Among rice paddies and temples in northern Thailand, Idente Missionaries live alongside families in villages, transforming their shared life into a place of encounter between the Gospel and local traditions.

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In his greetings to the faithful from the different language groups during the Wednesday General Audience, Pope Leo XIV underlines the importance of Advent as a time of preparation, prayer, and reflection so that we may welcome the birth of Christ at Christmas.

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In his catechesis at the weekly General Audience, Pope Leo XIV explains that our hearts can only find true rest in God and not in the many daily “activities that do not always leave us satisfied.”

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At a “small, slightly more personal” encounter inside the Paul VI Hall, Pope Leo XIV greets people with various illnesses and disabilities, offering a special blessing and the wish that “the joy of the Christmas season may accompany” them, their families, and their loved ones.

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ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 16, 2025 / 15:11 pm (CNA).

The last major event of the Jubilee of Hope was dedicated to prisoners around the world, some of whom during the past weekend were able to experience freedom and fulfill a dream: to go see Pope Leo XIV.

Víctor Aguado, director of prison ministry in Valencia, Spain, accompanied a group of prisoners to the Eternal City, many of whom had spent more than 12 years behind bars. Thanks to special permission, they were able to travel and become living witnesses that “hope breaks down walls and that dignity cannot be taken away.”

In a conversation with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Aguado recounted the details of the “intense, emotional, and spiritual” trip that will forever mark the lives of the men and women who have been incarcerated. 

The group was composed of a total of 13 people from Valencia, including prisoners, volunteers, and the chaplain. Six of them were inmates in the second and third degree of the prison system — regimens that combine incarceration with controlled outings — so they had to obtain a series of permits from the Treatment Board, the General Secretariat, and the Oversight Institutions. “It was a long bureaucratic process, but we didn’t have any problems,” Aguado explained.

He explained that they selected the prisoners they have known for a long time. Those in the third degree of the prison system enjoy a semi-release regimen and live in halfway houses, while those in the second degree usually go to workshops and cooperate with everything the prison ministry proposes. “They are people of faith who attend Mass, and we knew that, given their situation and attitude, they needed this and wouldn’t turn it down,” he commented.

“They wanted to be very well prepared, free of burdens, and participate in Sunday Mass completely cleansed and at peace with themselves,” said Aguado, who also highlighted their passing through the Holy Door as one of the most emotional moments of the jubilee. “With the pilgrimage, the prisoners assumed a new responsibility and a new path, a new life, and the feeling that now they have to do things right.”

He also highlighted their excitement at seeing the pope, since for them “he is the representation of the Lord on earth.” The Sunday Mass with the Holy Father, Aguado explained, was “very simple, and although it was in Italian, it was perfectly understandable.”

“Hope goes beyond, it breaks down walls wherever it may be, and the dignity of people cannot be taken away, and that is what they conveyed during the three days we were in Rome. These were very intensely personal experiences, and we could feel their joy; everyone had a look of peace,” he noted.

For Aguado — who has been working with prisoners for 14 years — the fact that this event closed the Jubilee of Hope is no mere coincidence. “The world of prisons is not visible, and in some way we must begin to consider that people who have been judged eventually get out and have to reintegrate into normal life, and that depends on society.”

“We know that the Lord forgives everything, so who are we to not forgive these people and keep on stigmatizing them? They are called ex-convicts, but they are nothing more than persons, with all their dignity and freedom,” he affirmed.

Although he assured that the Lord “is always with them and walks with them,” he emphasized the urgency of recognizing the prisoners as living members of the Church and appealed to the responsibility of every Christian: “Sometimes we take the works of mercy for granted, but we don’t always put them into practice. The Lord challenges us: ‘I was in prison,’ and the question remains the same: ‘Did you come to see me?’”

There are many lives that need to be rescued

The Italian priest Father Raffaele Grimaldi, who left his chaplaincy at the Secondigliano prison in Naples — where he served the inmates for 23 years — to coordinate the 230 priests who minister to the nearly 62,000 detainees throughout Italy, also participated in this historic jubilee.

Speaking to ACI Prensa, he noted that the event “is a strong reminder that the Church wants to bring God’s love and mercy to prisons, who goes in search of those who are lost.”

