By Maria Wiering

(OSV News) — Signs around the Eternal City declare “Roma si trasforma” — “Rome is transformed” as an explanation for the ubiquitous infrastructure projects underway, including the restoration of iconic sculptures and monuments, ahead of Jubilee 2025, a Holy Year that begins Christmas Eve.

While the metropolis is seizing the opportunity for renewal, that is ultimately the jubilee’s expectation for the entire church. “For everyone, may the Jubilee be a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the ‘door’ … of our salvation, whom the Church is charged to proclaim always, everywhere and to all as ‘our hope,'” Pope Francis wrote in the document that officially declared the year.

Here are 10 things to know about the upcoming Jubilee Year.

1. A jubilee year, also known as a “holy year,” is a special year in the life of the church currently celebrated every 25 years. The most recent ordinary jubilee was in 2000, with Pope Francis calling for an Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2015-2016. Jubilee years have been held on regular intervals in the Catholic church since 1300, but they trace their roots to the Jewish tradition of marking a jubilee year every 50 years.

According to the Vatican website for the jubilee, these years in Jewish history were “intended to be marked as a time to re-establish a proper relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation, and involved the forgiveness of debts, the return of misappropriated land, and a fallow period for the fields.”

2. Jubilee 2025 opens Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, at 7 p.m., with the rite of the opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican immediately before Pope Francis celebrates midnight Mass. Holy Doors will also be opened at Rome’s three other major basilicas: St. John Lateran on Dec. 29, St. Mary Major on Jan. 1, and St. Paul’s Outside the Walls on Jan. 5.

A Holy Door will also be opened Dec. 26 at Rebibbia Prison, a Roman prison Pope Francis has visited twice before to celebrate Mass and wash inmates’ feet on Holy Thursday.

The doors represent the passage to salvation Jesus opened to humanity. In 1423, Pope Martin V opened the Holy Door in the Basilica of St. John Lateran — the Diocese of Rome’s cathedral — for the first time for a jubilee. For the Holy Year of 1500, Pope Alexander VI opened Holy Doors at Rome’s four main basilicas. At the end of a holy year, the Holy Doors are formally closed and then bricked over by masons.

3. The theme of the Holy Year is “Pilgrims of Hope.” The papal bull, issued May 9, that introduced the coming Jubilee Year is titled “Spes Non Confundit,” or “Hope does not disappoint,” drawn from Romans 5:5. “Everyone knows what it is to hope,” Pope Francis wrote. “In the heart of each person, hope dwells as the desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future may bring.

“Even so, uncertainty about the future may at times give rise to conflicting feelings, ranging from confident trust to apprehensiveness, from serenity to anxiety, from firm conviction to hesitation and doubt,” he continued. “Often we come across people who are discouraged, pessimistic and cynical about the future, as if nothing could possibly bring them happiness. For all of us, may the Jubilee be an opportunity to be renewed in hope. God’s word helps us find reasons for that hope.”

Pope Francis also hopes the year draws Catholics toward patience, which he described in “Spes Non Confundit” as a “virtue closely linked to hope,” yet can feel elusive in “our fast-paced world, we are used to wanting everything now.”

4. Drawing on their Jewish roots, jubilee years emphasize the sacrament of reconciliation and restoring relationships with God. They also provide an opportunity for a special jubilee indulgence, which can remove the residual effects of sin through the grace of Christ.
5. The year calls Christians to action. Pope Francis called for “signs of hope” in the Jubilee Year, including the desire for peace in the world, openness to life and responsible parenthood, and closeness to prisoners, the poor, the sick, the young, the elderly, migrants and people “in difficult situations.” Pope Francis has called on affluent counties to forgive the debts of countries that would never be able to repay them, and address “ecological debt,” which he described as “connected to commercial imbalances with effects on the environment and the disproportionate use of natural resources by certain countries over long periods of time.”
6. Expect an influx of pilgrims in the Eternal City. Italy’s National Tourist Research Institute projects 35 million visitors in 2025, nearly triple of its 13 million visitors in 2023. Pilgrimage is a “fundamental” part of jubilee events, Pope Francis said in “Spes Non Confundit.” “Setting out on a journey is traditionally associated with our human quest for meaning in life. A pilgrimage on foot is a great aid for rediscovering the value of silence, effort and simplicity of life,” he wrote.

