A warm reception marked the arrival of Pope Leo XIV—“Baba Liyū” in Arabic—in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, the second leg of the Pope's first Apostolic Journey.

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Father Youssef Matta, a Maronite monk who lives at the Monastery of St. Maron in Annaya—the home of St. Charbel Makhlouf’s tomb explains the significance of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to the resting place of this saint, who is venerated across various religions.

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The aircraft carrying Pope Leo XIV is on its way to Beirut where he is about to begin the second leg of his apostolic journey to Türkiye and Lebanon.

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Pope Leo XIV attends the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Church of Saint George in Istanbul, and joins Patriarch Bartholomew I to underscore the bonds that unite us in our Christian faith and the continuing efforts to seek full communion.

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The Armenian Apostolic Patriarch of Constantinople, Sahak II Marshalian, says Christian Churches need to find new ways "to think about and model a new pattern of ecumenism.”

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Our Editorial Director reflects on Pope Leo XIV’s announcement and invitation to other Christians to return to Jerusalem to celebrate together the Jubilee of Redemption in 2033.

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Pope Leo XIV prays at the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral in Istanbul, and thanks God for the courageous witness offered by Armenians throughout history, often amid tragic circumstances.

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EWTN News, Nov 29, 2025 / 15:30 pm (CNA).

Rashida Begum still remembers the day her life changed forever: Feb. 2, 2000, when her husband, Mojid Kaguchi, went to catch crabs in the Sundarbans, a vast mangrove forest in southern Bangladesh. Hours later, she heard the news — a tiger had taken him.

“My husband and five others went deep into the forest,” Begum told CNA. “A roaring tiger attacked one of them. Mojid tried to save his friend, hitting the tiger with a knife. The tiger let go of his friend and grabbed Mojid instead.”

The tiger dragged Mojid into the forest. His friends never found him alive.

“After searching, we found only his head and two legs,” Begum said. “The tiger ate the rest.”

Begum was just 25 then, a mother of two. Married at 20, she had shared only five years with her husband.

Her father-in-law blamed her for his death and refused to give her land. Humiliated, she left her in-laws’ home and returned to her father’s village.

Life was hard. She worked in fields and homes to feed her children. Today, her sons work in a brick kiln.

“I lost my husband in the Sundarbans,” she said. “I will starve if needed, but my sons will never go there.”

Begum learned to sew. Recently, Caritas Bangladesh, a social aid agency of the Catholic Church, gave her 10,000 taka (about $81). She bought a sewing machine and fabric.

“I will make clothes and sell them,” she said. “I can earn 3,000 taka [about $21] a month.”

Amerun Nesa Begum, 48, shares a similar story.

On March 26, 2012, her husband was fishing in the Sundarbans when a tiger attacked.

“There was bleeding from my husband’s neck,” she recalled. “The tiger was eating him. His friends made noise to scare it away, but my husband died there.”

Amerun Nesa, a mother of four, faced extreme poverty. She worked in fields and homes of others. Her sons later went to the Sundarbans to fish, risking their lives.

“The Sundarbans is our main source of income,” she said. “We know the risks, but we cannot leave it.”

She also received 10,000 taka from Caritas. She bought a sewing machine and fabric. She and her daughter-in-law now make clothes to sell in local markets.

On Nov. 15, Caritas Bangladesh helped 106 poor families, including 12 tiger widows like Rashida and Amerun Nesa. The aid came through the Community Managed Sustainable Livelihood and Resilience Project (CMLRP-II), supported by Caritas Australia.

“Tiger widows” are women whose husbands were killed by Bengal tigers in the Sundarbans mangrove forest while collecting honey, fishing, or cutting wood. These women face severe social stigma, branded as cursed and excluded from community life, alongside economic hardship and psychological trauma.

Santanu Roy, program officer for Caritas Khulna Region, said the widows’ lives are heartbreaking.

“They face humiliation and neglect,” Roy told CNA. “Families slander them. We are happy to help them. This small support can improve their lives.”

The Sundarbans spans three districts: Khulna, Satkhira, and Bagerhat. At least 3,000 tiger widows live in villages near the forest.

Roy hopes Caritas can assist more widows.

Apart from tigers, crocodiles also attack men who enter the forest for honey, fish, and crabs.

Tiger widows suffer more than grief. They face stigma. Many are called “husband eaters” or cursed. They are excluded from society.

