Sunday, December 14, 2025 | Third Sunday of Advent  |  Matthew 11:2–11 Friends, in today’s Gospel, John the Baptist asks if Jesus is “the one . . . or should we look for another?” When this inquiry is conveyed to Jesus...

Rome Newsroom, Dec 13, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

A Swedish youth choir marked the feast of St. Lucy by singing at a Mass at the Vatican on Thursday, Dec. 11.

Students from Nordiska Musikgymnasiet — The Nordic Music High School — in Stockholm performed traditional Swedish “Lucia songs” during an afternoon Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica ahead of the Italian saint’s Dec. 13 feast day.

“It was just really amazing” singing in St. Peter’s Basilica, choir member Alfio Tota told EWTN News after the Dec. 11 Mass. “It’s so enormous … And the acoustics are very interesting.”

The student recalled that though Sweden is a very secular country, the tradition of St. Lucia, as they call her, is quite strong.

“I think everyone feels quite a lot of joy and nostalgia in singing” the St. Lucy hymns, he said.

Choir member Fabienne Glader told EWTN News that she always spends the feast of St. Lucy with her family.

St. Lucy “shows courage and patience and just to never [give up] on yourself,” Glader said. “Even if you’re not really religious in any way, you can look up to her as just a wonderful person.”

The choir’s conductor, Casimir Käfling, said as a Christian, the tradition of St. Lucy was always part of Christmas for his family.

He called it “an incredible honor to be able to sing and conduct” her songs in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Käfling also recalled the darkness Sweden experiences during the winter, especially in the month of December, and said St. Lucy brings light into that darkness.

“The story of St. Lucy really plays with these contrasts of light and dark, and most importantly, hope and despair,” Tota said.

Vilnius, Lithuania, Dec 13, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Caritas Lithuania has launched a new support initiative for individuals struggling with pornography addiction, responding to what staff describe as a marked surge in people seeking help as explicit content becomes increasingly unavoidable online.

The program, offered in Lithuanian, English, and German — both in person and remotely — provides counseling not only for those battling compulsive sexual behaviors but also for spouses and family members affected by them.

Caritas workers report a noticeable rise in referrals, with many parish priests now directing individuals in their care to the program, touching upon the growing need for coordinated pastoral and professional support.

Growing demand for help

Simon Schwarz, head of the Caritas Vilnius Convicts Consultation Center and an addiction counselor, told CNA that the new program grew out of a steady rise in cases. “For the last seven years, people suffering from compulsive sexual behavior disorder [CSBD] have been coming to Caritas for help,” he explained.

The continued stream of cases in 2023 and 2024, he said, made it clear that “we needed to professionalize our work in this area.”

With the support of Caritas Vilnius leadership, Schwarz completed specialized training in treating compulsive sexual behaviors and sex addiction, certification the organization helped to fund. He said the need has grown rapidly in Lithuania, a “highly tech-oriented country” where even young children often have unsupervised internet access and where sexualized content is easily encountered across social media, advertisements, and video sites.

“You don’t even have to seek out pornography to be exposed to it,” he noted, explaining that early exposure significantly increases the risk of developing an unhealthy relationship with sexual content. Yet discussing these struggles remains difficult.

“The paradox is that we live in a highly sexualized society, but we shame anyone who cannot control their sexual behavior,” Schwarz added.

Program details and costs

As the initiative is still growing, Caritas Vilnius is continuing to develop its funding base, and for now, clients contribute to the cost of consultations. The support process begins with a free introductory consultation, during which individuals complete a brief screening for compulsive sexual behavior disorders.

Those unable to afford further sessions are directed to free or low-cost alternatives, including Sexaholics Anonymous groups or online self-help resources. A follow-up session then evaluates the person’s specific situation and sets a tailored plan, first to halt compulsive behaviors and later to address deeper issues such as stress, isolation, or anxiety.

Shifting demographics of clients

Before the initiative was formally launched, for several years those suffering with compulsive sexual behavior disorders had approached Caritas Vilnius for help and they were directed to Schwarz. Most of those early clients were well-educated married men between the ages of 35 and 55, employed in respected professions. But once the initiative became more widespread and local parishes began referring individuals, the profile shifted dramatically.

