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Catholic News Agency
Vatican: Benedict XVI under medical care as health takes sudden turn
By Hannah Brockhaus Vatican City, Dec 28, 2022 / 03:48 am The Vatican confirmed Wednesday that pope emeritus Benedict XVI has experienced a sudden decline in his health, but is stable and under medical care. “I can confirm that in the last few hours there has been a worsening due to …
December 28 – Holy Innocents
The Holy Innocents are the children mentioned in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 2:16-18. Herod, perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry, and sent his soldiers to kill all male children ages two and under that were in Bethlehem and on the boarders, according to …
The Christmas Truce of 1914: Here’s what really happened
by Jonah McKeown St. Louis, Mo., Dec 25, 2022 / 10:00 am The experience of fighting in “The Great War,” World War I, was marked by brutality and misery on a scale never before seen. The grisly realities of trench warfare had already, in just five months, claimed a million …
Remembering the first Christmas in space: Here’s how it happened
By Jonah McKeown St. Louis, Mo., Dec 26, 2022 / 10:00 am 1968 was a turbulent year for America. As the Vietnam War raged and peaceful figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr., lost their lives at assassins’ hands, cities across the United States were convulsed by riots. In the midst …
December 27: St. John the Apostle
St. John, the son of Zebedee and brother of St. James the Great, was called to be an Apostle by our Lord in the first year of His public ministry. He became the “beloved disciple” and the only one of the Twelve who did not forsake the Savior in the …
The 8 days of Christmas? A look at the Christmas octave
by Kevin J. Jones Denver, Colo., Dec 25, 2022 / 08:00 am The Catholic calendar has several ways to divide the Christmas season. The Church’s Western liturgical tradition sees Christmas as an octave, an eight-day celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. The octave of Christmas begins on Christmas itself, the feast …
This Santa rides a camel around Jerusalem every year. Here’s why
By Hannah Brockhaus, ACI MENA Rome Newsroom, Dec 23, 2022 / 10:00 am Every year on the feast of St. Nicholas, Issa Anis Kassisieh dons a red suit, black boots, and a thick white beard. He mounts a camel in the outskirts of Jerusalem and rides into the streets of the Old …
Full text: Pope Francis’ Christmas Urbi et Orbi blessing 2022
By Pope Francis Vatican City, Dec 25, 2022 / 07:00 am On Christmas Day 2022, Pope Francis delivered his “Urbi et Orbi” address and blessing from the central balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square. The following is the full text of the pope’s Christmas message. Dear brothers and sisters in Rome and …
St. Francis and the story of the first Nativity scene
By Hannah Brockhaus Rome Newsroom, Dec 23, 2022 / 08:00 am It’s a well-known origin story: how the young and wealthy Francis of Assisi freely abandoned his noble patrimony to serve Christ’s Church as a poor, itinerant preacher. One of the world’s most beloved saints, the founder of the Franciscan order …
What does it mean to be laicized, defrocked, or dismissed from the clerical state?
By CNA Staff Denver, Colo., Dec 22, 2022 / 06:43 am On Nov. 9, Cardinal Lazzaro You Heung Sik, prefect for the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Clergy, laicized Father Frank Pavone from the priesthood for “blasphemous communications on social media” and “persistent disobedience of lawful instructions of his diocesan bishop.” But what does …
