Archbishop Viganò: Secret letters shed new light on Benedict’s resignation, ‘pope emeritus’ title

The following is an essay written by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò published November 30, 2024. 

THE ‘DISASSEMBLED’ PAPACY

Emeritus. munus, ministerium

The never-ending saga of the Resignation of Benedict XVI continues to fuel an increasingly bold and surreal narrative of the events we have witnessed in the last decade. Inconsistent theories not supported by any evidence have taken hold of many of the faithful and even some priests, increasing confusion and disorientation. But if this has been possible, it is also largely due to those who, knowing the truth, nonetheless are afraid to speak about it because of the consequences that the truth, once revealed, could have. In fact, there are those who believe it is preferable to shore up a castle of lies and deceit, rather than having to face questions about a past of connivance, silence, and complicity.

The exchange of letters

During a meeting at the Renaissance Mediterraneo Hotel in Naples with Catholics from the local Cœtus Fidelium held this past November 22 [2024], Msgr. Nicola Bux mentioned an exchange of letters with “Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI,” dating back to the summer of 2014, which supposedly constitute the definitive denial of the various theories that are out there about the invalidity of Benedict’s Renunciation. The content of these letters – the first, written by Msgr. Bux on July 19, 2014 (three pages), and the second, by Benedict XVI, on August 21, 2014 (two pages) – was not released ten years ago, as would have been more than desirable. Instead, only today has their existence been barely mentioned. It so happens that I am aware of both this exchange of letters as well as their content.

Why did Msgr. Bux decide not to promptly disclose Benedict XVI’s response when Benedict was still alive and able to confirm and corroborate it, and instead to reveal only its existence, without disclosing its content, almost two years after his death? Why would he hide this authoritative and very important declaration from the Church and the world?

The permanent revolution

To answer these legitimate questions, we must put aside the fiction given us by the media. We must first understand that the antithetical vision of a “santo subito” [immediate saint] Ratzinger and an “ugly and bad” Bergoglio is convenient for many. This simplistic, artificial, and false approach avoids addressing the heart of the problem, that is, the perfect coherence of action of the “conciliar popes” from John XXIII and Paul VI to the self-styled Francis, including John Paul II and Benedict XVI. The goals are the same, even if pursued with different methods and language. The image of an elderly, elegant, and refined theologian, in a Roman chasuble and red shoes , who granted citizenship to the Tridentine Rite, contrasted with an intemperate globalist heresiarch who does not celebrate Mass and has nullified Summorum Pontificum, while promulgating the Mayan liturgy with thurifying females, is part of that operation of forced polarization that we have also seen adopted in the civil sphere, where a similar subversive project has been carried out by favoring ultra-progressive forces on the one hand and keeping the voices of dissent quiet on the other.

In reality, Ratzinger and Bergoglio – and this is precisely what conservatives do not want to recognize – constitute two moments of a revolutionary process that contemplates alternating phases that are only apparently opposed to one another, following the Hegelian dialectic of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. A process that did not begin with Ratzinger and will not end with Bergoglio, but rather that goes back to Roncalli and seems destined to continue as long as the deep church continues to replace the Catholic Hierarchy by usurping its authority.

In the Ratzingerian vision, the thesis of the Vetus Ordo and the antithesis of the Novus Ordoare combined in the synthesis of Summorum Pontificum, thanks to the subterfuge of “a single rite in two forms.” But this “peaceful coexistence” is the product of German idealism; and it is false because it is based on the denial of the incompatibility between two ways of conceiving the Church, one corresponding to two thousand years of Catholicism, the other imposed by the Second Vatican Council thanks to the work of heretics who until then had been condemned by the Roman Pontiffs.

The ‘redefinition’ of the papacy

We find the same modus operandi in the intention expressed first by Paul VI, then by John Paul II, and finally by Benedict XVI to “redefine” the Papacy in a collegial and ecumenical way, ad mentem Concilii, where the divine institution of the Church and the Papacy (thesis) and the heretical demands of the neo-modernists and the non-Catholic sects (antithesis) are combined in the synthesis of a redefinition of the Papacy in an ecumenical way, proposed by the encyclical Ut Unum Sint promulgated by John Paul II in 1995 and more recently formulated in the Study Document of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity issued this past June 13 [2024]: The Bishop of Rome. Primacy and Synodality in Ecumenical Dialogues and in the Responses to the Encyclical ‘Ut Unum Sint’. It will not be surprising to learn – as Cardinal Walter Brandmüller confided to me in January 2020 in response to a specific question of mine – that Professor Joseph Ratzinger was developing the theory of the Pope Emeritus and a collegial [shared] Papacy with his colleague Karl Rahner in the 1970s when they were both “young theologians.”

During a telephone conversation I had in 2020, a very trusted assistant of Benedict XVI confirmed to me Pope Benedict’s intention – which he reiterated several times to her – to retire to private life in his Bavarian residence, without maintaining either his apostolic name or his papal vestments. But this eventuality was considered inopportune for those who would lose their power in the Vatican, especially those conservatives who had Benedict XVI as their point of reference and had mythologized his figure.

We do not know for sure whether the solution theorized with Rahner by the young Ratzinger was still contemplated by the elderly Pontiff, nor whether the Papacy Emeritus was “resurrected” by those who wanted to keep Benedict in the Vatican, also by making use of external pressure on the Holy See that had materialized with the suspension of the Vatican from the SWIFT system, which, significantly, was restored immediately after the announcement of the Resignation. In fact, the Resignation has created immense confusion in the ecclesial body and has handed over the See of Peter to its destroyer, which in any case is something Joseph Ratzinger has been a part of.

Benedict thus resorted to the invention of the “Papacy Emeritus,” trying, in violation of canonical practice, to keep alive the image of the “fine theologian” and the defensor Traditionis that his entourage had constructed. Moreover, an analysis of the events that concern the epilogue of his Pontificate is extremely complex, both because of the peculiarities of Ratzinger’s intellect and character, and because of the opaqueness of the action both of his collaborators and of the Curia, and finally because of the absolute ἅπαξ of his Renunciation, as carried out by Benedict XVI, a completely new modality never seen before in the history of the Papacy.

On the other hand, this parenthesis of mozzettas and camauros was supposed to have been eclipsed with the handover to the already-selected Archbishop of Buenos Aires, who was nominated by the Saint Gallen Mafia to take Benedict’s place ever since the Conclave of 2005. The role of Benedict XVI as Emeritus had the function of supporting a sort of conservative Papacy (munus) that would keep watch over the progressive Papacy of Bergoglio (ministerium), so as to keep together the moderately conservative Ratzingerian component and the violently progressive Bergoglian component, thereby favoring the public perception of a supposed continuity between the “pope emeritus” and the “reigning pope.”

In essence, a way was found to keep Benedict in the Vatican, so that his presence within the Leonine Walls would appear as a form of approval of Bergoglio and the aberrations of his “pontificate.” For his part, the Argentine saw in this canonical monstrum – because this is what the “Papacy Emeritus” is – an instrument for the destructuring of the Papacy in a conciliar, synodal, and ecumenical way; which, as we know, was a desire shared by Benedict XVI himself.

The canonical ‘monstrum’ of the Pope Emeritus

It must be said that the institution of the Episcopate emeritus is also a canonical monstrum, because with it the diocesan Bishop sees his jurisdiction “frozen” on the basis of age (upon reaching the age of 75), contrary to the centuries-old practice of the Church. The institution of the category of emeritus, by making the Bishops lose their awareness of being Successors of the Apostles, has also had as an immediate consequence a total de-responsibility, relegating them to the role of mere officials and bureaucrats. The institutionalization of the Episcopal Conferences as organs of government that interfere with and hinder the exercise of the power (potestas) of individual Bishops has certainly constituted an attack on the divine constitution of the Catholic Church and its Apostolicity.