According to Grimaldi, this jubilee “has brought to light the most difficult situations we are experiencing in our prisons and the plight of the prisoners” including overcrowding, lack of resources, suicides, neglect, and “above all, the lack of acceptance from society.”

The priest brought some prisoners from different Italian prisons before Pope Leo XIV, especially young people and one man sentenced to life in prison. “It was a moment of great joy for them,” he commented.

“Every prisoner needs to constantly hear a word of mercy: from people who do not judge, who do not point fingers, who do not condemn, but who embrace,” he stated.

He also emphasized that this jubilee has not been an isolated event, since throughout the year there has been spiritual preparation in the correctional facilities, where “proclaiming hope is a powerful message that resonates deeply in the hearts of all.”

Grimaldi admitted that these individuals have “made mistakes” and are serving a sentence for them; however, he urged people to “reach out to them so that they can take up their lives again and change,” with justice accompanied by mercy, “so that justice itself does not become vengeance.”

During his years of service in the prisons, he said he has encountered many people who have traveled on a beautiful spiritual journey, “like a young Albanian man who received the sacrament of baptism on Dec. 12.”

“This makes us understand that in our prisons there are many lives that need to be rescued and helped, because if these opportunities don’t exist, the prisoner dies inside, and we also kill the hope that is in their heart.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

CNA Staff, Dec 16, 2025 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

The Wisconsin state government lost decisively a second time in what has become a convoluted effort to block a Catholic charity from receiving a long-running state tax exemption.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Dec. 15 blocked state Attorney General Josh Kaul’s attempt to fully eliminate an unemployment tax exemption after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Diocese of Superior’s Catholic Charities Bureau was entitled to the tax break.

The U.S. Supreme Court in June had ruled that Wisconsin violated the First Amendment when it denied the tax exemption to the Catholic group on the grounds that the group’s charitable undertakings were not “primarily” religious.

The state responded in October by moving to eliminate the exemption entirely, arguing that the tax break is “discriminatory” and that ending the policy would “avoid collateral damage to Wisconsin workers.”

In a brief order on Dec. 15, the state’s high court affirmed that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling allows the Catholic charity to access the tax break. The court directed the state Labor and Industry Review Commission to declare the charity eligible for the exemption. 

The religious liberty law group Becket, which has represented the Catholic charity in the legal fight, said in a press release that the Wisconsin Supreme Court had ended the state government’s “crusade” against the Catholic charity. 

“You’d think Wisconsin would take a 9-0 Supreme Court loss as a hint to stop digging,” Becket Vice President Eric Rassbach said. “But apparently Attorney General Kaul and his staff are gluttons for punishment.” 

“Thankfully, the Wisconsin Supreme Court put an end to the state’s tomfoolery and confirmed that Catholic Charities is entitled to the exemption it already won,” Rassbach said. 

The ruling “protects not just Catholic Charities, but every faith-based organization that relies on this exemption to serve the public,” he added. 

In its June ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court said the First Amendment “mandates government neutrality between religions” and that Wisconsin had failed to adhere to this principle in refusing to issue the tax exemption to Catholic Charities. 

“It is fundamental to our constitutional order that the government maintain ‘neutrality between religion and religion,’” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the decision. “There may be hard calls to make in policing that rule, but this is not one.”

Justice Clarence Thomas, meanwhile, said that governments “may not use [entities such as a Catholic charity] as a means of regulating the internal governance of religious institutions.”

Following the ruling this week, David Earleywine — the associate director for education and religious liberty at the Wisconsin Catholic Conference — said the Catholic charity has been fighting for the exemption for “decades.”

“[T]rue Catholic charity is inherently religious and cannot be reduced to another secular social service,” he said.

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 16, 2025 / 12:58 pm (CNA).

The miracle of the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius, patron saint of the Italian city of Naples, occurred again on Tuesday, Dec. 16.

According to the Archdiocese of Naples, the miracle took place after Mass in the Royal Chapel of the Treasure of St. Januarius on the feast of the patronage of St. Januarius.

“At 9:13 a.m. local time, the blood already appeared semi-liquid. At 10:05 a.m., the complete liquefaction was announced,” the archdiocese reported.