Today, nearly half of the clients are between 18 and 20 years old, with some already facing severe psychological consequences after years of pornography use beginning in early puberty.

Addressing stigma in Christian communities

A key aim of the initiative is to reduce the stigma surrounding these struggles within Christian communities.

“Research shows that Christians often feel more ashamed of their sexual acting out than nonbelievers, because their struggle carries a significant spiritual weight,” Schwarz explained.

He also challenged the common misconception that pornography use doesn’t affect one’s partner, explaining that many dismiss it as not “real” infidelity since it’s just on a screen. However, the discovery of a spouse’s addiction proves equally devastating.

Kristina Rakutienė, a well-known Lithuanian social activist involved in raising awareness about the harms of pornography, echoed those concerns. She said many people hesitate to publicly engage with educational posts on social media out of fear that others will assume they personally struggle with addiction. She also pointed to a lack of easily accessible information, leaving many unsure where to turn or unaware that support groups exist.

Women also affected

Rakutienė discussed that the issue affects women as well. “When talking face to face, many women tell me they face this struggle too, or that they feel betrayed when their spouses enjoy porn,” she said. She tries to reassure both addicts and spouses who feel wounded that “there is hope,” adding that healing is possible by relying on God’s mercy, which offers not only compassion but also true freedom.

CNA also spoke with Father Kęstutis Dvareckas, a priest at a Caritas rehabilitation center with more than 15 years of experience treating both substance-related and behavioral addictions. He confirmed that, even before the new program was formally established, the center had already seen a growing number of people seeking help for pornography addiction.

In explaining the psychological and spiritual consequences of the problem, he likened it to substance addiction in that victims often require increasingly extreme content to achieve the same stimulation, which can ultimately undermine their ability to form and sustain healthy relationships. This was due to people becoming desensitized and finding real relationships dull and unfulfilling.

Addressing such struggles pastorally, he noted, requires sensitivity rather than moral assessments or outright condemnation. “Only understanding and acceptance allow a person to recognize the extent of their illness and to seek help from God and from others,” he said.

“Effective support,” he added, “depends on close cooperation between priests and clinical professionals, including psychiatrists, psychologists, and addiction counselors.” He also highlighted the Church’s unique role in moving people from the isolation, denial, and self-blame of their addictions to the experience and closeness of God’s love as they overcome their vices.

Remarking on the critical distinction regarding responsibility, he said: “A person is not guilty of becoming ill, but they are guilty and responsible if they do not seek treatment for their illness.”

Intentions of this novena: For an increase in personal prayer in our parish For the success of the 150th parish anniversary celebration in 2028 For the success of With One Heart in our parish For the private intentions of the...

CNA Staff, Dec 13, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Secular dating shows like “The Bachelor,” “Farmer Wants a Wife,” and “Love Is Blind” are among a plethora of programs that aim to bring singles together. But what would it look like to add faith to matchmaking in a dating show? CatholicMatch, one of the first Catholic dating sites, seeks to do just that with the launch of “The Catholic Dating Show.”

Earlier this year, CatholicMatch released a new platform called “Relate.” This platform is meant to bring users together for weekly live, virtual events such as trivia nights, discussions with prominent Catholic speakers, and “The Catholic Dating Show.”

The show has quickly become a fan favorite, bringing in over 600 live viewers through the dating site and even more when it is uploaded to CatholicMatch’s YouTube channel the next day for nonmembers to watch.

Taking place two Saturdays a month, “The Catholic Dating Show” is an hourlong event that features one single woman and three single men. During the first half of the show, the woman asks her suitors questions to get to know them better. The three men also have their cameras off for this part so the woman cannot see them.

Once she is done asking questions, the live audience lets her know, via a live poll, whom they think she should continue with into the second half of the show. She can either take their advice or not. Once she picks one of the three suitors, the two go on to play compatibility games to get to know each other further. The show finishes with another live poll from the audience asking if the two should meet in person for a date. 

“It’s just been so much fun,” Tony Tibbetts, live events manager at CatholicMatch and the host of the dating show, told CNA in an interview. “We’re having a blast and people love it.”

Tibbetts pointed out that through the Relate platform, CatholicMatch is not only trying to address a singleness epidemic but “also a loneliness epidemic.” 

