Catholic News Agency

• Pope Francis calls on Vatican Christmas Concert artists to promote peace, reconciliation

  Pope Francis greets artists and participants of the 2024 Vatican Christmas Concert in the Clementine Hall on Dec. 14, 2024. / Vatican Media

  CNA Newsroom, Dec 14, 2024 / 09:00 am (CNA).

  Pope Francis called on musicians and artists to serve as “angels of peace” during his address to participants of the 2024 Vatican Christmas Concert on Saturday.

  Speaking in the Clementine Hall, the pope emphasized the unique power of music to foster unity and communion, drawing parallels to the first Christmas.

  “It is moving to think, here in the company of artists and musicians, that when Jesus was born in the silence of the night, a hymn of peace, sung by ’a multitude of the heavenly host,’ suddenly filled the heavens with joy,” the pontiff said.

  The annual Christmas concert, which features both established and emerging artists, is supported by the Pontifical Foundation Gravissimum Educationis — Culture for Education and the Salesian Missions.

  The pope focused his remarks on two themes he called “vocal lines” — peace and hope — which he encouraged participants to “take up and make heard on the streets of today’s world, in order to pass it on to future generations.”

  “Music speaks directly to the human heart in a unique way; it possesses an extraordinary ability to create unity and to foster communion,” Francis said, encouraging participants to invest their “talents, your artistry and your lives, as best you can and wherever you find yourselves, in promoting that culture of fraternity and reconciliation our world today needs more than ever.”

  The pontiff particularly noted the concert’s theme of hope, connecting it to the upcoming Jubilee Year. He reminded participants that hope is “founded on faith and nurtured by charity,” quoting from the Bull of Indiction for the 2025 Jubilee.

  “Friends, the world and the Church need your talents, your creative ideals, they need your generosity and your passion for justice and fraternity,” the pope concluded, requesting prayers from those present.

• Overturning Nancy Pelosi’s Communion ban: It’s too late for an appeal, expert says

  Pope Francis meets with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the Vatican on Oct. 9, 2021. / Credit: Vatican Media

  Vatican City, Dec 13, 2024 / 16:35 pm (CNA).

  Despite former speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent statement that she has appealed to the Vatican to overturn the Communion ban imposed on her because of her position on abortion, such recourse is no longer likely to be available to her, a canon law professor told CNA.

  Pelosi would have needed to bring her case to Pope Francis within 30 days of San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s initial imposition of the ban in 2022, said Father Stefan Mückl, an ecclesiastical law professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.  

  In an interview with the National Catholic Reporter published this week, Pelosi said she had sought intervention at the Vatican to get the ban overturned.

  “My understanding, as long as Rome has the case, it hasn’t been resolved,” Pelosi told the National Catholic Reporter. “I’ve never been denied. I’ve been to Catholic churches all over the country, and I’ve never been denied.”

  It is not clear when Pelosi appealed to the Vatican. The National Catholic Reporter said “she did not respond to a request to speak with her canon lawyer” and that “her spokesmen declined to comment on a personal matter.”

  In a 2022 open letter addressed to the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Cordileone prohibited Pelosi from receiving holy Communion because of her public position on abortion. He cited Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law as applying to her case.

  According to Mückl, if Pelosi made an appeal under canon law to the Vatican, she would have needed to have done so within a specific time frame.

  “If Mrs. Pelosi has now lodged an ‘appeal’ with the Holy See, this will hardly be a recourse in the canonical sense because such a recourse [would] clearly be out of time,” Mückl told CNA.

  “At best it can be assumed that it is a ‘political appeal,’” he said. “A recourse in the technical sense would be time-barred.”

  Referring to Canons 1734 and 1735 of the Code of Canon Law, Mückl explained that Pelosi would have had “10 days to seek revocation of a decree by the author [Cordileone], then 30 days for proposing recourse to the hierarchical superior [Pope Francis].”

  In response to Pelosi’s comments in the National Catholic Reporter, the archbishop of San Francisco issued a statement Dec. 10 expressing his desire to speak with the politician.  

  “As a pastor of souls, my overriding concern and chief responsibility is the salvation of souls. And as Ezekiel reminds us, for a pastor to fulfill his calling, he has the duty not only to teach, console, heal, and forgive but also, when necessary, to correct, admonish, and call to conversion,“ Cordileone wrote.

  “I therefore earnestly repeat once again my plea to Speaker Pelosi to allow this kind of dialogue to happen,” he added.