“Dec. 16 is the third of three annual celebrations in honor of the martyred saint. This date commemorates the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1631, when the Neapolitans requested and obtained the miraculous intervention of St. Januarius to prevent the lava from engulfing the city,” he explained.

The announcement of the miracle was made by Monsignor Vincenzo De Gregorio, abbot of the Chapel of the Treasure of St. Januarius. The phial, once the miracle had occurred, was carried in procession to the chapel so that all those present could see it.

The miracle usually occurs on two other days of the year: every Sept. 19 (the anniversary of St. Januarius’ martyrdom) and the Saturday before the first Sunday of May (in remembrance of the transfer of his remains to Naples).

When the blood does not liquefy, as happened on Dec. 16, 2020, the inhabitants of Naples usually take it as a bad omen. However, in the face of this possibility, the Church encourages the faithful not to lose sight of what is essential.

On Sept. 19, 2024 — despite the miracle having occurred that day — the archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Domenico Battaglia, urged the faithful not to place their hope in physical manifestations but in Jesus, who calls us to care for the most vulnerable.

“I implore you, we should not worry about whether the blood of this relic liquefies or not, but rather we should worry about whether the blood of the dispossessed, the marginalized, the least fortunate, and the innocent is flowing in our streets and in our world,” the cardinal said.

“The blood of Bishop Januarius, let us never forget, always points to the blood of Christ, both the blood of Christ himself and the blood of the poor and the least fortunate in whom Christ lives,” he added.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

CNA Staff, Dec 16, 2025 / 12:15 pm (CNA).

The Michigan government this week released its fifth report on diocesan abuse in the state, detailing dozens of allegations against more than 50 priests in the Diocese of Grand Rapids. 

The report from the attorney general’s office, released on Dec. 15, comes after four other reports detailing abuse allegations in the dioceses of Lansing, Kalamazoo, Gaylord, and Marquette.  

As with the other reports, the allegations detailed in the Grand Rapids investigation go back decades. The Dec. 15 report encompasses abuse allegations against “priests or deacons who are current or former clergy for the Diocese of Grand Rapids, that occurred in the diocese from Jan. 1, 1950, to the present,” the review says. 

The alleged abuse reports were pulled from a variety of sources, including a government tip line, police investigations, and abuse reports disclosed by the diocese itself. 

The majority of the priests identified in the report — 37 out of 51 — are “known or presumed to be dead,” the report says, while none of the remaining 14 are in active ministry in the Grand Rapids Diocese. 

Nearly all of the potential criminal violations in the report occurred “before 2002,” it says. 

Most of the alleged abuse was reported to have occurred against “either boys or girls under the age of 16,” though the state said some alleged abuse occurred against adults. 

In a video message after the release of the report, Grand Rapids Bishop David Walkowiak offered his “deepest and most sincere apologies” to the victims of clergy abuse there. 

The prelate commended “the courage that victim-survivors have to tell their stories,” calling it a “testament to their strength and resilience.” 

“Priests are ordained to serve in the person of Christ himself, which makes the sexual abuse of minors incomprehensible and particularly harmful,” he acknowledged.

The bishop said the report partly inflates the number of victims by detailing “consensual relationships between priests and adults,” which he pointed out are “immoral [but] not in violation of Michigan law.”

Walkowiak said the diocese has “cooperated fully” with the attorney general’s office during the investigation. He noted that the diocese has implemented “numerous safeguards” to protect children — including zero-tolerance protocols — and has “diligently upheld these practices for more than 20 years.” 

State Attorney General Dana Nessel, meanwhile, said in a press statement on Dec. 15 that abuse survivors “deserve to be heard.”

“[B]y releasing these reports, we hope to honor the courage of victims and ensure their experiences are no longer hidden,” she said. 

Reports on the Archdiocese of Detroit and the Diocese of Saginaw are still forthcoming from the state and are expected to be released at a later date. 

As a reminder, there will be an Advent Penance Service in Church tonight, Tuesday, December 16 at 7:00 P.M.   A Catholic Advent Penance Service is a communal liturgy during Advent where the faithful gather for Scripture, homily...

Pope Leo XIV joins children at a school Christmas concert in Castel Gandolfo, and invites those present to communicate to all the gift of love at Christmas.

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