Catholic News

• Keep high ethical standards, Pope urges Italian intelligence officials (Vatican Press Office)
  In a December 12 address to officials of Italy’s Information System for the Security of the Republic, Pope Leo XIV encouraged them to maintain an ethical perspective on their work. Recognizing the importance of intelligence work to protect public safety, the Pope encouraged them to “work not only with professionalism, but also with an ethical perspective that takes into account at least two essential aspects: respect for human dignity and the ethics of communication.”
• Filioque clause 'no longer an obstacle,' says Vatican cardinal (DOM Radio (German))
  Cardinal Kurt Koch, the prefect of the Dicastery for Christian Unity, believes that two theological issues that have blocked ecumenical progress with the Orthodox churches can now be overcome. Debates over the filioque clause and papal infallibility “can be resolved in such a way that they no longer represent an obstacle” to union with the Orthodox churches, the German cardinal said, in an interview with Die Tagespost. Cardinal Koch said that in pursuing ecumenical efforts, it is crucial to ask: “What unity do we actually want?” He said that some Protestant denominations hope for an accord in which all Christian communities recognize each other. “This,” he said, “is a completely different idea, which is incompatible with the Catholic view.”
• US Catholic voters favor Trump immigration crackdown (National Catholic Register)
  A majority of Catholic voters in the US support the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, despite sharp criticism by American bishops, a new poll shows. The survey found 54% of Catholics supporting the deportation of illegal immigrants, while 30% opposed the drive. Support for the Trump policy was strongest among white Catholic voters. Notably, however, the crackdown also drew more support (41%) than opposition (39%) among Latino voters. On another controversial issue, a 55% majority of Catholic voters support the death penalty, again despite opposition from their bishops. Among Catholics who attend Mass regularly, Trump enjoys solid overall support, with 67% viewing him favorably. Trump also scores well with male Catholics, winning a 62% favorable rating.
• Put Jesus first, ignore the world's noise, Pope advises (Vatican News)
  Speaking on December 12 to a group of Latin American priests, religious, and seminarians, Pope Leo XIV said that “we need servants and disciples who announce the absolute primacy of Christ and who keep His voice clearly in their ears and hearts.” The Pope remarked that the noise of the world always threatens to distract believers, and said: “When, throughout life, our vision becomes clouded, like Peter’s did in the night or amid the storms, it will be the voice of Jesus that, with loving patience, sustains us.”
• Pope Leo, in new apostolic letter, hails importance of archaeology (Vatican Press Office)
  Pope Leo XIV marked the centenary of the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology by issuing an apostolic letter today on the importance of archaeology. In the apostolic letter—the sixth of his pontificate—Pope Leo wrote that archaeology “reminds us that God chose to speak in a human language, to walk the earth and to inhabit places, houses, synagogues and streets.” “By concentrating on the physical traces of faith, archaeology educates us in a theology of the senses: a theology that knows how to see, touch, smell and listen,” he said. “By examining stones, ruins and other artifacts, it teaches us that nothing touched by faith is insignificant ... In this sense, archaeology is also a school of humility.”
• Cardinal Müller weighs in on Islam and secularism, upholds Second Vatican Council (Catholic Herald)
  Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, who served as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2012 to 2017, said in a new interview that “since the 18th century, Islam has been regarded—by the philosophy of deism and of ‘natural religion’—as an ally in the struggle against Christianity.” “Even today, it is instrumentalized by the so-called fighters against ‘Islamophobia,’ who hope that this religion will eventually secularize itself and ultimately tolerate—against its own truth—the atheistic woke anthropology,” Cardinal Müller added. Stating that “there is no way around recognizing the Second Vatican Council as the 21st ecumenical council of the Catholic Church,” Cardinal Müller added: The foolish talk of a “sede vacante” of the Chair of Peter, calls for a revision of the Council, and the claim that the Lefebvrists are the last bastion of true Catholicity must finally come to an end. Even if they are right to place their finger on the wounds inflicted on the Body of Christ by self-appointed reformers in the style of Modernism, there is never a justification for distancing oneself from the Catholic Church—even though the Church is a mixture of saints and sinners, as St Augustine emphasised against the strict and self-righteous Donatist sect.
• Christian archaeology can contribute to ecumenism and evangelization, Pope tells pontifical institute (CWN)
  Pope Leo XIV received faculty and students of the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology on December 11, the 100th anniversary of its establishment by Pope Pius XI, and said that Christian archaeology is its own specific discipline that can contribute to ecumenism, diplomacy, and evangelization.
• Pope, leading Italian rabbis discuss need to combat anti-Semitism (Comunità Ebraica di Roma)
  Pope Leo XIV received Riccardo Di Segni, the chief rabbi of Rome, and Rav Alfonso Arbib, chief rabbi of Milan and president of the Assembly of Rabbis of Italy, in an audience yesterday. Pope Leo and the rabbis discussed the urgent need to combat anti-Semitism, according to the Jewish Community of Rome. The community described the “reciprocal respect” during the meeting as “profound.”
• Leading Polish bishops meet with Pope, say papal visit is needed (Polish Episcopal Conference)
  During a papal audience that took place yesterday, the officers of the Polish Episcopal Conference invited Pope Leo XIV to visit Poland—a visit that the bishops described as “eagerly awaited and needed.” The Pope, in turn, said that “he already has a lot of things on his calendar in 2026 and 2027, but that he will take [the invitation] into consideration,” according to the episcopal conference. The Pope and the prelates also discussed Church-state relations, the sexual abuse crisis, and the current activities of the Polish episcopate.