  According to Mückl, if Pelosi refuses to engage in dialogue with Cordileone, “juridically speaking she has not fulfilled her duty to cooperate.”

  However, Pope Francis is “free to take the matter to himself,” Mückl told CNA. “Whether he would actually do so is difficult to predict.”

• Vatican opens first day care for employees’ children

  Pope Francis blessing a baby during a general audience. / Credit: Vatican Media

  Vatican City, Dec 13, 2024 / 16:05 pm (CNA).

  The employees who work behind the walls of the smallest country in the world will now have a day care center for their children.

  According to the Vatican Governorate, this initiative represents a new stage in support for families, which responds to the needs of employees and provides them with “a safe and enriching environment for their children.”

  The Vatican’s first day care center is slated to begin operating next spring and will serve up to 30 children ages 3 months to 3 years.

  The aim of the new center is to help families with the growth and comprehensive education of their children. Parents will be able to leave their children with an educational team that “will help stimulate knowledge, skills, and autonomy appropriate to each stage of their development,” the statement said.

  The center will be called “Sts. Francis and Clare” and will be located in a building on Via San Luca, inside the Vatican. It will be open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and activities will be held in Italian and English.

  At the Vatican, more than 4,000 are employed in various functions, including religious staff, administrative employees in the dicasteries of the Roman Curia, and members of the Swiss Guard as well as workers in finance, landscaping, food service, maintenance, and health care, among other areas.

  During the Christmas audience with Vatican employees last year, Pope Francis expressed his gratitude for the work of all these employees, highlighting in particular the effort they make “in the obscurity of everyday life,” carrying out tasks that, although they may seem insignificant, “contribute to offering a service to the Church and to society.”

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

• Pope Francis: St. Lucy is an example of female leadership in the Church

  Statue of St. Lucy at the New Chapel of St. Lucy in Pampanga province, Philippines. / Credit: Judgefloro, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

  Vatican City, Dec 13, 2024 / 15:35 pm (CNA).

  On the feast day of St. Lucy, Dec. 13, Pope Francis said that “we need women’s work and their word in a Church that reaches out that it may be leaven and light in the culture and in our lives together.”

  The pontiff addressed a message to the Church in Syracuse, Italy, on the occasion of the feast of its patron saint, the Roman martyr who, according to tradition, the Lord allowed to continue seeing despite her eyes being torn out before she was killed out of hatred for the faith during the persecution unleashed by the Emperor Diocletian at the beginning of the fourth century.

  As part of the Year of St. Lucy, the city of Syracuse is preparing to receive the remains of this saint, the patron saint of sight, which are currently in Venice. St. Lucy was buried in Syracuse, her hometown. However, her remains were stolen and transferred to Constantinople and, finally, after the sacking of the city in 1204, they were taken to Venice to the Church of Sts. Jeremiah and Lucy.

  The relics of the saint can be venerated in Syracuse Dec. 14–26. This is the third time that her remains have been temporarily transferred. The first time was in 2004, on the occasion of the 17th centenary of her martyrdom. The second, in 2014, following an agreement with the Archdiocese of Venice that establishes this exchange every 10 years.

  In his message Friday, the Holy Father celebrated this pilgrimage, “from the city that has kept her body for eight centuries to the one where her witness first shone forth, spreading light throughout the world.”

  ‘We need women’s work and word in the Church’

  The Holy Father noted that “Lucy is a woman” and that her holiness shows the Catholic Church “how unique are the ways in which women follow the Lord.”

  “From the Gospel accounts, the women disciples of Jesus are witnesses of an understanding and a love without which the message of the Resurrection could not reach us.” For this reason, Pope Francis affirmed that “we need women’s work and word in a Church that reaches out, that it may be leaven and light in the culture and in our lives together,” especially “in the heart of the Mediterranean.”

  Being on the side of light exposes us to martyrdom

  Pope Francis also highlighted the compassion and tenderness of St. Lucy, “virtues not only Christian but that are also political.” For the pontiff, these virtues “represent the true strength that builds the city. They give us back eyes to see, that vision that insensitivity makes us lose in a dramatic way. And how important it is to pray for our eyes to be healed!” he exclaimed.

  Being on the side of light, he added, “also exposes us to martyrdom. Perhaps they will not lay hands on us, but choosing which side to be on will take away some of our tranquility.”

  “There are forms of tranquillity, in fact, that resemble the peace of the cemetery. Absent, as if we were already dead; or present, but like tombs: beautiful on the outside, but empty on the inside. Instead, we choose life,” he said.

