Saint Joseph Catholic Church

“We will rebuild—our schools, our houses, and our life,” Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, said at Gaza’s sole Catholic parish on the first day of his visit.

Later during the visit, he celebrated Mass and preached:

We are in a very difficult situation, like many others throughout Gaza. But now we are in a new phase. We are called not only to survive, but to rebuild life. We must bring the spirit of Christmas—the spirit of light, tenderness, and love. It may seem impossible, but after two years of terrible war, we are still here.

Pope Leo XIV has named Father Manuel de Jesus Rodriguez, the pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Corona, New York, as the new bishop of Palm Beach, Florida.

There, he viewed the Borso d’Este Bible, a 15th-century Bible typically kept in Modena, Italy, but now on loan to the Senate.

The title of Father Roberto Pasolini’s sermon was “The Universality of Salvation: An Unconditional Hope.” The sermon had five sections, entitled “The true light,” “Those who seek, find,” “Remaining seated,” “Arise and shine,” and “Finding oneself.”

The overall theme of the Capuchin Franciscan’s series of Advent sermons was “Awaiting and hastening the coming of the day of God: Jubilee hope between waiting for the Lord and the universality of salvation.” The theme of the first sermon was “The Parousia of the Lord: An expectation without hesitation”; the theme of the second, “Rebuilding the Lord’s house: A Church without contrapositions.”

Andrea Tornielli, the editorial director of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, said on December 19 that “for Christians, peace and non-violence have profoundly evangelical roots in the words and attitude of Jesus, who ordered Peter—when he tried to defend Him—to put his sword back into its sheath.”

Tornielli warned that “In public debate and in the media, an aggressive and confrontational logic seems to prevail”—“a destabilizing and extremely dangerous logic that goes far beyond the principle of legitimate defense and leads us towards the abyss of a new world conflict, with unpredictable and devastating consequences.”