As someone who works with Catholic singles on a daily basis, Tibbetts shared that he is witnessing that “there’s a great sense of distrust in the world and the feeling of you’re going to get burned” and “that lack of vulnerability has become very rampant in the Catholic community when it comes to Catholic dating.”

Due to this, CatholicMatch is working to be more than just a dating app but also to “build something unique in the dating world, especially with this Relate platform — to not only be the name you think of when you think of Catholic online dating, but it will also be something that people desire to be part of.”

“So we’re helping people to be able to join in the Catholic community — because we all need community — of singles and who knows, maybe you just might find ‘the one’ while you’re there,” he explained. 

He added: “Our stated mission is to help facilitate as many holy, Catholic marriages as possible, and so we want to do that for you as quickly as possible, as quickly as we can, but while you’re on it as well, we want you to get the most out of your dating experience. Dating should be fun. Dating shouldn’t be stressful … We want to help facilitate that joy in people and that excitement for community, for possibly finding other people like you, for possibly finding ‘the one.’”

Through the live events, Tibbetts said he believes CatholicMatch is enabling users to “go beyond the profile of somebody to be able to get to know them.”

One of their newest additions to the Relate platform is the dating hotline, which allows users to call in with questions about dating or ask for advice and have their questions answered live by the male and female hosts. 

Tibbetts said the primary goal is “trying to facilitate joy among Catholic singles.”

“With that, we hope and pray that the Lord will move something within them where we can create marriages, we can create holy, Catholic relationships with it ... We’re trying to create joyful lives for Catholics and hopefully create some Catholic marriages along the way.”

CNA Staff, Dec 13, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

When an iconographer began his work on a unique icon, he looked to the bones of the saint’s husband for help.

FOCCUS Marriage Ministries, a Catholic marriage ministry, invited the priest-iconographer Father Richard Reiser to make an icon of St. Bridget of Sweden, a mystic and the mother of eight. The ministry is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and chose St. Bridget to be the patron saint of its work.

But there was one challenge. According to Reiser, historically there is no established iconographic prototype of an icon of St. Bridget of Sweden.

So using his imagination and every historical source available — including the bones of St. Bridget’s husband — the priest developed an entirely new icon of a saint who has gone without an icon for hundreds of years.

The domestic church 

“For me, iconography is first and foremost a form of prayer,” Reiser said. “The entire creative process is an act of listening to God and allowing the sacred story of a saint or mystery to take shape through layers of contemplation, color, and symbolism.”

The end result was an icon ripe with symbolic meaning — at its heart, marriage and family.

FOCCUS Marriage Ministries chose St. Bridget of Sweden to be its patron because of her commitment to marriage and the Church.

St. Bridget’s life “beautifully reflects the heart of marriage ministry,” Sheila Simpson, who heads the archdiocese-owned nonprofit, told CNA.

Now displayed in the hallway of the FOCCUS office in the Archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska, the icon contains a quote from Pope Benedict XVI about the family as the domestic church as well as several symbols of the married couple’s life together. 

“The icon quietly teaches that marriage is both a covenant of grace and a living witness to the Gospel,” Reiser told CNA. 

With St. Bridget as its guiding light, FOCCUS is launching resources for couples whose marriages have unusual challenges, such as those who need their marriage convalidated by the Church, as well as those marrying later in life.

FOCCUS is most well known for its inventories — questionnaires designed to help engaged couples prepare for marriage by initiating conversations about issues like finance and values. The additional, new questionnaires will have questions tailored for couples in unusual situations, including military couples, first responders, and deacons.

Simpson said many couples say FOCCUS “became a turning point — not because it told them what to do, but because it helped them truly hear each other.”

Windows into the divine 

Reiser said that one of the most “fascinating” parts of the icon-making process was consulting the bones of Ulf Gudmarsson, the husband of St. Bridget.

“His bones indicated that he was significantly larger in stature than she was,” he said. 

“To honor historical accuracy while still emphasizing Bridget’s spiritual prominence, I placed her on a small set of steps so she would remain the central figure of the composition,” he explained. 

Icons are “created for contemplation and spiritual truth more than realism,” Reiser said. 

“They are windows into the divine — visual theology meant to open the heart and mind to God’s presence,” he continued. 