He noted that jubilee pilgrims are likely to visit Rome’s Christian catacombs and its seven pilgrim churches — the basilicas of St. Peter, St. Mary Major, St. John Lateran, St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. Lawrence, Holy Cross and St. Sebastian — destinations St. Philip Neri popularized in the 16th century with a 15-mile walk. Twelve other Roman churches, including the Sanctuary of Divine Love in southeast Rome, are designated “jubilee churches” intended as gathering spots for pilgrims during the jubilee.

Experts in the travel and hospitality industries suggest anyone heading to Rome in 2025 — pilgrim or not — book accommodations, tickets and tours in advance. Visitors may also be expected to pay an increased tourist tax, depending on their type of accommodations.

7. Major events are happening in Rome, including jubilee gatherings with liturgies, speakers and papal audiences to celebrate different groups within the church. The first is the Jubilee of the World of Communications Jan. 24-26, followed by the Jubilee of the Armed Forces, Police and Security Personnel Feb. 8-9. The jubilee also includes gatherings for artists (Feb. 15-18), deacons (Feb. 21-23) and even marching bands (May 10-11). Some of these special gatherings will coincide with major canonizations, such as the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis during the Jubilee of Teenagers April 25-27, and the canonization of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati during the Jubilee of Young People July 28-Aug. 3.

Expect some events to highlight the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, from which Christians received the Nicene Creed. This year, despite different liturgical calendars, the dates for celebrating Easter align in the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, leading some, including Pope Francis, to call for a “decisive step forward towards unity around a common date for Easter,” which was discussed in 325 at the Council of Nicaea.

8. Expect Rome to sparkle and shine. Many famous sites and artworks in Rome and at the Vatican have been cleaned or restored for the jubilee, much to the chagrin of many tourists in 2024, who found major monuments obscured by fencing, scaffolding and tarps. Many of those projects are expected to be completed with a fresh-face reveal in time for the jubilee. In October, St. Peter’s Basilica revealed its newly restored baldacchino, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the 1600s, after 10 months of work. Also receiving cleaning or restoration are Michelangelo’s Pietà, Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona, and Bernini’s angels on the Ponte Sant’Angelo.
9. While many jubilee events will take place in Rome and at the Vatican, it’s a celebration for the whole church. On Dec. 29, diocesan bishops are expected to open the Holy Year locally with Masses at their cathedrals and co-cathedrals. Catholics are encouraged to make pilgrimages to their cathedral during the year, and should watch diocesan communications for local events. While Pope Francis encouraged bishops to designate Holy Doors for their own cathedrals during the Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2015, there will only be Holy Doors at the Vatican and in Rome this year.
10. The Jubilee Year concludes with the closing of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica Jan. 6, 2026, on the feast of the Epiphany. However, the Holy Doors at Rome’s other major basilicas will close Dec. 28, 2025, the same day dioceses are to end local celebrations of the Holy Year.

The Jubilee Year also looks ahead to 2033, when the church will mark the 2,000th anniversary of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection, which Pope Francis called “another fundamental celebration for all Christians.”

(Maria Wiering is senior writer for OSV News.)

By Lauretta Brown

(OSV News) — The church must continue to stand for the dignity of all human life under the incoming Trump administration.

That was the message from Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, chair of the bishops’ migration committee, and Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Toledo, Ohio, the bishops’ new pro-life committee chair, who both spoke with OSV News at the U.S. bishops’ November meeting.

On the abortion issue, Bishop Thomas told OSV News that “the role of the church is very clear.”

“The church has taught forever and she continues to teach that the life of the unborn — as the U.S. bishops have repeatedly affirmed — that it’s the preeminent life issue because in the end the most innocent and vulnerable and voiceless of us are preborn children,” he said.

“We don’t know what that administration is or is not going to seek as policy,” he said of the Trump administration. “We have every idea of what people said in an election cycle. That does not mean that they’re going to be doing those things after their election.”

He said with the new administration, he will “look for the same thing I look for in any administration, that is the capacity to listen to the church, to work with the church and to try to respect what the church is trying to promote, to teach, to advocate and to pronounce and that is the Gospel of the life of Jesus Christ.”

“They can be certain that we will do everything we can to advocate for the dignity and sanctity of all human life and first and foremost, preeminently for the unborn,” he added.

Regarding the incoming Trump administration’s embrace of in vitro fertilization on the campaign trail, Bishop Thomas referenced the church’s long-standing teaching against IVF.

He said that the church will continue to say that “within a marital relationship between a man and a woman,” there should be openness to life, and that life “is the result of two elements which the sexual union is: unitive and procreative.”

If one of those elements is unnaturally impeded, he said, then “that is problematic both for what the church believes regarding life itself and what the church regards as marriage and family because ultimately it disrespects individuals and it disrespects persons.”