• Information alters poll results on IVF (CNA)
  A new poll of American Catholic voters shows that public attitudes toward in-vitro (IVF) fertilization changes significantly when respondents are presented with the facts about the procedure. In a new survey 53% of Catholics said that they supported IVF, while only 19% opposed it. But when respondents were informed that the Catholic Church rejects the procedure—because it separates procreation from the marital act and because unused embryos are destroyed—support dropped significantly, to 45%, while opposition jumped to 24%.
• Vatican newspaper warns of 'culpable' mass starvation, hypothermia in Gaza (CWN)
  The Vatican newspaper warned that “over two million people across the [Gaza] Strip are now at risk not only of starvation but also of freezing.”
• Hong Kong cardinal sees AI as gift from God; Vatican prefect advises caution (Vatican News)
  Cardinal Stephen Chow, SJ, of Hong Kong preached that “I think AI is not from the devil. AI comes from God.” The prelate made his remarks during the opening Mass of a December 10-12 gathering organized by the Office of Social Communications of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences. Cardinal Chow added, “I pray that this meeting will help us, liberate us, and inspire us to work with AI to achieve the blessings God intends for us.” Addressing the bishops and other participants in the gathering, Paolo Ruffini, the prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, offered a more cautious approach. He “cautioned against deepfakes, unverifiable sources, algorithmic filtering, and the opaque logic by which digital platforms shape information flows,” Vatican News reported.
• Trump border czar: Church should support deportation efforts (CNA)
  Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s “border czar,” said that the Catholic Church should “support keeping the community safe again,” in an interview with Raymond Arroyo of EWTN. Homan stressed that the crackdown on illegal immigration is directed primarly a “public-safety threats and national security threats.” But he added that anyone who is in the US illegally is subject to arrest. Homan, who is Catholic, said that he has not been approached by bishops who criticize the administration’s policies, but he is “willing to sit down with anybody in the Catholic Church and talk about it.”
• Papal praise for Kazakhstan's contribution to building peace, interreligious dialogue (The Astana Times)
  Pope Leo XIV received Mäulen Äşimbaev, president of the Senate of Kazakhstan and head of the Secretariat of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, in an audience yesterday. Pope Leo XIV “commended Kazakhstan’s contribution to global peacebuilding,” The Astana Times reported. “According to him, Kazakhstan’s initiatives in interreligious dialogue reflect an important ‘commitment to peace and global well-being,’ and he reaffirmed the Holy See’s support for the congress and its mission.” Äşimbaev also delivered an official invitation from the nation’s president to visit the central Asian nation.
• Vatican publishes 82 homilies of Benedict XVI (Vatican News (Italian))
  Libreria Editrice Vaticana, the Vatican publishing house, has published Dio è la vera realtà [God Is the True Reality], a collection of 82 previously unpublished homilies by Pope Benedict XVI. The Pontiff delivered the homilies both before and after his resignation, between 2005 and 2017; all were delivered during Ordinary Time. Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Pope Benedict’s private secretary and current apostolic nuncio to three Baltic nations, spoke at yesterday’s presentation of the book.
• Appeals court rules against abortion clinic buffer-zone law (Religion Clause)
  Citing the right to freedom of speech, a federal appeals court has sided with Florida Preborn and four sidewalk counselors in their lawsuit against a buffer-zone ordinance enacted by the city of Clearwater. In its decision, the court noted that the “buffer zone applied to most pedestrians, forbidding entrance to a 38-foot stretch of public sidewalk (28 feet of which cross the clinic’s driveway) during business hours.”
• Vatican cardinal says new 'Chapel of Liberation' exhibit is not about liberation theology (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))
  The prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education said that “Chapel of Liberation,” a new exhibit in his dicastery’s contemporary art museum, is not about liberation theology. In a December 10 speech introducing two exhibits by Brazilian artist Jonathas De Andrade, Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça said that the artist shows “strength of prophetic aspiration,” as well as “the opportunity and complexity of the Church-World dialogue, religion and secularization, mystical dimension, and political commitment.” “Jonathan de Andrade’s aim in ‘The Chapel of Liberation’ is not to validate a particular aesthetic or create a monument to a specific theological movement—namely, liberation theology, because monumentalizing is freezing time in an image—but rather to make us reflect on the social responsibility of Christians today, which will have different expressions than those of yesterday,” the cardinal added.
• Decision due in Hong Kong on Jimmy Lai case (UCANews)
  A Hong Kong court is expected to deliver its verdict on December 15 on national-security charges against the democracy activist Jimmy Lai. Lai, an influential publisher and convert to Catholicism, has been jailed for five years on charges widely recognized as spurious. While US President Trump has vowed to press for Lai’s release, reporters began lining up on December 12 for a place in the courtroom where the verdict will be announced.
• Pope, Vatican foreign minister recall 60th anniversary of Polish bishops' reconciliation letter to German bishops (Dicastery for Communication (Italian))
  At the conclusion of his general audience yesterday, Pope Leo XIV recalled the 60th anniversary of the Letter of Reconciliation of the Polish Bishops to the German Bishops, written two decades after the conclusion of World War II. The message “changed the history of Europe,” Pope Leo told Polish-speaking pilgrims. “May the words of that document—‘We forgive and ask forgiveness’—be for the peoples in conflict today a testimony that reconciliation and forgiveness are possible when they are born of a mutual desire for peace and a common commitment, in truth, for the good of humanity.” The Vatican omitted Pope Leo’s words from its English translation of his remarks. On December 9, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, marked the anniversary in an Italian-language address at Pontifical Gregorian University.
• Venezuela revokes cardinal's passport (CNA)
  The government of Venezuela has revoked the passport of Cardinal Baltazar Porras, informing him that he will not be allowed to leave the country. Cardinal Porras, the retired Archbishop of Caracas, has been a leading critic of the Venezuelan government. He was stopped at the airport as he tried to board a flight to Colombia.
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