penalty at every level of government throughout the United States," Murphy said.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 22, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Sri Lankan Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith has mandated that girls are not permitted to serve as altar servers in parishes within the Archdiocese of Colombo.

"No girls should be invited to serve at the altar, as altar servers, in the archdiocese," Ranjith wrote in an Oct. 22 letter to parish priests that was made public this week.

According to the letter, the cardinal issued the order because serving as an altar server can be a pathway to the priesthood and should therefore be a position reserved for boys.

"It should always be young boys because this is one of the main sources of vocations to the priesthood in Sri Lanka and it will affect the number of candidates entering the seminaries, which [is a] risk we cannot take" the letter continues. "Since females are not allowed to be ordained priests, we have made that decision." 

Ranjith noted in the letter that "several parishes" within the archdiocese have been "appointing girls as altar servers" but told the priests that this order "cannot be changed at your discretion."

"Please carry this out as faithfully as possible and do not think that it is your faculty to [use your own discretion]," the letter adds. "I thank you in anticipation of your usual cooperation and wish you God's blessings."

Ranjith said in the letter that he had first told the priests about this order during a presbyteral meeting held on Oct. 21, the day prior to the letter.

Although the role of altar servers has traditionally been reserved for boys, the Congregation for Divine Worship confirmed in March 1994 that bishops are permitted to allow girls to serve in the role.

According to the communications sent to the presidents of episcopal conferences, canon law is "permissive" and does not prohibit altar girls. Yet, the dicastery added that the decision on whether to have altar girls is determined by "each bishop, in his diocese" who can "make a prudential judgment on what to do, with a view to the ordered development of liturgical life in his own diocese."

The relevant canon, according to the congregation, is Canon 230.2, which states the following: "Laypersons can fulfill the function of lector in liturgical actions by temporary designation. All laypersons can also perform the functions of commentator or cantor, or other functions, according to the norm of law."

The inclusion of altar girls from some bishops, according to the Vatican in 1994, "can in no way be considered as binding on other bishops." 

Rather, the Vatican communications emphasized the importance of altar boys as a means to developing priestly vocations.

"The Holy See wishes to recall that it will always be very appropriate to follow the noble tradition of having boys serve at the altar," the communications states. "As is well known, this has led to a reassuring development of priestly vocations. Thus the obligation to support such groups of altar boys will always continue."

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CNA Staff, Dec 21, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

Cross Catholic Outreach's Box of Joy ministry has officially reached its 10th anniversary and marked the occasion with a trip by Catholic actor David Henrie to Guatemala to deliver boxes to children there.

Henrie, who serves as brand ambassador for the nonprofit, flew to Guatemala with his wife, Maria, to hand-deliver the "Boxes of Joy" to children living in extreme poverty.

Founded in 2001, Cross Catholic Outreach is a Vatican-endorsed nonprofit that works to provide aid, such as food, medicine, and shelter, to those suffering from poverty in more than 90 countries. It has also recently been named by Forbes as one of America's Top 100 charities, ranking at No. 42 on the list.

The organization's Box of Joy ministry began in 2014. The boxes are given at Christmas to children in need, many of whom have never received a Christmas gift before. The boxes are filled with toys, clothing, school supplies, a rosary, and a booklet in the language of the children telling the story of Jesus.

Two years ago, Henrie — best known for his role as Justin Russo in the Disney series "Wizards of Waverly Place" — teamed up with Cross Catholic Outreach and its Box of Joy ministry. 

"It had been on my heart to try to align with a Catholic charity, but I wanted to be very selective and find something that could appeal to my fanbase, because there's millions of people who follow me and a lot of them have very diverse backgrounds and not necessarily the same faith, so I wanted to work with a charity whose mission is just universal and broadly appealing and authentically Catholic," he told CNA in an interview.

He added that it has been a "true honor" working specifically with the Box of Joy ministry and helping bring more awareness to that cause. 

From Nov. 19–22, Henrie and his wife visited the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima in Guatemala, which faces extreme poverty with many struggling to provide the basics of food and clean water to their families. Henrie called the experience a "perspective check," especially for his wife, who had never visited a developing country. He said the experience taught them lessons they are now implementing in their own home with their children, such as simplicity and humility.

The couple was very impressed with "how much these people do with so little and also with how strong family values are in their community."

Henrie recalled that when many of the kids received their gift, they would instantly turn to their sibling and give it to them. 

"It's almost like they didn't even think of themselves," he said. "Or if they got a piece of candy or something, they would turn to their sibling and give it to their sibling or they would come right back to me and go, 'Do you want to split this?'"

"That culture is just very beautiful and giving and charitable and you see it all over the place there."