The Episcopate Emeritus, introduced just after the Council in 1966 with the Motu Proprio Ecclesiæ Sanctæ and then adopted by the Code of Canon Law of 1983 (can. 402, § 1), reveals a significant consistency with Ingravescentem Ætatem of 1970, which deprives seventy-five-year-old Cardinals of their Curia functions and eighty-year-old Cardinals of the right to elect the Pope in Conclave. Beyond the juridical formulation of these ecclesiastical laws, their mens [purpose] can only be understood in a perspective of deliberate exclusion of Bishops and senior Cardinals from the life of the Church, aimed at favoring the “generational change” – a real reset of the Catholic Hierarchy – with Prelates ideologically closer to the new requests promoted by Vatican II. This artificial purge of the most senior members of the Episcopate and of the College of Cardinals – and therefore presumably less inclined to innovation – has ended up distorting the internal balance of the Hierarchy, according to a worldly and secular approach already widely adopted in the civil sphere. And when, under the pontificate of John Paul II, the so-called “Montini widows” – that is, the cardinals who had reached the age limit in the 1980s – asked for the revocation of Ingravescentem ætatem so as not to be excluded from the Conclave, it became evident that the progressives of the 1970s were also destined in turn to fall victim to the norm they had invoked for others: Et incidit in foveam quam fecit (Ps 7:16) [he is fallen into the hole he made].

It will not escape notice that, in a perspective of “redefinition” of the Papacy in a synodal key, where the Bishop of Rome is considered primus inter pares [the first among equals], the institution of the Episcopate emeritus and the norms that limit the exercise of the Episcopate and the Cardinalate to the attainment of a certain age, constitute the premise for the institutionalization of the Papacy emeritus and the jubilation of the elderly Pope.

The false problem of munus and ministerium

From the thesis of the Papacy (I am Pope) in conflict with the antithesis of Renunciation (I am no longer Pope) there emerges a concept in continuous evolution – just as becoming is the absolute for Hegel – that is, the synthesis of the Papacy emeritus (I am still Pope but I do not act as Pope). This philosophical aspect of Joseph Ratzinger’s thought, which is principal and recurrent to him, should not be overlooked: the synthesis is in itself provisional, in view of its mutation into a thesis which will be opposed by a new antithesis that will give rise to a further synthesis, in turn provisional. This incessant becoming is the ideological, philosophical, and doctrinal basis of the permanent revolution inaugurated by the Second Vatican Council on the ecclesial front and by the global Left on the political front.

We have therefore witnessed a sort of artificial separation of the Papacy: on the one hand the Pope renounced the Papacy and on the other the persona Papæ, Joseph Ratzinger, tried to maintain some aspects of it that would guarantee him protection and prestige. Since the removal from the Apostolic See could appear as a form of disapproval of the line of governance of the Church imposed by the Bergoglian deep church, both the Personal Secretary and the Secretary of State put strong pressure on Ratzinger to remain “part-time” so to speak, playing on the fictitious separation between munus and ministerium – which moreover was vigorously denied in the Emeritus’ response to Mons. Bux.

Prof. Enrico Maria Radaelli has highlighted in his in-depth studies that this arbitrary bipartition of the Petrine mandate between munus and ministerium renders the Renunciation invalid. Since the Petrine Primacy cannot be broken down into munus and ministerium, since it is a potestas that Christ the King and High Priest confers on the one who has been elected to be Bishop of Rome and Successor of Peter, Ratzinger’s denial (in the cited letter) stating that he did not want to separate munus and ministerium is in contradiction with Benedict’s own admission that he has based the Papacy emeritus on the model of the Episcopate emeritus, which is precisely based on this artificial and impossible split between being and doing the Pope, between being and doing the Bishop. The absurdum of this division is evident: if it were possible to possess the munus without exercising the ministerium, it would also be possible to exercise the ministerium without possessing the munus, that is, to carry out the functions of Pope without being one: which is an aberration such as to radically invalidate the consent to the assumption of the Papacy itself. And in a certain sense we saw this surreal dichotomy between munus and ministerium realized, when the Emeritus was Pope but did not exercise the Papacy, while Bergoglio acted as Pope without being Pope.

The desacralization of the papacy

On the other hand, the process of desacralization of the Papacy that began with Paul VI (think of the scenic deposition of the tiara) continued without interruption even under the pontificate of Benedict XVI (who also removed the tiara from the papal coat of arms). This is to be attributed principally to the new heretical ecclesiology of Vatican II, which made its own the demands of secularized and “democratic” society by welcoming into the bosom of the Church concepts such as collegiality and synodality that are ontologically alien to her, thus distorting the monarchical nature of the Church willed by her divine Founder. It certainly leaves one bewildered and immensely saddened to see how zealously the Conciliar and Synodal Hierarchy has promoted subversion within the Catholic Church. A sequence of reforms, norms, and pastoral practices for over sixty years have systematically demolished what until before Vatican II was considered intangible and unreformable.

It should also be remembered that Benedict XVI’s Resignation was not followed by a normal Conclave, in which the Electors serenely chose the candidate to succeed the Throne of Peter; but by a real coup d’état carried out ex professo by the Saint Gallen Mafia – that is, by the subversive component that has infiltrated the Church during the preceding decades – through the tampering with and violation of the regular elective process and the recourse to blackmail and pressure on the College of Cardinals. Let us not forget that an eminent Prelate confided to acquaintances that what he had personally witnessed in the Conclave could jeopardize the validity of the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio. Also in this case, incomprehensibly, the good of the Church and the salvation of souls have been set aside, in the name of a pharisaical observance of the pontifical secret, perhaps not entirely free from blackmail and threats.

There is an obvious contradiction between the goal Benedict set for himself (i.e., to renounce the Papacy) and the means he chose to do so (based on the invention of the Papacy Emeritus). This contradiction, in which Benedict subjectively resigned but objectivelyproduced a canonical monstrum, constitutes an act so subversive as to render the Renunciation null and void. In due time, this contradiction will have to be remedied by an authoritative pronouncement, but the inescapable fact remains that the form in which the Renunciation was placed does not remove the subsequent irregularities that led Bergoglio to usurp the Throne of Peter with the complicity of the deep church and the deep state. Nor is it possible to think that the Renunciation should not be read in the light of the subversive plan that aimed to oust Benedict XVI and replace him with an emissary of the globalist élite.

The castle of lies in which lay people, priests, and prelates cooperate, even in good faith, remains a cage in which they have imprisoned themselves. In the media dramatization, the actors Ratzinger and Bergoglio have been presented to us as bearers of antithetical theologies, when in reality they represent two successive stages of the same revolutionary process. But appearance, the simulacrum on which mass communication is based, cannot replace the substance of Truth to which the Catholic Church is indefectibly bound by divine mandate.