He said that while “the church is deeply understanding of and compassionate for those Catholic couples who have a difficulty having children,” at the same time, IVF “blocks the unitive dimension of a couple’s marriage, marital love and — as a result — makes it something which we are not able not only not to condone, but we have to say what marital love is truly like.”

Bishop Thomas expressed gratitude for the three pro-life victories in the 2024 election in the defeat of ballot measures in Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota.

While he deferred to the episcopal conferences in those states regarding their specific strategies, he said “there were practices across the board that were done that were very, very critical to education, to promotion, to clarity so that people would understand clearly what they were voting on because many of our Catholic people did not understand what they were voting on nor how radical those things were.”

“The reality is now we have to go forward and still press to work against those issues,” he said, “but I would certainly hope that the witness to life has not been diminished and I think we can say that people are encouraged.”

As for the path forward for the pro-life movement, Bishop Thomas said that path is “the path of the cross and Jesus trod that path for us.”

“Some people thought that with Roe v. Wade, it was over and it was done,” he said. “Tragically, now we’ve seen each state take to itself to address that and we will not be deterred and we will not in any way be discouraged because we know that we have the one who is the way, the truth and the life — Jesus himself — and if he is that, then we will follow his way. We will trust in his truth and convey that truth and we will depend on the life that he gives us to not only promote, but defend that life itself.”

Regarding the church’s concern for the lives of those seeking asylum in the U.S. under the Trump administration, Bishop Seitz told OSV News that for “those who are arriving to our southern border, we have a great concern for the suffering that they will undergo because Mexico has become an extremely dangerous place that profits off of the lives of immigrants.”

He said immigrants are “faced with extortion from not only organized crime, but from official police organizations and security organizations. The organized crime has found that they can make a lot of money off of them by kidnapping them and contacting people — relatives and the like — especially in the United States in order to pay the ransom. Many of them are facing attacks on their persons, physical attacks, rape.”

In light of what he sees immigrants face, he expressed concern that the U.S. is ignoring asylum law and “not allowing people even access to make an asylum claim.”

“You might have opinions on whether people who come are truly candidates for asylum,” he said, but “if you do not allow them a process, then are you willing to accept in conscience, the responsibility of sending people, perhaps to their death, who haven’t even had the opportunity to make that claim?”

“We need an effective, active asylum system, and remember, asylum by its nature, doesn’t allow you to wait six months or five years, for a person, in most cases, they are being under threat right now,” he said, “their children are starving right now and we need to have some response.”

He said that in order to mitigate the “extreme situation in which desperate people, who feel that they’re running for their life, need to choose desperate means in order to cross into the United States,” there should be “opportunities for asylum and you provide opportunities for work where work is available and you vet people to give them a visa, so they can work seasonally or longer term.”

He referenced the 175 people who died this year in the El Paso sector of the border that he ministers to; most of them died because “they didn’t have water and they were in the desert on a hot day.”

“They’re taking those risks for a reason,” he said. “They’re not stupid. They just know they don’t have any other options right now.”

Bishop Seitz is also concerned about continued legal challenges such as the one the El Paso Catholic nonprofit, Annunciation House, faced from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton this year.

He said the state of Texas is “raising some direct challenges to the work of the church and other organizations that serve people who are extremely vulnerable” and that the vast majority of the immigrants served by these organizations “have been vetted through the system, they’ve applied, they’ve turned themselves in, they’ve been processed and given the opportunity to make their asylum case.”

The church, he said, has a responsibility “not to be doing the security vetting,” but “our task is to care for people who are in need. It’s simple.”

Bishop Seitz emphasized the church’s long history of teaching on immigration. “We’ve had a day, a World Day for Migrants and Refugees, for more than 100 years,” he noted, “from the early 1900s, but even before that, the church has always received pilgrims and migrants. And so, it is one of her fundamental works, the kind of work that hospices did in the past led to the creation of hospitals which were a Catholic work of grace.”

He encouraged the faithful to “read what the church has to teach” including statements from St. John Paul II and Pope Francis on the issue. He also encouraged people to “meet a migrant, meet a person who has recently entered your community. Ask them to tell you their story, and you’ll come to a very different understanding than what you’re perceiving in the media.”

(Lauretta Brown is culture editor for OSV News. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @LaurettaBrown6.)

By Kate Scanlon

(OSV News) — The incoming Trump administration should “rethink” its plans to carry out mass deportations, the bishops of New Mexico wrote in an open letter.