While there, the Henries met a mother and her children who had just been given a home by Cross Catholic Outreach. Prior to being given a home, the family only had one bed they slept on and when it rained they would pull a big plastic blanket over their bed to protect themselves from the rain. The family was filled with joy as they took Henrie around their 250-square-foot home made of a concrete floor, cinder blocks, and a tin roof. 

"They took us in their home that was just built and the joy in these people's faces — they were so grateful and they felt so wealthy," he shared. "And it was such a reality check for me and for my wife … I think a lot of Americans root their happiness and achievements or success in tangible items. That's not where happiness really is. This is the happiest family on earth and they're happy that they just have a floor that rain doesn't get in."

Henrie added that the trip left an impact on him personally by making him think about "where happiness is really rooted."

"I saw it in these people and I saw it in what they had — where is happiness rooted — and it's not rooted in material things, it's rooted in ultimately your relationship with God and your character, your virtue ... It really isn't dependent upon your external circumstances, it's entirely dependent on your internal circumstances."

Speaking to the importance of giving back, especially as Catholics, Henrie said: "Well, if you take the Bible seriously, then there's a lot of mention of helping the poor in the Bible."

"I think one of the beautiful things about the Catholic faith is it is the most charitable organization on the planet and always has been since its inception," he added. "So, why is that? I think fundamentally it's because Catholics recognize human dignity as something sacred and they see the human person as something infinitely valuable."

He also highlighted the "unicity" of the Catholic Church.

"One, holy, Catholic, apostolic — unicity. We are all one," he explained. "So all of the members of the Church need to be healthy and we need to help those who aren't to help the body function in a more powerful way and healthy way."

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CNA Newsroom, Dec 21, 2024 / 15:34 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis on Saturday expressed his shock at the deadly attack at a Christmas market in eastern Germany that claimed five lives, including that of a child, and left more than 200 injured.

In a telegram sent to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on behalf of the pontiff, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin conveyed the Holy Father's "spiritual closeness" to all those affected by the tragedy.

The pope "prays for the deceased and entrusts the people to Christ, our hope, whose light may shine in the darkness," the cardinal wrote, expressing gratitude to emergency responders helping victims in "this difficult moment."

According to officials, the attack left 205 victims in total, with four adults and a nine-year-old child dead. Authorities reported 41 people suffered serious or life-threatening injuries.

The suspect, identified as Taleb A., a 50-year-old man from Saudi Arabia who had been granted asylum in Germany in 2016, drove a black rental car into crowds at a Christmas market in the heart of Magdeburg, a city of 240,000 people located about two hours west of Berlin.

While authorities are investigating the incident as an attack, Chief Public Prosecutor Horst Walter Nopens said it remained unclear whether they deemed it an act of terrorism, local media reported.

The Diocese of Magdeburg announced that St. Sebastian's Cathedral would be open Saturday for prayer and reflection. A memorial service was scheduled for Saturday evening at Magdeburg Cathedral.

Bishop Gerhard Feige of Magdeburg issued a statement immediately after the attack Friday evening: "I think of those affected, their relatives, and the emergency services and include them in my prayers."

The local bishop added, "especially in these days and before a feast where the message of God's love, human dignity, and the longing for a healed world particularly move us, such an act is all the more frightening and abysmal."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser visited the city to meet with local officials and pay their respects at the site of the attack.

The German Bishops' Conference president, Bishop Georg Bätzing, said the "attack in Magdeburg leaves us speechless. The horror, grief, and sympathy are felt today by many people throughout Germany and worldwide."

The suspect had previously worked as a psychotherapist and, according to German media reports, had been posting increasingly erratic messages on social media in recent months, including threats of bloodshed and "war" against German authorities. In a 2019 interview, he had described himself as an "ex-Muslim."

According to a police spokesman, authorities had received a criminal complaint against the suspect a year ago. While a preventative intervention was planned at the time — a measure intended to preemptively combat potential crimes — this apparently never took place.

The attack occurred at a location that was not protected by concrete barriers, which have been installed at Christmas markets across Germany following several Islamist terror attacks at public events, including at a Berlin Christmas market in 2016 that killed 12 people.

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Bethlehem, West Bank, Dec 21, 2024 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

Being an artisan in Bethlehem isn't just a job. It's an art, almost a calling, a treasure handed down from father to son, but one that is now at risk of being lost.

Younger generations are choosing other career paths, and after two years of war, fathers don't see a future in the artisanal crafts for their children. They speak of it under their breath, as if unwilling to admit it. Some know they're likely the last heirs of a centuries-old tradition.

"I am 54 years old. My biggest mistake was to invest all my money in my family business," Jack Giacaman, a descendant of one of the most important artisan families in Bethlehem, told CNA. His shop faces Milk Grotto Street, the artisans' street, just a few steps from the sanctuary of the same name. "I have two daughters. I tried to make them see the world from other perspectives, not to kill their future in this corner of the world."