Conclusion

To the many scandalized faithful, to the many confused and indignant priests and religious, to the few – at least for now – who raise their voices to denounce the coup perpetrated against the Holy Church by Her own Ministers, I address my encouragement to persevere in fidelity to Our Lord, the Eternal High Priest, the Head of the Mystical Body. Resist strong in faith, the Prince of the Apostles admonishes us (1 Peter 5:9), knowing that your brothers scattered throughout the world are undergoing the same sufferings as you. The sleep in which the Savior seems to ignore us while the Barque of Peter is tossed by the storm, must be for us a spur to invoke His help all the more, because only when we turn to Him, leaving aside human respect, inconsistent theories, and political calculations, will we see Him awaken and command the winds and the sea to calm down. Resisting in faith calls for the struggle to remain faithful to what the Lord has taught and commanded, precisely at the moment in which many, especially at the top of the Hierarchy, abandon Him, deny Him and betray Him. Resisting in faith implies not fainting in the moment of trial, knowing how to draw from Him the strength to overcome it victoriously. Resisting in faith ultimately means knowing how to look straight into the face of the reality of the passio Ecclesiæ and the mysterium iniquitatis, without trying to conceal the deception behind which the enemies of Christ hide. This is the meaning of the words of the Savior: You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free (Jn 8:32).

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

Traditional monks are flourishing and still making delicious coffee for Christmas

The coffee-roasting Benedictine monks of Silver City, New Mexico, are once again raising funds for LifeSiteNews this Advent with sales of their popular Cafe4Life Christmas Blend.

LifeSiteNews received an update from the Benedictines, who have two monasteries—one for the monks, dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, and the other, St. Joseph Monastery, for the sisters. 

Unsurprisingly for the youthful, traditional community, both monasteries are attracting new vocations and have waiting lists.

“Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery now has 40 members in our community, including 6 priests and 6 studying for the priesthood, who will be ordained in the upcoming years,” wrote Brother Bernard, Obl.S.B. “There are 22 [men] solemnly professed, several postulants, plus a waiting list to join as the monks themselves construct more rooms for all the incoming vocations.”

“St. Joseph Monastery for our Sisters, founded in 2018, already has 13 [nuns] at the convent, with also several new postulants, and a waiting list, as new rooms are being finished on the third floor of their monastery,” he added.

September 15, 2024, was a special day for St. Joseph Monastery, as it witnessed its first Consecration of Virgins ceremony, with Bishop Bernard Fellay of the Society of St. Pius X, celebrating the Mass and chanting the ancient rite. The first Consecrated Virgin, Mother Mary Agnes, was then installed as the convent’s Mother Superior.

The Benedictine sisters are cloistered nuns who, like the monks, live by the work of their hands.

“Of course, we could never support our two communities without the great expansion of our Abbey Roast Coffee and, in particular, our Cafe4Life Pro-Life Coffee, which helps to fund all the great pro-life work at LifeSiteNews and other pro-life organizations,” Brother Bernard declared.

But even this endeavor comes second to the great work in which Benedictines have been engaged for almost 1500 years: the Opus Dei (work of God), living their lives as a ceaseless prayer, returning again and again to the Psalms in the Liturgy of Hours. And this is, perhaps, more important than ever in times that are chaotic, not only in the world, but sadly in the Catholic Church as well.

“… What we do most importantly as Benedictine Fathers, Brothers and Sisters, in our religious life, is to be faithful to our holy Rule of St. Benedict which is, perhaps, the greatest source of hope and peace for the world, and in particular for our Holy Church in crisis and our country on the verge of World War III,” wrote Brother Bernard.

“Pax, or Peace, is the Benedictine motto, and Ora et Labora, Prayer and Work, are the Monks’ program to bring this wonderful peace of Christ the King, about to be born anew, liturgically, in Bethlehem, at midnight, in the piercing cold!”

On the behalf of his community, both brothers and sisters, Brother Bernard wished “a most blessed Advent to all of our beloved friends at LifeSiteNews and to all of our faithful supporters, in preparation for all the joys of Christmas!”

Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery was founded in the mountains of New Mexico in 1991. There the monks have followed the Rule of St. Benedict and prayed the traditional Office—seven times during the day and once at night. Also, as is directed by the Rule of St. Benedict, the monks also run a farm and workshops in which they perform different kinds of manual labor, including baking, blacksmithing, carpentry, leather craft, and letterpress printing, in addition to their artisanal coffee roasting.

Last year Brother Bernard informed LifeSite that the Benedictines’ new “top-of-the-line” and “made in the USA” roasting equipment produced between 1,200 and 1,500 pounds of Abbey Roast beans every day.

The Monastery of St. Joseph was founded by Bishop Fellay in 2018. The five founding novices received their habit in October that year. The fraternal relationship between Benedictine monks and sisters dates back to St. Benedict and his sister St. Scholastica, the foundress of the Benedictine nuns.

Archbishop Koch draws attention to the fate of the homeless

At the start of Advent, Berlin's Archbishop Heiner Koch drew attention to the fate of the homeless. 

"For people without shelter, the cold months become an existential challenge. Where to go when the temperatures drop below zero, when it rains or snows and you have no roof over your head?" said Koch on the radio station rbb 88,8 on Saturday. 

Just as the pregnant Mary once desperately searched for shelter with Joseph on the run, there are women and men today who don't know where to go. 

"They too are turned away, overlooked or even marginalised."

Koch called on radio listeners to remember what it was like when Mary and Joseph were left alone in their distress and ultimately had to give birth to their child in a stable. 

"A child who became the saviour for us all. Who would have expected that two people - outwardly scarred by their flight and life on the streets - would carry such a treasure that could change the world?"

Caritas service on 6 December

The Archbishop announced that a Caritas service would be held in the reopened St Hedwig's Cathedral on 6 December to mark the Day of the Poor. 

"We want to show that our place of worship is open to everyone and also offers space for those who are socially marginalised." Just as God stands by the side of all people, "we bring them into our midst and welcome their arrival".

In Berlin alone, it is estimated that several thousand people live on the streets. 

During the cold season, they can receive support from the "Berliner Kältehilfe" organisation, which is supported by numerous church communities.

Paul Dunleavy: Probe needed over continued Christian Brother membership

A solicitor acting for victims of paedophile Christian Brother Paul Dunleavy have said there needs to be a “root and branch” examination of why he remains a member of the order.

Dunleavy (89) was sentenced to ten years behind bars this week after being convicted of 36 charges of historical sexual abuse against nine boys.

The sexual offences took place between 1964 and 1991 while Dunleavy worked at four schools in Belfast, Newry and Armagh with the victims aged between seven and 14 at the time.

Before Thursday’s hearing Dunleavy was already behind bars after he was previously convicted on two separate occasions of sexual offences against children.

The Congregation of Christian Brothers has now confirmed to a solicitor acting for many of Dunleavy’s victims that he is still a member of the order.

Owen Beattie, of Owen Beattie Solicitors, said his clients are “rightly angered by the confirmation that Paul Dunleavy remains a member of the Christian Brothers”.

“There now needs to be a root and branch examination as to why Dunleavy, despite his criminality, has not been expelled from the Christian Brothers,” he said.

“The relationship between Dunleavy and the Christian Brothers needs to be interrogated against a background of serious sexual abuse.”

Mr Beattie said that after years of questions his clients “deserve answers”.

“We intend to actively engage with the keys players to get to the bottom of this scandal,” he said.

The Christian Brothers said it unreservedly apologises to the survivors of abuse perpetrated by Dunleavy.

“It is with shame that we acknowledge the damage done by Brother Dunleavy,” it said in a statement.

“The Christian Brothers fully recognise the terrible damage that was done to innocent children who should have been protected and respected. We are open to meet with any survivor who wishes to make contact with us.”

Pope’s jubilee visit to Turkey to advance political, ecumenical agenda

Should Pope Francis visit Turkey next year to commemorate a landmark anniversary for the Council of Nicaea, it will mark a key opportunity for him to make progress on several key priorities.

Not only will his presence for the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, the first great ecumenical council, offer a boost for his ecumenical agenda, but it will also provide Francis an occasion to further move the needle on dialogue with Islam and on his geopolitical agenda for the region.