President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on hardline immigration policies, including his call for mass deportations, arguing in a September presidential debate that those without legal status “destroyed the fabric of our country,” and has since indicated willingness to use military force for a mass deportation program.

While Trump has not offered specifics on how he would carry out such a program, in principle, mass deportations run contrary to the Second Vatican Council’s teaching in “Gaudium et Spes” condemning “deportation” among other actions, such as abortion, that “poison human society,” a teaching St. John Paul II affirmed in two encyclicals on moral truth and life issues.

In their letter, the border state’s bishops — Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, Bishop Peter Baldacchino of Las Cruces and Bishop James S. Wall of Gallup — said immigration “remains a complicated and challenging issue for the country.”

“While the Statue of Liberty is emblematic of immigration policies that have given immigrants a new lease on life and made our country great, we continue to witness tragic failures in our immigration policy that have put those fleeing injustice, persecution, and crime at great risk,” they wrote. “Moreover, our failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform has weakened the moral fiber of our society.”

“From the Catholic Church’s experience in working with migrants and refugees, we find that many who arrive to our nation are forced to migrate because of oppression and persecution,” they said. “They are victims of smugglers, human traffickers, and drug cartels. They suffer severe economic hardship and simply want to support their families with dignity. Most are not electing to migrate on a whim but are forced migrants, fleeing intolerable and inhumane conditions.”

The bishops added that at the same time, “we acknowledge that, as with any group, there are those who come for nefarious reasons and who commit violent crimes, and that Americans should be protected from these people. Likewise, we agree that a sovereign country has the right to manage its borders, albeit in a manner which protects human rights and dignity.”

Arguing that the immigration system “is broken and is in need of reform,” the bishops said policies “that ignore the human rights of those who come to the border and undermine human dignity are not the way to fix things.”

“While it is true that sovereign nations have a right and a responsibility to control their borders, this is not an absolute right, as the management of borders must be accompanied with humane treatment and due process protections,” the letter said. “We can achieve both goals: the protection of human rights and the security of the border and the nation.”

A mass deportation policy, they argued, will not fix those problems but would instead “create chaos, family separation, and the traumatization of children.”

“While removing those who cause harm to us is necessary, deporting immigrants who have built equities in our communities and pose no threat is contrary to humanitarian principles and to our national interest,” they said. “We urge the new administration to rethink this proposed deportation policy and instead return to bipartisan negotiations to repair the US immigration system.”

While they are not politicians, they added, they believe elected officials should embrace these moral principles as a foundation for good and just laws.

“As Scripture tells us, for those to whom much has been given, much is expected,” the letter said, in reference to Luke 12:48. “We, the bishops of New Mexico, pray that the United States — our great nation under God — will continue to justly receive our fellow human beings into our country, recognizing the many gifts that are ours in the world of great human suffering.”

The bishops added they “stand ready to work with the new administration on achieving immigration policies which are just, humane, and reflect the values of America.”

Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @kgscanlon.

By Mark Zimmermann
BETHESDA, Md. (OSV News) – For Olympic champion swimmer Katie Ledecky, one of the best things about winning Olympic medals is sharing them.

Now the most decorated U.S. female Olympian in history, Ledecky paid a visit Oct. 22 to her high school alma mater, Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda, to show students her medals and to talk about her Olympic experiences. She also stopped by her home parish, the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda.

Addressing Stone Ridge students in the school’s theater, Ledecky described what it was like after winning her first gold medal in swimming at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, when she was 15 and a rising sophomore at the school.

She returned home and showed her medal to wounded warriors at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, and she also visited the National Children’s Hospital in Washington, and she remembered putting a medal around a child’s neck there and seeing that child’s face light up.

“That’s probably my favorite part about winning the medals, and that’s probably what really inspires me the most, to try to win those medals and to be able to share them,” the Olympian said.

Ledecky, who wore her four latest Olympic medals around her neck as she addressed the Stone Ridge students, added, “To me, these medals are not just mine. They’re everyone’s, everyone that has supported me, everyone that has driven me to practice, pushed me in practice, taught me in school, supported me in all my goals, and even just everyone at home watching on TV and yelling at their TV.”

In Paris while swimming in her fourth consecutive Summer Olympics, Ledecky won her 14th Olympic medal, adding two more gold medals to her record-setting total of nine gold medals, and she became the most decorated U.S. female Olympian in history.

At the Paris Olympics, Ledecky won gold medals in her signature races – the women’s 800-meter and 1500-meter freestyle events – and she won a silver medal in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay and a bronze in the 400-meter women’s freestyle race.