"They are not thinking about working in our family business," Giacaman continued. "And so also my cousin's children: They moved to the medical field, they're engineers, but they are not thinking about working in this business or staying in this country."

Most of the businesses in Bethlehem are family businesses, and all of them are operating at a loss. 

"Families try to cover the losses from their private assets, but it is no longer affordable," Giacaman explained. "At the end, people are running away, they go abroad, and unfortunately among them there are many Christians."

One of Giacaman's brothers moved to the U.S., another went to Dubai. "I grew up in a Catholic school, we were 55 students — six were Muslims, 39 Christians, among which were eight girls. Who stayed in the country? The Muslim guys, two girls, and me. All the others moved abroad; their children don't have any kind of connection with Bethlehem anymore."

The only one who has gone the opposite route is his cousin Bassem Giacaman, who came a few years ago from New Zealand to manage the family business, which is next to Giacaman's. 

In Bassem's workshop, cobwebs cover two large statues, the wood is eaten by worms, and in the shop, the lights shine on products no one comes to buy. Despite everything, he said he wouldn't go back.

"I came back to take care of the family business," he explained. "I don't want to sell the workshop because here is our history — my father's, my grandfather's, and others before me. Here is our history as Christians of Bethlehem."

"We take it day by day," he continued. "We try to sell online, and in this way, we get by, but shipping costs keep going up. I'm not looking for donations; I just want to work and provide jobs for my workers."

The artisans in Bethlehem are almost all Christians. They primarily work with olive wood. The logs stacked in their storage spaces, shaped by their hands and in their workshops, are transformed into crosses, Nativity scenes, Nativity figures, and Christmas decorations.

Today, many of those items are covered in dust on store shelves, workshop machinery sits idle most of the time, the workforce has been halved, and the remaining workers usually only work two or three days a week — there simply isn't enough work for everyone.

Those who can, try to sell online, surviving thanks to some orders from abroad, but rising taxes, tariffs, and increasingly restrictive laws make everything more complicated.

Next to the Basilica of the Nativity, Roni Tabash continues to run the family business, one of the best-known in the city. Next year it will be 100 years since the store has been selling handmade items crafted by local artisans. "We provide employment for 25 families, over a hundred people," he told CNA.

At the threshold of the shop's entrance, Tabash looks at the empty streets around the Church of the Nativity. "Last year, we hoped that after Christmas the war would be over, but it's still not finished. It's getting worse; pilgrims no longer come to Bethlehem. People are struggling and not buying. For us artisans, the situation is really difficult," he shared.

His father, Victor, who is 80 years old, was also in the shop, having just returned home a few days ago after a long hospital stay. "As soon as it was possible, he came to the shop; it's his life," Tabash said. "This will be his 61st Christmas at the shop. I sometimes say that we don't need to stay open every day, but he says we must open, for hope."

Tabash will celebrate Christmas with his family. "As Christians, we want to celebrate Christmas because, for us, Christmas is a light in the night. This is our faith, which is stronger than anything. But we hope for peace, because our future and that of our children is at risk."

Under the arcade of Manger Square, the shutters of the souvenir shops are all down.

"I can still work in my workshop," Robert Giacaman, a relative of Bassem and Jack, told CNA. "We get some requests, but not like before. We try to give work to our employees. Many can no longer support their families or their children's education... an entire generation is being lost."

Robert took CNA through his workshop to explain how a Nativity scene is created. "We buy the wood from the Ramallah area because the olive trees there are larger. After selecting the wood, we rough out the trunk with a saw and cut pieces to the size needed for the figure. We use a pantograph for the coarser work and routers for the details. Then there's the sanding and polishing phase."

An all-around artist — he is also a painter and sculptor — Robert brings artistic ideas into his craftsmanship. "I always give my workers instructions: how to work, pay attention to the grain of the wood, and how to finish the pieces. I try to make them sensitive to this artistic side."

He is also active in Christian associations, particularly with the Catholic Scouts of the Holy Land. This is why he experiences the preparation for Christmas with special intensity.

"We want to show Christians around the world that we live Christmas in any situation we find ourselves in," he said. "These past two years have been quite sad, but in our hearts, there is the joy of Christmas. We want to send a message of peace to the world, because peace must start from the city where Christ was born. I hope that this year, Christmas brings peace to the whole world."

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Brasilia, Brazil, Dec 21, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).

The Brazilian Commission for Justice and Peace and the National Council of the Laity of Brazil, both organs of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB), are spearheading a petition calling on the authorities to "hold all perpetrators of violence against the Democratic State of Law legally, rigorously, and exemplarily accountable, so that coup attempts against the Brazilian people are never articulated again in this country."