Though he had previously voiced his desire to visit Turkey for the commemoration of the Council of Nicaea, which took place in A.D. 325 in what is now İznik, in northwestern Turkey, the pope announced his desire to go this week.

Speaking to members of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission Nov. 28, he said that during the 2025 Jubilee of Hope, which he will inaugurate on Dec. 24, “we will also celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of the first great ecumenical council, the Council of Nicaea. I am thinking of going there.”

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, leader of most of the world’s Orthodox Christians and a good friend of Pope Francis, first hinted at a papal visit for the anniversary during a trip to Portugal in May, saying the pope “wants to celebrate this very important anniversary together.”

“He plans to come to our country to visit with us in Constantinople at the Patriarchate, and then proceed together to Nicaea to have some important celebrations on this anniversary,” he said.

Pope Francis in June spoke to a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate visiting the Vatican, thanking Bartholomew for the invitation to attend anniversary celebrations next year and saying, “It is a trip that I truly wish to make.”

Should Pope Francis go to Turkey in 2025, it would mark the fifth papal trip to the Republic of Turkey, and his second visit to the country after visiting previously in November 2014.

Since the beginning of his papacy, Francis has made ecumenism a priority, particularly in terms of relations with the Orthodox churches.

Ecumenism is expected to be a strong underlying theme of the 2025 Jubilee of Hope, with the pope in his Bull of Indiction for the jubilee, published earlier this year, making several references to the topic.

He pointed to next year’s anniversary for the Council of Nicaea, which among other things produced the Nicene Creed recited during Mass, affirmed the full divinity of Christ, and established a formula for determining the date of Easter.

“The Council Fathers chose to begin that Creed by using for the first time the expression ‘We believe,’ as a sign that all the Churches were in communion and that all Christians professed the same faith,” the pope said in the bull, and voiced hope that members of other Christian churches and communities would participate in the jubilee, and specifically noted the coincidence of the Nicaea commemorations with the jubilee year.

Francis, who throughout his papacy has spoken about the “ecumenism of blood,” referring to killing of Christians for their faith without considering which denomination they belong to, said these martyrs, “coming as they do from different Christian traditions, are also seeds of unity, expressions of the ecumenism of blood.”

“I greatly hope that the Jubilee will also include ecumenical celebrations as a way of highlighting the richness of the testimony of these martyrs,” he said.

Last July, the pope established a “Commission of the New Martyrs – Witnesses of the Faith” in the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to develop list of Christians killed for their faith since the year 2000.

Again referring to the Council of Nicaea, the pope in the jubilee bull said it sought to preserve unity when it was “seriously threatened by the denial of the full divinity of Jesus Christ and hence his consubstantiality with the Father.”

“The Council of Nicaea was a milestone in the Church’s history. The celebration of its anniversary invites Christians to join in a hymn of praise and thanksgiving to the Blessed Trinity and in particular to Jesus Christ,” he said.

He said the anniversary is also a “summons to all Churches and Ecclesial Communities to persevere on the path to visible unity and in the quest of fitting ways to respond fully to the prayer of Jesus ‘that they may all be one.’”

Francis also noted that in 2025, the Catholic and Orthodox celebrations of Easter will fall on the same day.

Most Christian traditions, including the Catholic Church, follow the Gregorian calendar, whereas some, including many Orthodox churches, continue to celebrate according to the old Julian calendar, meaning that for some Christians, Easter falls on different days each year.

However, in 2025, Easter will fall on the same day on the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

Pope Francis in the jubilee bull prayed that the coincidence would “serve as an appeal to all Christians, East and West, to take a decisive step forward toward unity around a common date for Easter. We do well to remind ourselves that many people, unaware of the controversies of the past, fail to understand how divisions in this regard can continue to exist.”

In addition to his ecumenical agenda, the pope’s potential visit to Turkey would offer him yet another chance to further cement ties with Islam, as 99.8 percent of Turkey is Muslim.

It would also be an opportunity for Francis to try to move the needle on important regional issues such as the status of Lebanon, and the war in Gaza.

In August, during the international summer Olympic games, Turkey’s President Recep Erdoğan pressured the pope to make a public statement condemning what he said was the “ridicule” of moral and religious values during the games, following debates over gender and backlash over a drag parody of the Last Supper in the opening ceremony.

Erdoğan in a phone call urged the pope to make a public statement, which Francis ultimately did despite having refrained from doing so up to that point, and said in a subsequent social media post afterward that they had also discussed the war in Gaza and that he had suggested that Pope Francis hold talks with countries supporting Israel as part of diplomatic efforts to avoid escalation.

By issuing his condemnatory statement of the Olympics opening ceremony after his call with one of the world’s most influential state leaders, Francis made a display of unity with Muslims that will likely be solidified during his visit to Turkey, and he also positioned himself as potentially having a role in brokering peace in the Holy Land – a position the Vatican is keen to secure.

It is possible that during his visit to Turkey, then, after having tossed Erdoğan this bone for the Olympics, that Pope Francis will not only further cement his relationship with the Orthodox, but he will also occupy a stronger position when he meets with Islamic leaders and heads into his closed-door bilateral meetings.

His second visit to Turkey, then, could be a trifecta: Strengthening Catholic-Orthodox dialogue, advancing Catholic-Islamic ties, and promoting the cause of peace in what remains a deeply fractured region.

Catholic bishops in UK express dismay after Parliament passes assisted suicide bill

The Catholic bishops of England and Wales have expressed dismay after a historic vote on Nov. 29, during which Members of Parliament (MPs) voted in favor of assisted suicide.

Following a five-hour, Second Reading debate in the House of Commons, 330 MPs voted in favor of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, while 275 voted against it. 

While this does not mean that assisted suicide is now law in England and Wales, it does mean the Bill will now progress to the next legislative stage. 

The last time MPs voted on the issue in 2015, the Bill was voted down at Second Reading and progressed no further.

Following the vote today, Bishop John Sherrington, Lead Bishop for Life Issues, said that he hopes and prays the Bill might be rejected at a later stage in the legislative process.

In a statement released this afternoon, Sherrington said: “We are disappointed that MPs have voted in favor of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill progressing through Parliament. We believe that this bill is flawed in principle and also contains particular clauses that are of concern. We ask the Catholic community to pray that Members of Parliament will have the wisdom to reject this bill at a later stage in its progress.”

Sherrington said that bishops were particularly concerned about a lack of protection for conscientious objection. 

"In addition to being opposed to the principle of assisted suicide, we are particularly concerned with clauses in the bill that prevent doctors from properly exercising conscientious objection, provide inadequate protection to hospices and care homes that do not wish to participate in assisted suicide and allow doctors to initiate conversations about assisted suicide,” he said. “We ask that these voices be heard in the next stages of the Bill to strengthen the deep concerns about this proposed legislation."

The Bill would allow assisted suicide for people aged 18 and over, who are terminally ill and have a prognosis of six months or less.

Sherrington went on to say that real compassion involves supporting people at the end of their lives. 

“We have expressed the view, during this debate, that genuine compassion involves walking with those who need care, especially during sickness, disability, and old age,” he said. “The vocation to care is at the heart of the lives of so many people who look after their loved ones and is the sign of a truly compassionate society. It is essential that we nurture and renew the innate call that many people have to compassionately care for others."

Sherrington continued: “It remains the case that improving the quality and availability of palliative care offers the best pathway to reducing suffering at the end of life. We will continue to advocate for this and support those who work tirelessly to care for the dying in our hospices, hospitals and care homes.”

Meanwhile, pro-life campaigners have vowed not to give up. 

Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said: “This is just the first stage of a long journey through the Commons and then the Lords for this dangerous assisted suicide Bill. We are now going to redouble our efforts to ensure we fight this Bill at every stage and ensure that it is defeated to protect the most vulnerable.”

“A very large number of MPs spoke out against this extreme proposal in Parliament today. They made it clear that this dangerous and extreme change to our laws would put the vulnerable at risk and see the ending of many lives through assisted suicide,” Robinson said.

Bishop receives assurances over Mountjoy Prison chapel

The Liaison Catholic Bishop to Irish Prisons has said he has been assured about a construction project due to get under way in the chapel of Mountjoy prison on Monday.

Bishop of Kilmore Martin Hayes met with the Director General of the Irish Prison Service Caron McCaffrey last Friday morning over what he described as "a lack of consultation" with prison chaplains regarding the renovation.

The Bishop said he was reassured that there is "a long-term commitment" to the chapel located in the main prison of Mountjoy.

Due to the increased demands on prison staff and the rising number of prisoners scheduled to attend court, the Irish Prison Service has chosen to adjust the footprint of "underutilised space" at the rear of Mountjoy Chapel to "safely accommodate" a new video link area for court appearances.

While the chapel will be closed to prisoners during the construction period, which is estimated to take eight weeks, the Irish Prison Service has said the works will not affect the integrity or functionality of the space.

In a statement this week, Bishop Martin Hayes said there had not been appropriate consultation with prisoners or with prison chaplains regarding the project.

He said the "unilateral approach" ran counter to maintaining "harmonious and respectful relations" in the prison community.

He also described the decision as "particularly poignant" because the holy season of Advent leading up to Christmas begins today.

Governor of Mountjoy Prison David Treacy acknowledged the inconvenience; however, he said the decision was taken because the courts will be closed over the Christmas period.

"This gives up the opportunity to complete these works in preparation for growing attendees to court in January," he said.

One prisoner who spoke to RTÉ News said attending court hearings via the web is far more organised than attending in person.

"Nine times out of ten you don't know when you are in court, so you have fifteen or twenty minutes to get ready, no shower no nothing.

"Whereas with video link you're ready. You're showered, you're more organised."

He added: "At the end of the day you're going to court, you're sitting in front of a judge, whether it's being produced or being on a video link, you have to look respectable."

The Irish Prison Service pointed out that in-person Mass is available at other locations around Mountjoy Prison and those who are unable to attend those locations for security or operational reasons, would be able to access Mass via a live stream on the in-cell TV channel.

However, Bishop Hayes said Mass via webcam was the not "the optimum celebration of the Eucharist" because it lacks the "community dimension of in-person priest and congregation".

He said when people gather for mass, they do so to become the body of Christ, which is why it should be in-person, and this was something he said, "should be considered by those over-relying on the web at the moment".

Mountjoy Chapel will be reopened following the construction work and will retain a capacity of up to 96 people.

In-person mass is held each fortnight and the average attendance for in-person mass at present is around 25 people.

Viseu priest banned from practicing for three years due to ‘attempted sexual coercion’ of minor

Against the backdrop of a truly hideous child sex abuse scandal, it is depressing to learn that yet another priest has been found guilty of improper sexual behaviour towards a minor, in this case ‘attempted sexual coercion’, and banned from practising for three years. 

The priest received a suspended jail term of a year and 11 months, thus his punishment consists of ‘not being a priest’ for three years, having to undergo an alcohol addiction treatment programme, having to attend a rehabilitation programme for child sex predators, receiving psychological and psychiatric support and going on an annual spiritual retreat of one month in a religious institution, to be carried out during the period of suspension. 

A request by the child’s family for €30,000 in compensation was partially awarded: the priest was ordered to pay the family €10,000.

Saskatoon priest accused of sexual assault says he meant to encourage young girl with hug and kiss

A Saskatoon priest accused of sexual assault says he meant to encourage and reassure a young girl when he hugged and kissed during his testimony at Saskatoon Provincial Court Friday.

As the only defence witness, Janko Kolosnjaji, 71, used a walker to approach the testimony stand two weeks after having hip surgery Friday during the trial which resumed after two months of delays and adjournments.

Kolosnjaji is accused of hugging and kissing a then 13-year-old, who can't be named because of a publication ban, in a supply room at St. George’s Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral on March 11, 2023. He was charged on April 19, 2023, and placed on leave shortly afterwards.

During his testimony, Kolosnjaji detailed various religious ceremonies and traditions where the "kiss of peace" is customary to show support and appreciation in Greek Catholic religion, like kissing a bishop's rings and shoulders or cheeks during certain liturgies. Kolosnjaji went on to say kissing other priests is traditional, and hugging parishioners after liturgies is commonplace as well.

In previous testimony in August, the court heard how the girl was helping her mother clean the church. As the mom spoke with the priest the girl went to a supply room to retrieve the vacuum cleaner. During the girl's testimony, she said the priest hugged her for 15 to 20 seconds and then grabbed her chin, raised her head and kissed her on the lips.

She said the priest told her she had "very beautiful eyes."

On Friday, Kolosnjaji said he went to the open room after hearing a loud sound. He told the girl to be careful before walking over to her. He said the girl was red in the face and looked as though she was scared and maybe something happened with the vacuum cleaner. In an effort to reassure and thank the usually quiet, timid and shy girl, Kolosnjaji asked the girl to hug him. He said he went to give her a peck on the forehead because her head was tilted down. As he kissed her, the girl looked up and his kiss landed on her cheek near her mouth instead.

He said he never lifted the girl's chin and said he did not kiss her on the lips.

After the alleged incident, the girl and mom left the church. Kolosnjaji said he met with the mom and her boyfriend later and explained he had no bad intentions and was trying to thank the girl for supporting her mom when other teenagers would not, he said.

He previously said he felt the girl was having trouble after newly landing in Canada from Ukraine as a refugee following Russia's invasion of the country in 2022.

During the meeting, he told the mother he related to their experience after coming to Canada in 1991 himself after fleeing the Yugoslavian war.

Defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle pointed to differing testimonies between the mom and girl where the girl said Kolosnjaji would hug her when no one else was around while the mom said she saw Kolosnjaji hug and touch his daughter.

"This isn't a situation where he's hunting and seeking her out in some sort of action that happens in secret, that you see, unfortunately, lots of predatorial behavior occur where people are doing things in secret," he said. "This wasn't a secret at all."

Kolosnjaji said he hugged the girl roughly five or six times.

Crown prosecutor Sheryl Fillo asked Kolosnjaji why he didn't hug the son, instead offering high fives.

He responded by saying he didn't know.

When asked why he didn't hug the mom like he did her daughter, he said she didn't need that kind of support from him.

Fillo said the girl never consented to being kissed and it was Kolosnjaji's "intention to kiss her all along."

"It's a pretty straightforward matter," Fillo said, ending her closing argument.

The case was adjourned until Dec. 12, so a date for a decision on the matter can be set. The judge suggested that would happen in the latter part of January.

Church in Wales statement on the arraignment of priest on child pornography charges

The Revd Samuel Erlandson has appeared at Mold Magistrates Court charged with two counts of making indecent images of a child. 

He pleaded guilty and was bailed until his sentencing on December 30.

The Church in Wales is appalled and saddened that one of its clerics has committed such serious offences. Our prayers are with the victims in this case, and all victims of abuse.

The Church in Wales safeguarding team has worked closely with the police and the statutory authorities in recent days. 

Immediately following his arrest, Mr Erlandson’s permission to officiate as a cleric was removed. 