This summer before the Olympics, her best-selling memoir, “Just Add Water,” was published by Simon & Schuster. In May at the White House, President Joe Biden presented Ledecky with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

Five days before speaking to Stone Ridge students, Ledecky was honored at a ceremony on campus, where members of the Montgomery County Council issued a proclamation naming Oct. 17 as “Katie Ledecky Day,” and an honorary road marker, “Katie Ledecky Lane” was unveiled for a roadway along the school.

Speaking to students during Ledecky’s visit, Catherine Ronan Karrels – head of school at Stone Ridge – said of the new road sign, “Now every day when we drive to school, we will be able to see that and be inspired by her as we come and go about our day.”

Ledecky, class of 2015, gave credit to the Stone Ridge community for its support, and for helping her find balance in her life from when she first returned to school in 2012 as an Olympian.

“What was so great was I was able to just get right back to work, get back to school. All my teachers treated me just like any other student, all my classmates treated me like I was just another student,” she said.

Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart is sponsored by the Society of the Sacred Heart.

Before the Paris Olympics, Stone Ridge held a pep rally for Ledecky and two other alumnae who were swimming in those games – Phoebe Bacon of the class of 2020 and Erin Gemmell of the class of 2023.

Gemmell joined Ledecky in winning a silver medal in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay, and Bacon finished in fourth place in the 200-meter backstroke race, narrowly missing a bronze medal by .04 seconds.
Ledecky said she appreciated how during her years at Stone Ridge, the community supported her in her swimming journey and her academic journey.

“Education has always been a top priority in my life, it’s been a value in my family,” she said. “I never wanted to push my education aside for the sake of swimming. I always wanted to balance both of them. Stone Ridge and everyone in this community allowed me to do that, supported me in that, pushed me in school and in my sport.”

After graduating from Stone Ridge, Ledecky earned a degree in psychology from Stanford University.
The Olympian said another aspect of her Stone Ridge education that she appreciated was the Upper School’s Social Action Program. On one Wednesday each month, Stone Ridge Upper School students participate in a day of community service. When she was at Stone Ridge, Ledecky volunteered with Bikes for the World, which provides donated bicycles to people in developing countries.

“I loved to be able to get out and help other people. … It’s so great to learn how to give back to your community,” she said.

The athlete, who is now 27, said she started swimming when she was 6 years old, and she loved swimming from the start.

The athlete said she has always set goals for herself. “I set my mind on something I want to achieve, whether that was in the classroom or whether that was in the pool, and I’d just go do it, do whatever it took to get those goals,” she said.

Describing the work involved in her training, Ledecky said she swims 10 times a week, and she added that she swims about two hours each time, and sometimes adds another swimming session on Sundays. One little girl emphatically asked Ledecky if she ever gets tired of swimming, and the Olympian responded, “I really love it!”

Ledecky is now training to compete in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

The Olympian offered words of encouragement to all the students. “If there’s something that you do find that you love as much as I have found that with swimming, you’ve got to try to pursue it to the fullest and try to be the very best that you can be at it.” That might be a school subject, a sport or an extracurricular activity, she said.

Standing beside the pool at the Stone Ridge Aquatics Center, Ledecky was interviewed by journalists after he remarks.

She said that when she’s competing in the Olympics, she carries in her heart all those people from Stone Ridge and from Little Flower school and parish who have supported her. “They’ve all been so great and have all helped me learn how to have balance in my life,” she said.

Asked if she still prays the Hail Mary before her swimming races, Ledecky said, “I still do that. I joke that it’s probably more like a decade of the rosary now. Yes, I’ve always done that.”

Ledecky said her Catholic faith remains a source of strength for her.

That faith and the support of her Catholic schools and parish help “quiet my head and quiet my heart and help me feel balance and ready and prepared and supported. … I lean on everything I learned at Little Flower and Stone Ridge,” she said.

(Mark Zimmermann is editor of the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington.)

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – The faithful will have an opportunity the weekend of Dec. 7-8 to support the more than 20,000 elderly religious sisters, brothers and religious order priests who have devoted their lives to service in the Catholic Church through an annual collection benefiting retired religious across the United States.

Coordinated by the National Religious Retirement Office, or NRRO, and taking place at weekend Masses in participating dioceses, this collection provides “crucial financial aid to qualified religious institutes, enabling them to address the growing needs of their retired members,” according to a news release.
“These men and women religious who taught in schools, served in parish ministries and helped provide social services for the Church selflessly devoted their lives to serving others, often for little to no pay,” said the release, issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Nov. 4. “As they age, many religious communities face a significant gap between the cost of care and available resources.”