The document rejects "any initiative aimed at the impunity of the coup plotters" who allegedly planned, in 2022, to prevent the inauguration of then-president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. 

The Dec. 15 document bears the signatures of pastoral commissions of several dioceses, grassroots ecclesial communities, religious orders, diocesan justice and peace commissions, lay organizations of environmentalists, feminists, professional associations, Workers' Party chapters, and the Socialism and Freedom Party (Psol). Altogether, the document has more than 400 signatories. 

The document begins by quoting an excerpt (No. 208) from Pope Francis' encyclical Fratelli Tutti. "We need to learn how to unmask the various ways that the truth is manipulated, distorted, and concealed in public and private discourse. What we call 'truth' is not only the reporting of facts and events, such as we find in the daily papers. It is primarily the search for the solid foundations sustaining our decisions and our laws."

Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and 35 other people were charged by the Federal Police on Nov. 21 on suspicion of the crimes of violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d'état, and criminal organization.

According to the federal police, the goal of the coup plotters was to kill then-president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, his vice president, Geraldo Alckmin, and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The action, called "Green and Yellow Dagger," would be carried out on Dec. 15, 2022, by military personnel trained in Special Forces.

For the CNBB bodies, "Brazil cannot live passively with successive attempts at a coup against democracy by sectors of the military, business elites, and landowners, bankers, political reactionaries, business media and religious fundamentalists (such as some Catholic priests named in the Federal Police investigation and representatives of evangelical pastors who manipulate religion in association with the far right)."

The only Catholic priest among the 36 indicted by the Federal Police in their investigation is Father José Eduardo de Oliveira e Silva from the Diocese of Osasco. He is accused of participating in a meeting with two of the other accused. The priest has 435,000 followers on Instagram and YouTube videos with more than 7 million views.  

According to the document's signatories, "the participation of figures from the political, economic and religious elites in association with some of the high-ranking military personnel of the Armed Forces in coups in the past and present makes explicit the authoritarian relationship that sustains the power structures in our country."

At the end of the note, they call on "sectors of civil society, class entities that defend and fight for the Democratic Rule of Law …, religious entities (such as the CNBB, churches, and traditions that do not align themselves with the far right), unions, social movements, and other living organizations to publicly demonstrate that in Brazil there is not, and will not be, room for those who attack democracy."

"To those who call themselves Christians it is imperative to remember: True Christian ethics points out that omission and connivance are just as serious as the sin of the intentional act," the document states.

This story was first published by ACI Digital, CNA's Portuguese-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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CNA Newsroom, Dec 21, 2024 / 10:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis delivered two Christmas messages at the Vatican on Saturday, warning against gossip's "destructive effects" while celebrating the importance of family life and humble service.

"An ecclesial community lives in joyful and fraternal harmony to the extent that its members walk in the way of humility, refusing to think and speak ill of one another," the pope said in his annual Christmas address to the Roman Curia on Dec. 21.

The pope warned that gossip "damages social bonds, poisons hearts, and leads nowhere," as he addressed cardinals and senior Vatican officials. He urged them to practice self-accusation rather than accusation of others, drawing on the teachings of early Christian spiritual masters.

The Vatican announced late Saturday that due to inclement weather and cold symptoms that manifested in recent days, Pope Francis will lead the Sunday Angelus prayer from the chapel of Casa Santa Marta rather than the usual Apostolic Palace window, also in view of next week's commitments.

Before beginning his reflection on Dec. 21, the pontiff addressed the ongoing conflict in Gaza, deploring suffering and "cruelty."

Praying together during Christmas season

In a separate address to Vatican employees and their families, the pope compared Vatican City to "a large beehive" bustling with activity in its streets, courtyards, corridors and offices. He thanked those working and unable to attend the gathering but made it possible.

The pope emphasized the theological virtue of humility, connecting it to the mystery of the Incarnation and particularly the Lord's birth. He encouraged Vatican workers to see their daily tasks as participating in "the hidden Nazareths of your particular tasks" that help bring humanity to Christ.

Speaking to employees and their families gathered in the Paul VI Hall, Francis stressed the importance of family life, particularly urging attention to grandparents. "Do you visit your grandparents? Are your grandparents living in the family, or do they live in a retirement home without anyone visiting them?" the pope asked.

He encouraged families to pray together during the Christmas season, particularly before the Nativity scene. "Without prayer one does not go forward, not even in the family," Francis said. "Teach your children to pray."

The pope described the Roman Curia as a "workshop" where various roles contribute to spreading God's blessings throughout the world. He emphasized that humble service reflects "the way of God Himself, who in Jesus condescends to share in our human condition."

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