Once the criminal proceedings have concluded, the Church in Wales Disciplinary Tribunal will consider further appropriate action.

There is no place for any form of abuse in the Church in Wales. We give the highest priority to the care and protection of children and vulnerable people in our communities. To this end we regularly review our safeguarding procedures and provide extensive training to staff and volunteers.

We encourage anyone with safeguarding concerns to contact a member of our team via the Church in Wales website:

• Web: https://www.churchinwales.org.uk/en/safeguarding/reporting-safeguarding-concern/

• Tel: 02920 348200.

Alternatively, Safe Spaces is a free and independent support service, providing a confidential, personal and safe space for anyone who has been abused through their relationship with either the Church of England, the Catholic Church in England and Wales or the Church in Wales.​ You can contact the Safe Spaces team by:​

• Web: www.safespacesenglandandwales.org.uk​

• Tel: 0300 303 1056 (answerphone available outside of opening times)​

• Email: safespaces@fear-less.org.uk

Anyone with concerns or information about this case should contact North Wales Police on their live chat quoting ref Q179109.

Brave victim of 'singing priest' paedo Tony Walsh says sicko 'will always be a danger to young boys'

A brave victim of released notorious cleric paedophile Tony Walsh has said the sicko "will always be a danger and a predator to young boys."

Evil Walsh, 70, who was known as the 'singing priest' was released from Arbour Hill prison on Wednesday after serving nearly 30 years behind bars for 38 sexual offences on schoolboys in the 1980s.

Depraved Walsh, who is also known as the 'Beast of Ballyfermot', used the cover of the Catholic Church to prey on innocent children.

He was curate in Ballyfermot, Dublin and a chaplain to De La Salle school from 1978 to 1996, when he started to abuse the boys.

Formerly of Coolock, Walsh, who was known as an Elvis impersonator, was defrocked by Pope John Paul II in 1989 on the advice of Cardinal Desmond Connell and formally dismissed from the priesthood in 1996 because of his sick sexual abuse of young boys.

The evil man was mentioned in the Murphy Report into clerical sex abuse which contained harrowing details of how the sicko abused serially and continually during his time as a Catholic priest.

During one of his court hearings it was heard that the sicko told gardai he was attracted to young boys aged between 10 and 12 and "that was always the case."

Now that the child sex abuser is back on the streets, one of his brave victims Darren McGavin, 50, has spoken out calling his abuser "a barbaric animal, a limb of Satan" and calls him "The Beast of Ballyfermot."

"He will always be a danger and a predator to young boys. He is a serial rapist and a serial molester," Darren said in an exclusive interview with The Irish Mirror.

Darren, who now works as a therapist and counsellor, encourages more of the evil sex abuser’s victims to come forward "for their own well being."

"They will be believed, no matter what," said Darren, adding, "There are over 200 victims and so far only 38 have come forward and sadly 12 victims died by suicide."

But Darren feels victims won’t come forward as they don’t believe they will get justice “as many perpetrators will get off with suspended sentences."

"What I am concerned about is there are a number of judges who are paedophile sympathisers and I feel victims won’t come forward as they don’t see they will get justice as many get off with a suspended sentence," said Darren.

"Some judges are too lenient so victims don’t feel they are getting closure because of this.

"This man isn’t aware he is a paedophile. He already said he likes young boys. He persecuted me for years.

"He repeatedly denied his crimes in court and then when it came to the crunch he then admitted it after 22 court appearances in my case," said Darren.

"He has never shown remorse and a leopard never changes his spots so I do believe he will always be a danger to young boys."

Darren feels the minimum evil Walsh should have, now that he is back on the streets, is to wear an electronic tag and sign on at a garda station at least every day.

"I don’t believe he should be physically castrated because he has already done unspeakable things with implements to re-stimulate himself using rosary beads and a crucifix. I’ve been at the end of that.

"He is a horrific man," said Darren.

Courageous Darren was raped by Walsh over a four-year period between 1979 and 1983. Walsh received a 16 year jail term in January 2011 for raping Darren and two other victims.

Darren’s terrifying ordeal included being raped by the pervert three times every week between Christmas 1979 and May 1983.

Darren also told how Walsh bound his wrists and ankles with a rope belt before abusing him at a parochial house in Ballyfermot, west Dublin.

He added: "When he raped me for the first time in the parochial house, I will never forget the awful stench of whiskey on his breath.

"He closed the window and blasted out Elvis songs to drown out my screams.

"I remember hearing some footsteps outside and I was praying to whoever was there to save me."

Michelangelo's Pietà shines again in Saint Peter's Basilica

As part of the Jubilee work undertaken by the Fabbrica di San Pietro, the office managing Saint Peter's Basilica, the protective glass in the chapel housing Michelangelo's Pietà has been replaced. 

The previous glass pane installed in 1973 was designed to protect the sculpture, which had been damaged by blows from a hammer by a man on 21 May 1972. 

The new protection, as described in a statement by the Fabbrica di San Pietro features a system with a high-tech anchoring system made up of nine shatterproof and bulletproof panes of the highest quality and transparency designed by a team of Italian experts following extensive study. 

The replacement took just under six months and is aimed to give pilgrims and visitors the best possible view of the Marian icon, while also providing enhanced security. With the scaffolding removed, the sculpture is once again fully visible in all its glory. 

"In today’s highly delicate global geopolitical context," said Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, Archpriest of Saint Peter's Basilica and President of the Fabbrica di San Pietro, "the faithful are once again able to contemplate the Blessed Mother who offers humanity the Son of God, taken down from the Cross and alive through the power of the Resurrection. The Virgin Mary's offering opens the way to reconciliation of hearts and the building of paths to fraternity and peace."

The upgrades

The replacement of the glass pane, fifty years after its installation, became necessary both for aesthetic reasons due to the natural clouding of the material and structural concerns. 

"The project involved not only the use of more transparent sheets but also mechanically superior ones," explained engineer Alberto Capitanucci, head of the technical office at the Fabbrica di San Pietro. 

"The adopted thickness is 24.5 millimetres, compared to the original 19 millimetres (11 millimetres for the upper part). The sheets are not just layered but also thermally hardened. They can withstand up to 26 hammer/axe blows (close to P6B under EN 356 standards) and offer bullet resistance beyond the BR2/S level (EN 1063), meaning they can resist attacks from 9mm calibre pistols." 

In total, the stained-glass window, including both the glass panels and the structural steel elements integrating them, covers an area of approximately 50 square metres, weighs 3,400 kilograms, and is designed to withstand major environmental forces, such as pressure and vacuum forces acting on the entire surface, seismic activity, and crowd pressure on the balustrade, all with significant safety margins. The intervention combines greater visibility with enhanced security.

Thanks to Benefactors

The project was conceived, realised, and funded thanks to donations from a group of entrepreneurs and professionals from Italy's Piedmont region. 

Among the donors were Banca Sella – Sanlorenzo Spa, Brenntag Spa, Inalpi Spa, Costruzioni Generali Gilardi Spa, MdM Srl – Studio Miroglio and Lupica Associati Architects, Romoli Venturi & Partners, in collaboration with Oxlip, Sagep Editori, Magon Sistemi Spa, Mollo Noleggio, and with the patronage of Confindustria Piemonte.

New lighting

Light is the key element of this upgrading work. The Pietà sculpture group and the entire chapel have been equipped with a new, modern lighting system, completely renewed with the latest-generation technologies and components. 

The Italian company iGuzzini, which originally designed and implemented the lighting system back in 2017, has donated the new light fixtures, with a non-invasive design, installed after careful studies on lighting spaces and environments.