They also lose their main income source. Most receive no government compensation.

Caritas offers hope. With sewing machines and training, these women can earn a living.

The Catholic Church has long worked in remote areas of Bangladesh. Caritas, its social arm, runs programs for disaster relief, education, and poverty reduction. Helping tiger widows is part of its mission to serve the most vulnerable.

For Rashida Begum and Amerun Nesa, this help means dignity and survival.

“I will never forget my husband,” Rashida said. “But now I can dream again.”

Amerun Nesa agreed. “I want my children to live without fear,” she said. “I pray they never face what I faced.”

The Sundarbans is beautiful but dangerous. It is home to the Bengal tiger, a national symbol of Bangladesh. But for poor families, it is also a place of death.

Every year, men enter the forest to collect honey, fish, and crabs. Many go without permits. They risk tiger attacks because they feel they have no other choice.

When tragedy strikes, their families fall into despair. Widows lose income and face social rejection.

Caritas steps in where others do not. Its small grants give women a chance to start again.

The Church’s message is clear: Every life matters. Every widow deserves hope.

Sunday, November 30, 2025 | First Sunday of Advent  |  Matthew 24:37–44 Friends, today’s Gospel compares the terror of the end times with that of the flood that destroyed the earth in Noah’s time. Why does the coming of...

Denver, Colorado, Nov 29, 2025 / 12:36 pm (CNA).

The first Sunday of Advent 2025 is tomorrow, Nov. 30, less than four weeks before Christmas this year, and while the Church provides this time to allow you to be caught by the joy of the Incarnation, you can be easily caught by surprise that it is Christmas. To help remedy this surprise, the Church provides songs, signs, and symbols to enter into the season of Advent more fruitfully.

Here are three ways the Church teaches us about the meaning of the season:

Advent hymns

Many of the customary hymns for Advent highlight the movement of the soul toward what Pope Francis termed in a homily on Advent as a “horizon of hope.” No hymn epitomizes this better than “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” with its overtones of expectation and its mournful remorse over the state of man, captive to sin. The cultivation of hope and expectation is also seen in Advent hymns such as “O Come Divine Messiah” and “People Look East.” 

The commingled darkness and hope that God will fulfill his promises, a theme characteristic of Advent, deepens with songs like the Spanish carol “Alepun.” The lyrics of “Alepun” move the faithful into an experience of waiting with a pregnant Blessed Virgin Mary while the rhythm and percussion evoke donkey hooves clattering across the plains of Israel to Bethlehem.

Church decor

Advent is a season of penance marked by joy and, in many ways, a little Lent. This is why the colors of purple and pink — with their ties to penance and the Lord’s passion, and the joy of Laetare Sunday when Lent is almost over — are the colors of Advent. But did you know that the deep purple of Advent has a blue hue to it to teach the faithful in symbol about the Marian heart of the season?

The lack of church decor also teaches about the penitential nature of the season. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, the lack of flowers on the altar, the restrained use of instruments, and the absence of the resounding and angelic Gloria all lead to a deliberate emptiness.

The emptiness will first be filled on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, and, later, flowers will be allowed on Gaudete Sunday as the first expression of the festivity of the coming Christmas.

Saints and solemnities 

Following the solemnity of Christ the King, Advent begins with echoes of the power of Christ coming in glory before it stretches forward to the humble beginnings of the mystery of the Incarnation.

This means there is a certain focus the Church helps people enter into even in the way the liturgical calendar is marked by very few memorials of saints: just five in the course of the four weeks, most of whom are deeply embedded in the celebration of and preparation for Christmas in various countries.

St. Nicholas is the best known of the five: the generous bishop whose gifts inspired generations of lore and giving. St. Lucy, whose desire to give charity to prisoners in the catacombs meant she wore candles in her hair to free her hands, is another well-known saint with connections to Christmas whom we celebrate in Advent.

The Church also shows forth the importance of Mary during this season, which places her Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8, a solemnity and holy day of obligation, at the very beginning of the liturgical year. Combined with the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec. 12, the Church shows forth what God has wrought in a soul full of grace — a foreshadowing of the entire mystery of salvation in one soul.

Though there are many more signs and symbols that communicate the meaning of Advent, these can assist you as you enter the season of expectation, building anticipation for the celebration of Christmas so it doesn’t catch you by surprise.

This story was first published on Nov. 28, 2022, and has been updated.