Exacerbating the challenge are the rising cost of health care and the fact that religious over age 70 outnumber those younger than 70 by nearly 3 to 1.

“In 2024, 71% of religious communities providing data to the NRRO reported a median age of 70 or higher,” the news release stated.

The collection was launched in 1988 to address the lack of retirement funding for religious communities. In 2023, it raised $29.3 million, yet the annual cost to support retired religious men and women exceeds $1 billion, according to the NRRO.

The average annual cost of care for each religious is about $59,700, with skilled nursing care lifting that cost to an average of $90,700 per person. Meanwhile, a religious’ average annual Social Security benefit is only $8,551, the NRRO said.

“The selfless dedication of these religious has enriched countless lives,” said NRRO director John Knutsen. “Your generosity ensures they receive the care they deserve in their retirement. Supporting our aging religious is a shared responsibility and an opportunity to express our gratitude for their lifelong service. By contributing to the Retirement Fund for Religious collection we ensure they receive the care and dignity they deserve while also upholding the values of compassion and solidarity within our faith community.”

The website for the Retirement Fund for Religious, retiredreligious.org, features the stories of religious helped by the collection, including Father Maury Smith, 87, a member of the Order of Friars Minor in St. Louis, and Sister M. Stephanie Belgeri, 72, a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George in Alton, Illinois.

“Donations are needed to have the ordinary kinds of things many senior religious need in terms of food, clothing and housing,” Father Smith said. “We owe it to them to take care of them. Maybe even more than we have in the past. … They need it.”

The friar has served as a retreat director, college educator, pastor, provincial staff and a deanery coordinator of ministry in San Antonio, “enriching countless lives by integrating psychology and theology into contemporary spirituality.”

He serves as a spiritual director and writes biweekly for Today’s Catholic, the archdiocesan newspaper of the San Antonio Archdiocese.

“I think I am in my eighth career,” he said. “I love doing it and am happy.”

A fellow Franciscan who joined her community in 1970, Sister M. Stephanie has been a nurse and a teacher and been involved in pastoral care. She spent four-and-a-half years in Brazil, setting up a foundation for her order.

Upon returning to the United States, Sister M. Stephanie was the director of nursing and later administrator at the Mother of Good Counsel Home, a skilled nursing facility in St. Louis, until 2014.
Sister M. Stephanie’s ministry continues in retirement as she manages her religious community’s library and translates English documents into Portuguese for the sisters in the Brazilian mission.

“Thanks to your generosity, we can provide the very best care to the sisters in our community,” said Sister M. Stephanie said about the Retirement Fund for Religious. “Your contributions enabled upgrades, including building an infirmary, ensuring our sisters’ well-being.”

Since 1988, the collection has distributed more than $973 million to support day-to-day care and self-help projects, as well as educational programs for long-term retirement planning.

By Woodeene Koenig-Bricker
(OSV News) – “When we let the world know that there is more to the holiday than presents and decorations, we fulfill our mission as Christians to evangelize the world.”

Imagine expecting a new baby. For months, you prepare to welcome this addition, but in the last month, the preparations really step up. You make sure that the crib is clean, the diapers are in place, the car seat is installed, and family and friends are ready to meet the new baby.

That sense of joyful preparation combined with anticipation is the attitude we bring to Advent as we await the arrival of Christ the Lord. Christmas is the high point, but using the days leading up to Dec. 25 to prepare both spiritually and materially is what Advent is all about!

What sets Advent apart from the usual secular preparations for Christmas is the spiritual dimension: Advent is a time of both prayer and penance. As Catholics, we are called to exercise a more disciplined approach to our spiritual lives during the four weeks of Advent and to pay special attention to our words and deeds as we wait patiently for the coming of Christ.

Waiting is a challenge, but instead of just counting down the days, we are called to use Advent as a time to deepen our relationship with God. Keep things simple: Read a Psalm as a bedtime prayer, go to confession, pray the rosary (especially on the special Marian feasts of the Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8) and Our Lady of Guadalupe (Dec. 12)), spend some time in Eucharistic adoration, or go to daily Mass.

You could also say the traditional St. Andrews novena – 25 days of prayer for a holy Christmas, beginning on the feast of St. Andrew, Nov. 30. If you have children, make a “good deed” crèche: Put a slip of paper, acting as a piece of straw, in the manger each time you do a good deed so that the bed will be filled with “holy softness” for the Christ Child.

