Posted on 11/25/2025 21:11 PM (CatholicCulture.org - Catholic World News)
Pope Leo XIV has issued a
motu proprio regulating that administration of the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Mary Major.
The new rules—which were promulgated in September, but only now made public—place the administrative affairs of both basilicas under the supervision of the Council for the Economy, in line with the regularization of financial affairs in the Roman Curia.
Posted on 11/25/2025 00:00 AM (Catholic Culture Liturgical Year)
Today Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. Catherine of Alexandria (d. 305). From time immemorial St. Catherine had been venerated at the monastery on Mount Sinai when, in the fifteenth century, the monks discovered her body. Legend has made of her a young Christian of Alexandria who rejected the advances of the Emperor Maximinus and routed a meeting of learned men gathered together to induce her to deny Christ. This feast was restored to the General Roman Calendar in 2002. St. Catherine is included in the list of Fourteen Holy Helpers.
Posted on 11/24/2025 23:11 PM (CatholicCulture.org - Catholic World News)
Una Caro, the document released on November 25 by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), was advertised as a Vatican statement on polygamy. But actually the DDF document is a paean to marriage, with only infrequent references to polygamy.
Posted on 11/24/2025 03:11 AM (CatholicCulture.org - Catholic World News)
Pope Leo XIV yesterday issued
In Unitate Fidei, an apostolic letter on the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.
Pope Leo recalled the Council’s historical context, emphasized the Nicene Creed’s profession of the divinity of Christ, and reflected on its ecumenical implications today. He also spoke about the relation between the Incarnation of the Son of God and His presence in the poor today.
The Pope also discussed the continuation of the Council of Nicaea’s work at the ecumenical councils of Constantinople (381) and Chalcedon (451). He rejected the charge that the word used in the Creed to describe the divinity of Christ—homooúsios, or consubstantial—represents a hellenization of the Christian faith.
Posted on 11/24/2025 00:00 AM (Catholic Culture Liturgical Year)
Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of St. Andrew Dung-Lac (1735-1839), priest and martyr, and companions, martyrs. St. Andrew was one of 117 people who were martyred in Vietnam between 1820 and 1862. The last of the martyrs were 17 laypersons, one of them a 9-year-old, executed in 1862.
Posted on 11/23/2025 00:00 AM (Catholic Culture Liturgical Year)
Gospel Excerpt, Cycle C, Mk 11:9, 10: The rulers sneered at Jesus and said, "He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God." Even the soldiers jeered at him. As they approached to offer him wine they called out, "If you are King of the Jews, save yourself." Above him there was an inscription that read, "This is the King of the Jews."
Posted on 11/22/2025 00:00 AM (Catholic Culture Liturgical Year)
The Church celebrates the Memorial of St. Cecilia, virgin and martyr (d. 3rd century). St. Cecilia is one of the most famous and most venerated of Roman martyrs. Her body was discovered in 822 and transferred to the title church that bears her name in Trastevere in Rome. It is difficult to determine the date at which she lived. The legend which recounts the Saint's martyrdom and that of her husband St. Valerian, as also of St. Tiburtius, her brother-in-law, places her martyrdom in the pontificate of Urban I (222-230); but the authenticity of this account cannot be established, nor can we be sure of the persons who suffered with her nor of the date of her martyrdom.
Posted on 11/21/2025 00:00 AM (Catholic Culture Liturgical Year)
Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of the Presentation of Mary. The cycle of these three Marian feasts: the Birthday of Our Lady (September 8), the Holy Name of Mary (September 12) and her Presentation in the Temple (November 21), parallel with the first three feasts of our Lord in the liturgical cycle: the birth of Christ or Christmas (December 25), the Holy Name of Jesus (January 3), and His Presentation in the Temple (February 2).
Posted on 11/20/2025 00:00 AM (Catholic Culture Liturgical Year)
The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. Bernward of Hildesheim (960-1022), a Benedictine bishop, architect, painter, sculptor, and metalsmith. He was the Bishop of Hildesheim, Germany from 993 till 1020. Bernward encouraged the arts; commissioned religious paintings and sculpture, refurbished existing buildings, built new ones, and made altar vessels of gold and silver by hand, and dabbled in architecture and ornamental ironwork. His rule was marked with peace, and around 1020 he retired to a Benedictine monastery to spend his remaining days in prayer. --CatholicSaints.info
Posted on 11/19/2025 00:00 AM (Catholic Culture Liturgical Year)
The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. Mechtilde (1241-1298), who was born to a noble family in Heifta, Saxony, and was placed in a Benedictine convent at age seven. Mechtilde was a mystic, and aided St. Gertrude with her Book of Special Graces or The Revelation of St. Mechtilde.