Further renovation

Thanks to the scaffolding erected for the installation of the large stained-glass window, the Fabbrica di San Pietro also carried out a series of consolidation and restoration works on the frescoed surfaces of the Pietà Chapel (one of the few remaining in the Basilica), created by the painter Giovanni Lanfranco between 1629 and 1632. The security of the arched stained-glass window at the back of the chapel was also ensured.

The Pietà Chapel

The central theme of the entire decorative cycle of the Pietà Chapel is the exaltation of the Cross and its saving power. 

Until the mid-18th century, the chapel was dedicated to the Crucifix, as a wooden crucifix was once housed there, now located in the Chapel of the Most Blessed Sacrament. The vault features the only frescoes in St. Peter's Basilica, executed by Giovanni Lanfranco (1582-1647) between 1629 and 1632. 

The entire vault is decorated with episodes from the Passion of Christ, with the central focus being the exaltation of the Holy Cross, surrounded by a swirl of angels. This central depiction is complemented by painted panels showing episodes from Christ’s Passion, rendered with vivid realism.

Michelangelo's Pietà

The marble group depicting the Sorrowful Mother, who in her youthful purity tenderly cradles her dead Son, was sculpted by Michelangelo Buonarroti in 1498-99, when he was just 23 years old, for the tomb of Cardinal Jean de Bilhères-Lagraulas, which was originally located in the Chapel of Santa Petronilla, next to the old basilica. 

The inscription on the ribbon descending from the Virgin's shoulder reads: "michael āgelvs bonarotvs florent facieba" (Michelangelo Bonarroti of Florence made it), the artist's only signed work. 

On December 3, 1749, the statue was placed before a marble crucifix on the altar of this chapel, where it has remained on display for the devotion of the faithful, except for a few months in 1964-1965, when it made a unique and unprecedented journey across the ocean for the New York World's Fair. 

On May 21, 1972, following the tragic attack that damaged the Virgin’s left arm and face, the statue, expertly restored, was protected by the large glass pane, which has now been replaced.

Staten Island bishop closes church doors to organizers of new, inclusive St. Patrick’s Parade

Despite the recent news that the LGBTQ+ community has been invited to march in Staten Island’s St. Patrick’s Parade after decades of exclusion, the Advance/SILive.com has learned there could be new hurdles set by some community clergy.

The yearly application process to march in the parade is traditionally held at Blessed Sacrament R.C. Church, which is located along the parade route on Forest Avenue in West Brighton. 

Typically, organizations will drop off applications inside the church.

But that won’t be happening this year, said Bishop Peter Byrne.

“I am not supporting the parade, therefore the facilities here will not be available. Sorry, but I have no further comment,” he told the Advance/SILive.com.

The new leadership of the Richmond County St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee didn’t respond to a request for comment about Bishop Byrne’s statement, or where the sign-up event, usually held in February, will take place for the 2025 parade.

Staten Island’s first inclusive St. Patrick’s Parade

Ed Patterson, the new chairman of the parade committee, said at a Nov. 13 press conference that the decision to lift the marching ban was made “quite simply” because, “it’s just time.”

“The Pride Center has long asserted that they merely wish to be treated like any other marching contingent in the parade. The parade committee is entrusted with ensuring that the fullness of the parade remained upon St. Patrick, the history, culture, traditions and faith of the Irish people. The Pride Center has indicated that they are willing to assist the parade committee and remain faithful to that obligation,” he said at the event.

On March 2, 2025, members of the Pride Center of Staten Island and other LGBTQ+ groups will march under their own banners alongside dozens of community organizations, officially bringing an end to the exclusionary ban at Staten Island’s largest annual public event.

The Staten Island parade was believed to be the last in the world to ban LGBTQ+ groups after similar parades in Manhattan and Boston had ended the exclusionary practice.

The parade committee’s “change in mindset” was made possible by new leadership, who were installed on Oct. 30 following the retirement and resignation of former leaders, who had long pointed to the Catholic nature of the annual event as justification for LGBTQ+ exclusion.

“There was ... a desire for, quite frankly, the controversy to go away,” Patterson said, repeatedly stating that the group did not wish to dwell on the decisions of past leaders.

The move also comes after an advocacy project launched in 2022 by the Advance/SILive.com highlighted the LGBTQ+ exclusion by parade organizers through a series of stories that explored the large amount of city resources used to support the event, as well as the overwhelming support from the community of the Pride Center of Staten Island.

How did we get here?

For at least the first 55 years of the Island’s traditional St. Patrick’s Parade, hoards of residents from all corners of the borough would flock to a strip of Forest Avenue hours before the start of the parade to create a sea of green as they eagerly awaited the hundreds of marchers, which ranged from a host of high school bands and Miss Staten Island, to all of Staten Island’s elected officials, including the mayor of New York.

But over the last four years, the number of organizations marching in the parade has dwindled. In fact, many groups and individuals boycotted the annual event due to the parade committee’s continued exclusion of LGBTQ+ groups.

In 2023, organizers of the annual Jerome X. O’Donovan Parade Breakfast, where local politicians gather ahead of the parade, cancelled the 25-year-old tradition over the St. Patrick’s Parade Committee’s longstanding refusal to allow members of the LGBTQ+ community to openly march in the parade. 

That year, a group of individuals who supported inclusion staged a brief, peaceful protest before the parade kicked off, displaying a large pride banner in the middle of Forest Avenue in front of Jody’s Club Forest.

Despite this, the parade committee, under its former leadership, again banned LGBTQ+ groups from participating in the 2024 event.

Frustrated with the exclusionary practices of the parade committee, the Forest Avenue Business Improvement District this year orchestrated the borough’s first inclusive parade held on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17.

The inclusive parade included a host of marchers — from politicians and celebrities, to public high school marching bands — who had boycotted the annual parade in recent years due to exclusion of LGBTQ+ groups. And the annual political breakfast was instead held on the morning of the inclusive parade.

St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Staten Island Ends 60 Year Ban on LGBTQ+ Groups

LGBTQ+ groups will finally be able to participate in Staten Island’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in 2025 after being excluded for over 60 years.

After changes were made recently to the parade committee’s leadership, The Pride Center of Staten Island was invited to march in the 2025 event. 

In a statement, the Richmond County St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee said:

“The parade committee is entrusted with ensuring the focus of the parade remains upon Saint Patrick, the history, traditions, culture and faith of the Irish people. In this endeavor, the leadership of The Pride Center has assured the parade committee that they are ready to provide support to the parade in fulfilling this obligation.”

Until now, Staten Island’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade has excluded LGBTQ+ groups. In 2014, the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Manhattan opened the parade up to LGBTQ+ affiliates, while the Bronx’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade allowed an LGBTQ+ group to march in 2022.

Larry Cummings, the former Staten Island parade organizer, had been strongly opposed to LGBTQ+ groups’ participation. In an interview with The Irish Voice in 2018, Cummings said that the parade “is not a political or sexual identification parade” and that “gays can march, but not under a banner.”

According to previous Bondings 2.0 reports, the Staten Island St. Patrick’s Day Parade has a long history of discrimination. 

In 2020, Miss Staten Island, Madison L’Insalata, was not allowed to march in the parade after coming out as bisexual. 

In 2022, several Pride groups, including the Pride Center of Staten Island, Fire Flag, and the New York City Police Department’s Gay Officers Action League, were rejected without any application review.

Last year, the Staten Island Business Outreach Center hosted a second Saint Patrick’s Day parade, called the Forest Avenue St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which included LGBTQ+ groups. Due to the changes in committee leadership and the inclusion of LGBTQ+ folks, there will now only be one parade this coming year.

