It’s the feast of St. Nicholas of Myra — the original “Santa Claus” — whose legendary secretive gift-giving to help a poor family has inspired the tradition of children leaving shoes out on this day to be filled with treats.
While I can’t exactly put some chocolate coins or an orange in your shoe today, I can give you this roundup. Enjoy a selection below of OSV News stories from this week, and watch for more at osvnews.com and on social media @OSVNews.
Megan Marley
Digital Editor
P.S.: Enjoy reading this roundup? Sign up to receive our emails here.
Here is what to expect on Notre Dame de Paris reopening weekend
Five years after Parisians lined the streets of their city, wiping their tears as Notre Dame Cathedral burned, the faithful will have their jewel back as it victoriously reopens Dec. 7 and 8, the second weekend of Advent.
PHOTOS SNEAK PEEK: Notre Dame shines bright as French president visits days before the ‘grande réouverture’
HEROES: Reopening of Notre Dame is victory day for firefighters who saved it from the inferno
UNITED STATES: US basilicas, churches to ring bells at the moment Notre Dame Cathedral reopens
POLITICIANS: Trump to attend Notre Dame Cathedral’s reopening ceremonies
Bringing Mary to life on screen is a challenge, say two Marian scholars
With D. J. Caruso’s new film “Mary” streaming on Netflix ahead of Christmas, two Marian scholars shared with OSV News some of the overall challenges of bringing the Mother of God to the screen.
MEDIA NOTEBOOK: New Netflix film presents the life of the Virgin Mary
Supreme Court hears challenge to Tennessee’s gender transition ban for minors
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Dec. 4 in a case concerning a challenge to a Tennessee state law banning certain types of medical or surgical gender reassignment procedures for minors who identify as transgender, the high court’s first major step toward weighing in on the controversial issue. The question at issue in the case — United States v. Skrmetti, the Biden administration’s challenge to a law in Tennessee restricting gender transition treatments including puberty blockers for minors — is whether Tennessee’s law, Senate Bill 1, violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
BORDER: As border state bishops, New Mexico prelates urge Trump to reconsider mass deportation plans
NEW YORK: Catholic Health Association ‘shocked and grieved’ by brazen killing of health insurance CEO
WHITE HOUSE: Biden’s controversial pardon of son Hunter brings mixed reaction, potential consequences
Expecting a miracle: Advent by the Nativity scene
FAITH FORMATION: Nativity scenes were unheard of until St. Francis set up the first one in a cave outside of Greccio, Italy, in 1223. His goal was to remind people of the poverty into which Christ chose to be born. St. Francis felt the faithful were missing the message of the Gospel because they were too enmeshed in materialism. Sound familiar? We may be able to keep our balance a little better this Advent by focusing on the rich symbolism of the Nativity scene.
Catholic college’s grand ‘botafumeiro,’ inspired by Spain, honors Christ the King
It was the feast of Christ the King, and excited yet hushed murmurs of expectation rippled through the worshippers assembled for vespers at Christendom College’s Christ the King Chapel in Front Royal, Virginia. The “botafumeiro” — a several-foot-tall, 180-pound, silver-plated brass leviathan resembling a conventional censer enlarged to massive proportions, with an eight-sided Gothic cathedral cupola perched atop its bowl — was about to swing in commemoration of the chapel’s namesake liturgical celebration.
ILLINOIS: Archbishop Sheen’s beatification ‘inevitable’ amid growing devotion, says foundation head
NEW YORK: Judge approves New York diocese’s $323 million bankruptcy settlement
TEXAS: Vatican suppresses Texas monastery after Carmelite order dismissed its nuns
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Skull of St. Thomas Aquinas venerated by faithful in Washington during relic’s 3-week US tour
Christians in Aleppo feel an uneasy calm amid rebel takeover of Syrian city
An uneasy calm hangs over Aleppo, Christian leaders report, following the recent lightning takeover of Syria’s second-largest city by Islamist rebels driving out forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Concerns also mount over government airstrikes. “A relatively calm day compared to previous days,” a Catholic priest in Aleppo, who asked not to be identified given the sensitivity of the situation, wrote in a letter made available to OSV News, but “certain food supplies are already running low in the modest market available, and the survival instinct is pushing people to gather anything that can feed them. … Several distribution points in the city are emptying quickly.”
CANADA: 35 Canadian cities, towns and villages are recognizing December as Christian Heritage Month
EL SALVADOR: El Salvador archbishop blasts mining law change, says it will cause ‘irrevocable damage’
GEORGIA: Caritas Georgia head: ‘We are being torn apart’ amid political upheaval, protests
HOLY LAND: Christmas celebratory again in Holy Land amid ongoing war; patriarch urges pilgrims to return
LEBANON: Catholic agency ‘will follow’ Lebanon’s displaced ‘wherever they settle’ after ceasefire
UKRAINE: Ukrainian art therapist helps people traumatized by the war that took her son
RUSSIA: Churches against planned ban on church services in Russian apartment blocks
SUDAN: Sudanese Catholic bishop narrowly escapes execution
We are naked before the strange humility of God
COLUMN: What kind of God runs out to meet the trudging, imperfectly penitent prodigal? What sort of Maker, choosing to Incarnate, first seeks out the consent of the creature whose grace and flesh he requires? A humble one.
Pope urges Nicaraguans to trust in God amid political turmoil
CNS ROME: In the days leading up to the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Francis was praying in a special way for the people of Nicaragua, he said in a letter. Amid upcoming constitutional changes set to further consolidate power for Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his vice president and wife, Rosario Murillo, the pope asked the Nicaraguan people to “not forget the Lord’s loving Providence, which accompanies us and is the only sure guide.”
HUNGARY: Pope meets Hungary’s Orbán, a vocal opponent of European aid to Ukraine
ORTHODOX CHURCH: Nicaea and synodality: Pope talks about both with patriarch, theologians
POPEMOBILE: Pope Francis receives new all-electric popemobile
PRAYER: Pope’s prayer network mobilizes Catholics to bring compassion to world
PREACHING: Homilies must be short, about Jesus, inspired by the Spirit, pope says
TECHNOLOGY: Vatican launches virtual College of Cardinal ‘dashboard’
JUBILEE BACKGROUNDER: ‘Pilgrims of Hope’: Vatican prepares to welcome millions for Holy Year
El perdón como lenguaje de amor y reconciliación familiar
En la Jornada de Oración por la Paz y Reconciliación de Todas las Familias de América Latina y el Caribe, organizada por las Comisiones Episcopales de Pastoral Familiar de América Latina y el Caribe, junto al CELAM, se destacó la importancia del perdón y la oración en familia como elementos esenciales para mantener la unidad en el hogar. Durante el encuentro virtual del 26 de noviembre, el padre Jesús Zúñiga, junto a Marco Murillo y Xinia Segura Araya, de la pastoral familiar costarricense, subrayaron que el perdón es una “medicina” tanto espiritual como psicológica, fundamental para la armonía familiar.
Can my son be baptized?
QUESTION CORNER: I’m a single mom and my child’s father is an atheist. Can my son be baptized?