Some of the major signs of the season are decorations and lights, especially those on the outside of the house. As you decorate your house, think about how lights are more than just pretty objects. Lights, especially candles, have been used for centuries at Christmas time as a symbol of the star that showed the shepherds and wise men where to find the Christ Child. Your lights can serve as a witness to the “light of the world” that is both coming and has already arrived.

Each household develops their own traditions about when to put up a tree, stockings and other decorations. Some people like to do a little bit over the weeks; others prefer to make decorating a major part of Christmas Eve. (And in case you feel as if putting up decorations early is somehow improper, the Vatican puts up its Christmas scene, consisting of trees and a crèche, in very early December!)

St. Francis of Assisi is credited with creating the first nativity scene. Invest in having a crèche of your own. Some people put theirs under the tree, others make a special scene on a table. Some families make the crèche into an ongoing tradition by adding a new figure each year.

Many families have special foods that they serve only at Christmas. As you prepare these treats, use the time to recall – and pray for – all those family members who have gone before us in death.

You might want to begin building some new and flavorful traditions. One idea from the Anglican tradition is to begin your holiday baking on the last Sunday before Advent. This Sunday is called “Stir-up Sunday” because traditional fruit cakes were mixed on this day and left to “mellow” until Christmas. The name comes from the collect prayer from the day’s liturgy: “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people.” Put a new twist on the tradition by making and freezing batches of cookie dough to be baked later in the month.

Advent is a time of hope and light. It is a time when we reaffirm that “nothing is impossible with God,” not even a virgin bringing forth a child. This Advent, find hope as you recommit yourself to spiritual renewal. This Advent, look for the Light in everything you do, from shopping for presents, to mailing cards, to making special food, to decorating the house.

This Advent, prepare your home and your heart for the coming of Emmanuel, God-with-Us, Jesus Christ.

(Woodeene Koenig-Bricker writes from Oregon.)

By Michael Kelly
DUBLIN (OSV News) – The sainthood cause of an Irish nun killed in an earthquake in Ecuador in 2016 is to open early next year, it has been revealed.

Derry-born Sister Clare Crockett was a promising actress with little interest in religion when she went on a Holy Week retreat in Spain in 2000 that changed her life.

The then 18-year-old self-confessed “wild child” felt a profound call to religious life, and entered the convent of the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother.

Following her death in the 2016 Ecuador earthquake, stories soon began to spread of her holiness of life and devoted pastoral service. Her grave in her native Derry soon became a place of pilgrimage, and devotion to her intercession has grown. She has been credited with bringing many young people back to the practice of their Catholic faith.

Father Gerard Mongan, parish priest of her native parish of St. Columba’s in Derry’s working-class Bogside neighborhood, told OSV News that “news of the opening of Sister Clare’s cause for canonization has been received with great joy and anticipation in Derry.”

Father Mongan confirmed to OSV News that the cause for Sister Clare will open in Madrid Jan. 12. From this point she will be declared a servant of God and the intensive scrutiny of her life and ministry will continue with both a postulator and vice postulator appointed to present the case to the Vatican.

Father Mongan said he hopes that the news will help devotion to Sister Clare to spread far and wide. “She already has a huge following of devotees who are inspired by her remarkable conversion story.

“The people of Derry and beyond are overwhelmed by the possibility that one day, they will have their own saint. In particular, she has been an inspiration to many young people who have been inspired by her life, especially her infectious joy.

“She has already brought countless people back to the practice of their faith. We all look forward to the official opening of her cause when she will become (a) servant of God. Exciting times ahead!” Father Mongan said.

Sister Clare was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1982 at the height of the sectarian conflict known as The Troubles, in which over 3,000 people lost their lives.

Her home town is featured in the popular comedy series “Derry Girls,” which follows the antics of teenagers in the city.

Shortly after her death her religious congregation, the Home of the Mother, released a film charting her life. “All of Nothing” documents the last 15 years of her life and includes interviews with her family, childhood friends and the sisters from the Home of the Mother order. The film now has more than 2.5 million views on YouTube.

In 2020, the order published the first full-length biography of the religious sister.
“Sister Clare Crockett: Alone with Christ Alone” is written by Sister Kristen Gardner, who was also responsible for the documentary.

The book is based on Sister Clare’s notebooks of spiritual writings, discovered after her death. In one passage she recalls the experience that brought her to rediscover her faith on Good Friday in 2000.
“I do not know how to explain exactly what happened. I did not see the choirs of angels or a white dove come down from the ceiling and descend on me, but I had the certainty that the Lord was on the Cross, for me,” she recalled.

“And along with that conviction, I felt a great sorrow, similar to what I had experienced when I was little and prayed the Stations of the Cross. When I returned to my pew, I already had imprinted in me something that was not there before. I had to do something for him Who had given his life for me,” she wrote.

