Saint Joseph Catholic Church

At the conclusion of his Wednesday public audience on November 29, Pope Francis called for an extension of the ceasefire in Gaza, “so that all the hostages might be freed, and the necessary humanitarian aid might be able to enter.”

“War is always a defeat,” the Pope said, repeating a judgement that he has made often. But then he added:

Everyone loses. Well, not everyone. There’s a group that earns a lot: those who make weapons. They earn a lot from the deaths of others.

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A massive Russian drone strike on Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, damaged doors and windows of the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, the principal cathedral of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

The attack took place on Holodomor Remembrance Day, which recalls the 1932-33 man-made famine that killed millions of Ukrainians under Soviet rule.

Pope Francis encouraged mayors in central Italy to be attentive to sustainability and climate change as they continue to rebuild from the earthquakes of August 2016, October 2016, and January 2017.

“The commitment to hydrogeological security represents a vital need, made even more necessary by the acceleration of climate change,” the Pope told the mayors.

The Pontiff delivered his address in Italian; the Vatican has not yet translated the address into other languages.

Pope Francis has written a message to a symposium marking the 10th anniversary of Evangelii Gaudium [The Joy of the Gospel], his apostolic exhortation on the proclamation of the Gospel in today’s world.

The papal message to the symposium, organized by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, emphasized that “the entire path of our redemption is marked by the poor.”

The message—written in Spanish, and currently available from the Vatican only in Spanish and Italian—has two principal sections: “a new mentality” and “new social structures.”

“If we do not achieve this change in mentality and structures, we are doomed to see the climate, health, migration, and particularly violence and wars deepen, endangering the entire human family, both poor and non-poor, integrated and excluded,” Pope Francis wrote.

The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. James of the Marches (1391-1476). St. James became a doctor of canon and civil law, and then decided to live austerely as a Franciscan friar. St. James studied theology with Saint John of Capistrano. He became a popular preacher, traveling all over Italy and through thirteen Central and Eastern European countries converting an estimated 250,000. He is considered one of the fathers of the modern day pawn shop.

A pastoral center run by the Diocese of Lolkaw, Myanmar, has been attacked and occupied by the country’s military.

After artillery shells destroyed the roof of the building—which has served as temporary housing for displaced people—the pastoral center was abandoned by church personnel, and the military moved in to seize it.

Bishop Celso Ba Shwe told the Fides news service that 80% of the population of the local Kayah state are now displaced because of the civil war. Several hundred are now living in the complex around the diocesan cathedral, where their condition remains precarious.

“I continue to proclaim my innocence and I can say that I have never stolen,” Cardinal Angelo Becciu told an Italian television interviewer as his lawyers wrap up their closing arguments in the Vatican’s financial-misconduct trial.

Cardinal Becciu insisted that he sought no personal profit from the investments that he handled for the Secretariat of State. “My intent was only to create advantages for the Holy See,” he said. Other witnesses have charged that the cardinal—who handled large transactions with minimal supervision—made deals to advance the interests of friends and family members.

The cardinal acknowledged that he had told Pope Francis “that certain people did not deserve to be in the Vatican”—an apparent reference to the former auditor, Libero Milone, who is now suing the Secretariat of State for improper termination. The Pillar reports that lawyers involved in that case “increasingly see Becciu’s criminal conviction for abuse of office as presenting a ‘gentlemanly way of resolving’ of the suit for all sides.”

Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, has taken issue with the decision by St. Mary’s College to permit men who identify as women to enter the school, which is currently open only to women.

Bishop Rhoades said that he had urged the trustees of St. Mary’s College to reverse the decision. “The problem is a Catholic woman’s college embracing a definition of ‘woman’ that is not Catholic,” he said. He also remarked that he found it “disappointing” that the school did not consult with him before announcing the policy change.

The gender ideology behind the new admissions policy, Bishop Rhoades said, “is at odds with Catholic teaching.”