Saint Joseph Catholic Church

“Enhanced international cooperation, conditions and policies that foster economic growth and development by facilitating investment, innovation, and effective governance, and both financial and technological resources are therefore needed to address current digital divides,” Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said in remarks released yesterday.

Archbishop Caccia also praised a UN document for affirming “the necessity of effective ethical management and regulatory frameworks, to ensure the protection of all users, particularly children, from the potential harms.”

“In a time marked by rapid change and many urgent needs, your commitment to cooperation and your willingness to stand at the frontiers of mission remain a powerful testimony to the Gospel,” Pope Leo wrote in his letter, dated November 26 and released on December 16.

In a pastoral letter released yesterday, the bishop of Charlotte, North Carolina, called for the routine distribution of Holy Communion by extraordinary ministers and banned the use of “altar rails, kneelers, and prie-dieus” during the distribution of Holy Communion.

Pope Leo XIV yesterday transferred one of Africa’s most prominent prelates to a far smaller diocese.

“It was beautiful to listen to Christmas songs in Italian, Latin, English, and Spanish,” Pope Leo said at the conclusion of the December 16 concert. “God wished to communicate to all of us the gift of love: this is what Christmas is.”

Pope Leo XIV yesterday named Auxiliary Bishop Ramon Bejarano of San Diego as the new bishop of Monterey, California.

“Christmas must serve to reaffirm the centrality of Christ in our lives,” Cardinal Parolin said to 400 legislators in the Sistine Chapel on the evening of December 16. “Advent is the time when the sense of the Lord’s return is alive, for we all die and we all must present ourselves to the judgment of the tribunal of God.”

“We must make room for him, prepare the manger within ourselves, not only the external one—a beautiful tradition that must be preserved—but above all within ourselves,” he added. “Christmas is an event that must transform us inwardly; otherwise, its meaning remains empty despite the external celebrations.”

At the conclusion of his December 17 general audience, Pope Leo XIV recommended Confession in preparation for Christmas and praised the custom of the Christmas novena.

“In all of us there is the desire for an end to the armed conflicts that only cause pain and death,” Talgieh, a Catholic, told the Vatican newspaper. “We can only be grateful to the Pope for always showing closeness with his constant appeals for peace for this and other suffering lands, in the never-fading hope that Christians will increasingly open their hearts to the love of God and their neighbor, as Leo XIV reiterated in his greetings in Arabic.”