It was the start of a journey of conversion and healing that led to her – despite protests from her family and acting manager – joining the sisters and taking her first vows in 2006.

Her first assignment was in the community at Belmonte, in Cuenca, Spain, in a residence for girls that come from families in difficulty. “Her zeal for souls, especially those of the youth, was immense,” the sisters wrote in her online biography.

Soon after she was sent to the new community that was about to be opened in Jacksonville, Florida, in October 2006. The sisters began pastoral work at Assumption Parish and School.

Father Frederick Parke, who died Oct. 18, 2021, remembered Sister Clare as one beaming with enthusiasm and joy.

“The children picked up on the enthusiasm that she had for the Eucharist. She overflowed with enthusiasm for the Lord. Once you had been with her, you knew you had to pick up that same enthusiasm. It was so catchy.”

Michael Kelly writes for OSV News from Dublin, Ireland.

By Kate Scanlon
(OSV News) – A federal judge in Texas on Nov. 7 struck down a Biden administration program to protect from deportation and provide a path to U.S. citizenship for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants living in the country who are married to U.S. citizens.

The program, known as “Keeping Families Together,” which sought to allow undocumented spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens to apply for a green card without first having to leave the country, was challenged by 16 Republican-led states that filed a lawsuit after applications were made available in August. At that time, a judge put the program on hold.

“Sadly, this court decision will likely end the program, as Trump will terminate it upon taking office,” J. Kevin Appleby, senior fellow for policy at the Center for Migration Studies of New York and the former director of migration policy for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told OSV News.

“Instead, his administration will start targeting the exact same families for deportation, separating U.S. citizen children from their parents,” Appleby said. “Hopefully, Catholic advocates, including the U.S. bishops, will not pull their punches in opposing Trump’s mass deportation and anti-asylum plans. History will mark how the church in the U.S. defends the rights of migrants in the years ahead.”

Under the terms of the program, applicants must have resided in the U.S. for 10 or more years and be legally married to a U.S. citizen. Those approved by the Department of Homeland Security would have been permitted to remain in the U.S. for a three-year period to apply for permanent residency.
In June, the White House had said the program would benefit “approximately half a million spouses of U.S. citizens, and approximately 50,000 noncitizen children under the age of 21 whose parent is married to a U.S. citizen.”
But Judge J. Campbell Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, who previously temporarily blocked the program, struck it down Nov. 7, arguing the administration exceeded its authority in creating the program.

The program would have been unlikely to remain in place once President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

Andrew Bailey, the attorney general of Missouri, one of the states that joined the lawsuit challenging the program, said in a post on X (formerly Twitter), “The court just granted our request to throw out the Biden-Harris administration’s illegal parole-in-place program allowing illegal aliens to remain in our country after they have crossed the border. A huge win for the rule of law.”

FWD.us, an immigration and criminal justice reform advocacy group, said in a post on X it is “deeply disappointed” by the ruling, arguing the program represented “a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of American families in desperate need of protection from being separated by our failed immigration system.”

Previously, Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, who serves as chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, praised the Biden administration rule at the time. He noted a similar program had been available to military service members and their families for several years.
In a June 18 statement, Bishop Seitz said, “We’ve seen the positive impacts such programs can have, not only for beneficiaries themselves but for the families, employers, and communities that rely on them,” adding that the new program was “sure to yield similar benefits.”

The Catholic Church’s magisterium outlines the church’s moral parameters on immigration. The Catechism of the Catholic Church instructs, “The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.”

At the same time, the church has also made clear human laws are also subject to divine limits. St. John Paul II’s 1993 encyclical “Veritatis Splendor” (“Splendor of Truth”) and 1995 encyclical “Evangelium Vitae” (“The Gospel of Life”) — both quote the Second Vatican Council’s teaching in “Gaudium et Spes,” the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, which names “deportation” among various specific acts “offensive to human dignity” that “are a disgrace, and so long as they infect human civilization they contaminate those who inflict them more than those who suffer injustice, and they are a negation of the honor due to the Creator.”

Back in June, Bishop Seitz emphasized that “legislators have a moral and patriotic duty to improve our legal immigration system, including the opportunities available for family reunification and preservation.”
“A society is only as strong as its families, and family unity is a fundamental right,” he said. “For the good of the country, Congress must find a way to overcome partisan divisions and enact immigration reform that includes an earned legalization program for longtime undocumented residents.”

(Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X (formerly known as Twitter) @kgscanlon.)