The Pride Center of Staten Island is looking forward to participating in this year’s parade. Executive Director Carol Bullock stated:

“We are truly honored to be invited to march in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. This event is a time-honored tradition that brings people together from all walks of life to celebrate Irish culture, and we are excited to be part of this vibrant community celebration.”

7th of ‘Pope Francis’s laundries’ opens in Italy

Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity and papal almoner, has opened the seventh of “Pope Francis’s Laundries” in Italy.

At the laundries, sponsored by Procter & Gamble, the homeless and other impoverished persons are able to wash their clothes, shower, use a bathroom, and receive personal hygiene products. 

The seventh has opened in San Ferdinando, a Calabrian slum where African migrants live.

“It’s a way to restore dignity to people who are not dying of hunger, but are dying because they feel invisible,” said Cardinal Krajewski.

                                                     * * * * *

Questione di dignità, prima ancora che di vestiti puliti. Nella tendopoli, anzi, «baraccopoli» di San Ferdinando, comune calabrese con meno di 5 mila abitanti dove sorge il “ghetto” in cui centinaia di immigrati africani vivono nel degrado, impiegati nei campi e spesso in nero, arriva la carità del Papa. Dopo Roma, Genova, Torino, Napoli e Catania, in questa provincia di Reggio Calabria apre oggi la settima “Lavanderia di Papa Francesco” con annesso servizio docce. Un’iniziativa, promossa da Procter & Gamble, sostenuta da Elemosineria Apostolica e diocesi di Oppido Mamertina - Palmi, dedicata a indigenti e senza fissa dimora per consentire loro di lavare indumenti o coperte e provvedere all’igiene personale. Tutto gratis.

«È un modo per restituire dignità a gente che non muore di fame, ma muore perché si sente invisibile», spiega ai media vaticani il cardinale elemosiniere Konrad Krajewski. Sono immigrati di Senegal, Niger, Burkina Faso e altre zone del Continente nero che vivono a San Ferdinando anche da quindici anni, ma non hanno neppure la carta d’identità. «Un ragazzo mi ha guardato negli occhi e mi ha detto: i motorini hanno una targa, noi esseri umani niente» racconta Krajewski. Oltre alle cinque docce e alla lavanderia con otto lavatrici e asciugatrici, sistemate in due container, sarà predisposto «un Help desk Presidio per chi è nel bisogno a livello documentale» riferisce il diacono Michele Vomera, direttore della Caritas diocesana. «Parliamo di lavoratori migranti che nel periodo invernale arrivano a 1000, in quello estivo a 200. Persone senza medico di base, senza codice fiscale, senza quelle che a noi sembrano banalità ma che per loro sono ostacoli» afferma Vomera, annunciando pure un accordo per una piccola scuola di italiano gestita da suore.

Insomma iniziative «incastrate l’una all’altra» che vogliono essere gesti di speranza, come quelli chiesti dal Papa per l’imminente Giubileo. «Per la comunità è un bel segno» commenta ancora il direttore della Caritas, descrivendo un contesto di solidarietà dove «gli immigrati sono più degli italiani», l’integrazione è «serena», con «gli abitanti che cucinano per loro e loro che ricambiano con piatti tradizionali». «Hanno creato una piccola economia, gestiscono due supermercati. Il paese va avanti grazie a questa gente».

Nicaragua’s constitutional reforms put churches in the crosshairs, say experts

A broad constitutional reform promoted by the Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, will probably increase the political persecution of the Catholic Church – as well as other Christian churches and denominations – in Nicaragua, according to analysts.

Among 200 articles, more than 140 will be changed, while 37 will be canceled. The Congress has already approved the new Constitution, but it has to vote for it again, something that will probably happen only in 2025.

The new Constitution further concentrates the power in the hands of Ortega and Murillo, from now on considered to be “co-presidents.”

All State branches will remain under control of the Executive. The Armed Forces and the police, also directly subordinated to the ruling couple, will receive the official complementation of the so-called Voluntary Police, mostly formed by citizens.

Such a force was key to repressing the demonstrators that opposed Ortega’s reform in 2018 and took to the streets.

Changes also allow a stronger control over the press and over citizens, who now can be more easily stripped from their Nicaraguan nationality if they’re considered traitors. As a matter of fact, many political dissidents sent to exile by the regime have already lost their citizenship.

When it comes to religion, a number of dispositions weaken the churches operating in Nicaragua. Article 14 establishes that “under the protection of religion, no person or organisation can carry out activities that threaten public order.” It also determines that “the religious organisations must keep free from all foreign control”.

That article was seen by many opponents of Ortega’s regime as a move to dominate the Christian churches located in Nicaragua, including the Catholic Church.

“That modification eliminates the spirit of what we know as religion. Religions are not limited to specific territories. They don’t see barriers,” Yader Valdivia told Crux.

Valdivia is coordinator of documentation and research at the nongovernmental organization Nicarágua Nunca Más, which gathers human rights activists exiled in Costa Rica.

One of the most obvious examples of what the regime may consider as “foreign control” is the relation between the Vatican and the Catholic Church in Nicaragua. But other Christian denominations, especially those founded and established in other countries, may be impacted.

“In the State that is being created by the new Constitution, only the Ortega-Murillo couple will be able to control religion in the country,” Valdivia said.

Article 69 mentions that the public or private manifestation of religious creeds must be carried out in accordance with the fundamental principles established by the Constitution. Article 120 determines that private schools can educate the children in matters of faith, but also according to the principles of the Constitution.

“And which are such principles? Those principles are the ones established by the new Constitution, they’re the revolutionary principles,” Valdivia said, adding that it is a direct aggression against all religions to subordinate their creeds to Sandinismo.

The Catholic Church has been continuously attacked by Ortega’s regime since the 2018 mass protests. According to Nicarágua Nunca Más, the government has arrested at least 74 religious people between 2018-2024. Most of them are priests. Sixty-three of them were released and sent to exile. Thirty-five lost their nationality.

Three Catholic bishops have been sent to exile by now. The most recent of them was Bishop Carlos Enrique Herrera of Jinotega, who heads the Bishops’ Conference. After criticising a noisy activity promoted by the local city government during the Holy Mass on Nov. 10, Herrera was taken to Managua’s airport and put into a flight to Guatemala. The mayor that was criticized by the bishop, named Leonidas Centeno, is one of the most important ones in Nicaragua, due to his ties with the ruling couple.

In Guatemala, Herrera was welcomed by his Congregation’s brothers, the Franciscan friars, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais.

More recently, the regime also promoted a broad attack on Evangelical churches, canceling the legal status of hundreds of them with very weak motivations of bureaucratic nature.

According to Yader Valdivia, Nicarágua Nunca Más is not mentioning the Constitutional changes as a reform, given that most of the original articles are gone.

“The way how the State is run is based on the Constitution. Ortega and Murillo are completely changing it, so what they’re doing is really a coup d’état,” Valdivia said.

Jerusalem cardinal presents new Arabic translation of the Bible

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, presented a new Arabic translation of the Bible at the Basilica of Santa Maria Regina degli Apostoli alla Montagnola in Rome.

The basilica is entrusted to the Society of Saint Paul, which has published the translation. 

The announcement took place on November 26, the memorial of Blessed James Alberione, the Society’s founder.

“There is no evangelization without the Word of God, and the Word of God, commented on in a new manner, in Arabic, for Arabs, is a formidable tool for making Jesus known, especially at this time when such hate-filled language is being used,” said Cardinal Pizzaballa. “The Word of God, on the other hand, opens horizons that always renew life: this is what we need most at this time.”