“They participate in the mystery of the Incarnation,” Reiser said. “The eternal Word of God takes visible form.”

The icon depicts an emblem of the Third Order Franciscans, which the couple joined after they got married.

In addition, Gudmarsson holds a staff with a shell, referencing the pilgrimage the couple took to northwestern Spain.

It would be the last pilgrimage the couple ever made together. On the return journey from the pilgrimage, Gudmarsson grew ill and died soon after they returned to Sweden.

As a widow, St. Bridget dedicated her life to Christ, founding the religious order now known as the Bridgettines, which still exists to this day.

An icon of family and unity

Iconographers don’t paint — they write.

“Every line, color, and gesture carries symbolic meaning,” Reiser said. “That is why we often say icons are ‘written’ rather than painted.”

For instance, the 15 florets below St. Bridget of Sweden reference her 15 meditations on Christ’s passion. The cloak she wears has a brooch styled to symbolize the five wounds of Christ. Within the brooch is a relic of St. Bridget.

“Writing the icon of St. Bridget of Sweden was a unique and grace-filled experience because, historically, there is no established iconographic prototype of her — especially not one depicting her with her family,” Reiser said. “Without a traditional image to follow, I drew from existing paintings of St. Bridget and shaped them within the contemplative, dignified structure of classical iconography.”

With “no established icon tradition for Bridget’s family,” Reiser said he “consulted other family-centered icons, especially images of Christ with children, to discern how to portray children in an authentically iconographic style.”

The paintings of the children visually form a circle, which Reiser said represents the unity of the family. One of the children, Ingeborg, holds bluebells, the national flower of St. Bridget’s homeland, Sweden.

“Each of these details helps the icon speak not just as artwork but as a theological meditation on the holiness of family life,” Reiser said.

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CNA Staff, Dec 13, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

St. Lucy’s Day, also known as Lucia Day, is a traditional Swedish celebration filled with children in costumes, elaborate processions, and Swedish treats — all honoring the beloved saint.

St. Lucy, whose feast day is celebrated by the Catholic Church on Dec. 13, was a virgin and martyr from Syracuse, Sicily, born in the year 283. The young woman, whose name means “light,” devoted herself to God and to serving the poor.

Legend has it that when Lucy was taking food and supplies to Christians hiding in the catacombs during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, in order to bring as much as possible in both hands, she wore a candle-lit wreath on her head to light her way.

That story has inspired a long-standing annual tradition of Swedish candle-lit processions honoring St. Lucy on her feast day. Girls dress in long white robes with red sashes. A young girl selected to be “Lucia” — the Italian name for Lucy — wearing a wreath with lit candles in addition to the white robe, leads the “Luciatåg” procession. She is followed by her handmaidens, who also carry a candle; star boys, who carry stars on sticks and have tall paper cones on their heads; and gingerbread men, who carry lit lanterns.

In previous years, the country held a competition on national television to select a woman to be Lucia in the procession. These days, schools and local churches simply choose a girl to be Lucia by random draw. These processions take place across the country in churches, schools, offices, town halls, care homes, and even restaurants. 

Swedish treats called “Lussekatt,” which are S-shaped saffron buns similar to cinnamon rolls, also make an appearance in this popular custom. Lucia carries a tray filled with these buns and gingerbread cookies. 

The main song people sing is “Sankta Lucia,” which is a Swedish translation of the Neapolitan song “Santa Lucia.” The lyrics highlight the cold, dark winter nights and the light being brought into homes by the saint.

Historically, before reforms to the calendar, the feast of St. Lucy landed on the shortest day of the year on the Julian calendar. This made it the longest night of the year. According to Swedish folklore, “Lucia Night” was a dangerous night when dark spirits would come out in full force. By morning, livestock would need extra feed and people were encouraged to eat seven to nine breakfasts.

In agrarian Sweden, individuals would dress up as Lucia figures and wander from house to house singing songs and scrounging for food. This custom disappeared with urban migration, and the white-dressed Lucia became a more acceptable form of celebration.

The first recorded appearance of the white-dressed Lucia was in a country house in 1764. The custom became a universal Swedish tradition in the 1900s.

This story was first published on Dec. 13, 2023, and has been updated.

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