As the United Nations and various international organizations observe Dec. 10 as the annual day to declare the dignity and human rights of all persons, Pakistan’s religious minorities planned demonstrations against increased abductions and forced conversions and marriages of their women and girls by Muslims.
Pope John XXIII once said, “Mankind is a great, an immense family … This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas.” The Christmas spirit will still be alive — albeit in modified ways, due to the pandemic — thanks to how Catholic parishes and dioceses will continue their annual programming.
Church leaders in Iraq have praised Pope Francis’ decision to come in March amid a pandemic as a brave decision, voicing hope that his presence in the country will send a much-needed message of peace and solidarity, and will encourage Christians to stay, despite present difficulties.
With the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe closed for her feast to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Pope Francis said Catholics still can receive a plenary indulgence Dec. 11 and 12 for their Marian devotion if they follow certain conditions.
Barring any obstacles caused by the global pandemic, Pope Francis is set to begin international travel again in 2021 by visiting Iraq in March, which would make him the first pope to visit this nation.
Prison sentences handed down this week for three young pro-democracy activists, in tandem with the arrest of media tycoon Jimmy Lai, has been largely read as the latest chapter in China tightening its grip on Hong Kong and eviscerating the principle of “one nation, two systems” under which the territory was transferred to Chinese control in 1997.
Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the pope emeritus’ secretary, is denying media reports that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI lost his voice.
In a moving tribute to four American women slain in El Salvador during the height of that country’s civil war in 1980, Auxiliary Bishop Raymond Chappetto led a memorial Mass marking the 40th anniversary of their deaths on Dec. 2.
Pope Francis weighed into a long-standing debate about whether people with intellectual disabilities should be able to receive the sacraments Thursday, saying the disabled are members of equal standing in the Catholic Church and, as such, have the same right to the sacraments as everyone else.
People gathered in Trier’s cathedral the evening of Dec. 1 to pray for the victims of a lone attacker who plowed his SUV into Christmas shoppers, killing five people and seriously injuring about a dozen others.