  Pope Francis also explained that “choosing light” means “being clean, transparent, sincere people; communicating with others in an open, clear, respectful way; getting away from the ambiguities of life and from criminal connivances; not being afraid of difficulties.”

  “Choosing this is the incandescent core of every vocation, the personal response to the call that the saints represent on our journey,” he said.

  Finally, Pope Francis asked the faithful of Syracuse not to forget to “bring spiritually to their feast day “the sisters and brothers who throughout the world suffer from persecution and injustice,” including migrants, refugees, and the poor among them.

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

• Bethlehem artist defends presence of Palestinian keffiyeh in Nativity scene after backlash

  Pope Francis stops for a brief prayer in front of the Bethlehem Nativity in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall during its presentation and a meeting with some of the people involved in its creation on Dec. 7, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

  Vatican City, Dec 13, 2024 / 12:50 pm (CNA).

  A Nativity scene made by artisans from Bethlehem was the source of controversy this week for including a Palestinian keffiyeh with the child Jesus in the manger — but according to the project’s organizer, the headscarf was a last-minute decision meant only to represent Palestinians.

  The keffiyeh was visible during the presentation of the Bethlehem Nativity to Pope Francis in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on Dec. 7. By Dec. 11, four days later, the headscarf, manger, and Jesus sculpture had been removed from the scene without explanation.

  Amid the Israel-Hamas war, the black-and-white checkered keffiyeh has become a symbol for the Palestinian cause. But Johny Andonia, a 39-year-old artist from Bethlehem who led the project, said it is just a symbol to represent or show the “existence” of Palestinians.

  Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, told CNA the Vatican follows the tradition of placing the infant Jesus in the Nativity scene on the night of Christmas Eve. It is typical for the whole scene to be first presented to the pope before the Jesus statue is then removed, leaving behind the empty manger until the official start of Christmas. 

  Speaking to CNA by phone from Cyprus, where he has an art residency until May, Andonia said he did not expect the scale of the reaction to the keffiyeh, which he also signed off on, after it was approved by people at the Vatican during the Nativity’s installation on Dec. 5.

  

  “It came about in a spontaneous way, actually, because we learned that the child baby Jesus has to be covered or even absent until the 24th of December, and [the on-the-ground coordinator] suggested to cover it with a keffiyeh,” the artist said on Dec. 13. 

  “And they said no, no, not to cover him. And then he asked, can I put it then under [the child Jesus] and the people … in charge at that time accepted laying the keffiyeh under the baby Jesus, and this is how it came about.”

  Andonia said he does not agree with commentary from some quarters that the keffiyeh indicates violence or the eradication of others. “It’s only about recognition,” he said. “This keffiyeh represents the people who had presented the Nativity scene.”

  He added that he does not think the Vatican will put the keffiyeh back when the manger and child Jesus are returned on Christmas Eve.

  The Associated Press reported that the Israeli Embassy to the Holy See had declined to comment on whether it had complained about the keffiyeh or had asked for it to be removed.

  Andonia, who is a physical artist and painter, was born in Jerusalem but has lived all his life in Bethlehem. He is a teacher at Dar al-Kalima University College of Art and Culture in Bethlehem.

  After being contacted in April 2023 by the Palestinian Embassy to the Holy See in Rome about the idea for a Nativity from Bethlehem to be featured at the Vatican, Andonia said he decided to reach out to local artisans to create the structure from traditional materials, which he said have deep roots in the area, especially olive wood and mother-of-pearl. 

  The round, almost 10-foot-high installation, the work of over 30 artisans from Bethlehem, also incorporates stone, ceramics, glass, felt, and fabric.

  Some evidence shows that the use of olive wood in Bethlehem dates back to the fourth century during the construction of the Basilica of the Nativity, Adonia said. And Franciscan monks introduced the use of mother-of-pearl in craftmaking to the area in the 17th century.

  The Nativity is “a gift from the Bethlehemites,” he said.

  Though not a religious person himself, the artist said being the bridge between the Vatican and the Bethlehem artisans has, nonetheless, been deeply meaningful for him. 

  “Most of [the people involved] were people of faith, and having their work at the Vatican with the pope, that was something [significant] for them,” he said.

  “I’ve lived my life looking at people creating Nativity scenes, and they are proud of it, so it also meant something to me to be a part of it and give that opportunity to the individuals, and to support them even financially. The project was funded by the Palestinian Authorities, so it was also kind of a [financial] help, in this current situation, for them.”