Saint Joseph Catholic Church

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Following his address to the Roman Curia, Pope Leo XIV held a separate audience in which he exchanged Christmas greetings with employees of the Curia, the Vatican City State, the Vicariate of Rome, and their families.

Pope Leo thanked the employees for the work and reflected on the presence of various kinds of laborers in the Nativity scene.

“While Mary and Joseph adore the Child and the shepherds approach in wonder, the other characters go about their daily business,” Pope Leo said. “They seem detached from the central event, but this is not the case: in reality, each one participates in it just as they are, staying in their place and doing what they have to do, their job.”

“I like to think that this can also be true for us in our working days: each of us carries out our task and we praise God precisely by doing it well, with commitment,” the Pope added. “Sometimes we are so caught up in our occupations that we do not think about the Lord or the Church; but the very fact of working with dedication, trying to give our best, and also—for you lay people—with love for your family, for your children, gives glory to the Lord.”

A bishop in the eastern Indian state of Odisha called on the faithful to “keep the Christmas celebrations low profile, i.e., without purchasing new clothes and without big feasting.”

Bishop Kishore Kumar Kujur of Rourkela did so in order to express solidarity with area farmers, some of whom are Catholic, whose land is being taken by the state and given to a cement company for expanded mining operations.

Odisha, formerly called Orissa (map), was the site of a 2008 anti-Christian pogrom in which an estimated 100 Christians were murdered, and 50,000 fled their homes.

Cardinal Lazarus You Heung-sik, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy, said in an interview that “there can be no future” for the priesthood “without fidelity.”

“Fidelity, especially in the Western world, tends to be considered almost a negative value, something for immobile, static people of another era,” he said. “Nothing could be further from the truth ... Fidelity, in fact, is the very measure of charity.”

The prelate also said that the crisis in priestly vocations is not universal and that, where it exists, it affects marriage and the religious life as well.

“A world that encourages temporary, partial relationships and discourages stable, lasting commitments—let’s say faithful ones—is a world that distracts everyone from seeking their vocation, let alone persevering in it,” he said.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, one of the two pro-prefects of the Dicastery for Evangelization, recently concluded a visit to the United Arab Emirates, where he celebrated Mass for 30,000 in Dubai (the nation’s largest city) and 18,000 in Abu Dhabi (the nation’s capital).

Islam is the official religion of the Middle Eastern nation of 10 million (map); because of a large migrant population, only 75% of its residents are Muslim, while 13% are Christian (12% Catholic), 6% are Hindu, and 3% are Buddhist. Pope Francis made an apostolic journey there in 2019.

Dr. Jerry Pillay, the South African Presbyterian minister who leads the World Council of Churches, has issued a Christmas message, entitled “Holy Family, Holy Faith.”

“Our gauzy picture of the Holy Family and the Lord’s nativity often fails to capture the fraught situation that Luke’s gospel portrays,” he said. “Mary and Joseph’s betrothal was jeopardized by her pregnancy and potential scandal. Her confinement was upended by an imperial edict to traversing a difficult journey to a far-away town.”

“Jesus himself was born on a cold night in a humble stable, and his first days were spent as a refugee fleeing danger from a mad king,” he continued. “In such desperate and unlikely circumstances did the Holy Family begin.”

350 Protestant and Orthodox communities are members of the World Council of Churches, which is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Pope Francis made an ecumenical pilgrimage to Geneva in 2018 for its 70th anniversary.

Over 20 million pilgrims have visited the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major during the 2025 jubilee year.

The basilica’s archpriest will close the basilica’s holy door for the jubilee year on December 25. The basilica is also the site of the tomb of Pope Francis, who died on April 21 and was interred there on April 26.