Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas is the oldest person in the world. / Credit: Nathália Queiroz/ACI Digital

Sao Paulo, Brazil, Jan 7, 2025 / 16:00 pm (CNA).

The oldest human being in the world is Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas, a 116-year-old nun from the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul who was born on May 27, 1908.

Sister Inah became the oldest person in the world after the Dec. 29, 2024, death of Tomiko Itooka, a Japanese woman who was 16 days older than Inah. LongeviQuest, a group of researchers specializing in mapping people who are over 100 years old, confirmed the nun is now the world’s oldest person.

“It’s a source of great pride for the Canabarro Lucas family,” her nephew Cleber Vieira Canabarro Lucas, 84, told ACI Digital, CNA’s Portuguese-language news partner, on Jan. 6.

In March 2024, Sister Inah told ACI Digital that one of the secrets of her longevity is prayer: “I pray the rosary every day for everyone in the world.”

Sister Inah currently lives in Porto Alegre in Rio Grande do Sul state in the Santo Enrique de Ossó Shelter, which is next to the Provincial House of the Teresian Sisters of Brazil, a community where in 1927 she was accepted at the age of 19.

According to her nephew, a few days ago Inah had some health problems and the doctors advised her to rest, but now she is fine.

“Logically, the condition of her health at 116 years of age is already a little complicated: She no longer hears well, she has great difficulty speaking, her vision is very poor, but she goes on with her life with the plans that God gave her,” Cleber said. 

Sister Inah’s longevity is due to her spirituality, Cleber said, since “she was always a little nun who prayed a lot, prayed a lot; she dedicated herself to prayer all her life.” He also spoke of other characteristics such as “her kindness in always wanting to do good to others, her good humor typical of her personality, her optimism, and her determination in life.”

Inah Canabarro Lucas was born in the São Francisco de Assis district of inner Rio Grande do Sul state on May 27, 1908, the second to last of seven children. According to Cleber, “they were all well fed, they were normal and she was very thin, weak, and her godfather at that time told her father: ‘Friend, don’t get me wrong, but this girl must be sick and get ready because unfortunately I don’t think she will last long’ ... They’re all gone and she is already 116 years old!”

Sister Inah is the great-great-niece of Gen. David Canabarro, one of the main leaders of the Farroupilha Revolution (1835–1845) in Rio Grande do Sul.

When she was a child, one of her siblings told her mother that Inah could study at a convent school in her city. Inah then asked: “What are nuns?” The mother replied that they were women who dedicated themselves to praying to God, and Inah then said: “I’m going to be a nun.”

Inah studied at the convent school and, at the age of 19, she went to make her novitiate with the Teresian sisters in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Over the course of more than a century, she has experienced numerous changes in the world and in the Church. The nun has lived through two world wars and 10 popes. The year she was born, St. Pius X was pope.

As a teaching sister, Inah taught Portuguese, mathematics, science, history, art, and religion in Teresian schools in Rio de Janeiro, Itaqui, and Santana do Livramento, a city where she is much loved because it was where she spent most of her life.

A notable achievement in her life was the creation of the Santa Teresa School marching band in Santana do Livramento. The band featured 115 musical instruments and performed in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. She also collaborated in the creation of the renowned Pomoli High School marching band in Rivera, Uruguay, sister city of Santana do Livramento.

Sister Inah has also been an enthusiastic fan of Sport Clube Internacional, a soccer team founded in 1909 when she was 1 year old. Apart from saying that she prays for people around the world, the only other words Sister Inah said to ACI Digital in March of last year were praise for the “Inter” (the soccer team).

“Because it’s the team of the people, good people, poor, very upright, very good.”

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

Pope Francis addresses cardinals and senior Vatican officials during his annual Christmas speech to the Roman Curia, Dec. 22, 2024 / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, Jan 7, 2025 / 14:45 pm (CNA).

In a move that raised eyebrows among Vatican observers, Pope Francis on Monday created an unprecedented leadership structure at the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life by appointing both a nun as prefect and a cardinal as pro-prefect — a solution that begs clarity in law and theology.

The unusual decision to appoint Sister Simona Brambilla as prefect and Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime as pro-prefect has sparked discussion about the intersection of traditional Church hierarchy and Pope Francis’ vision for reform.

Understanding the pro-prefect role

The office of pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life is not provided for in the constitution Praedicate Evangelium, which regulates the functions of the Roman Curia.

However, Pope Francis instituted the office ad hoc when he appointed the cardinal as pro-prefect and the nun — the secretary until now — as prefect of the dicastery.

It has not been stated how there will be a balance of power between the new prefect and the pro-prefect. However, speaking of a relationship of subordination with a cardinal who would be the “second in rank” to the prefect does not seem to be a correct reading. What is the logic that pushed Pope Francis to make this choice?

Power and authority in the Church 

Throughout history, there has been a broad, complex, and sometimes controversial reflection on the relationship between the power of orders, which is received with ordination and which enables one to administer certain sacraments — such as presiding over the Eucharist — and the power of governance, which gives authority over a part of the people of God, such as a diocese, a religious order, or even a parish. 

For a long time, it was believed that the two powers were distinct and that it was possible to exercise them separately — St. Thomas Aquinas shared this position, too. 

As regards the Roman Curia, it was believed that all those who carried out their service in it received their power directly from the pope, who conferred authority on them regardless of whether or not they were ordained. This also applied to cardinals, whose authority derived from papal creation — ​​which is not a sacrament. The pope chooses the cardinals as collaborators and advisers of the pope in the government of the Church. 

This approach has characterized the history of the Church for a long time, so much so that there have been cardinals who were not priests — for example, Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli, Vatican secretary of state from 1848 to 1876, was ordained deacon but was not a priest. Further back in time, there were cardinals appointed at a young age who only received orders after a long time, and even popes who were only deacons at the time of their election to the papal throne. 

In the past, some abbots had not even been ordained priests and governed an ecclesiastical district, or there were figures who seem strange to us but who responded to this logic, such as the so-called bishops-elect, who governed dioceses without receiving episcopal consecration but did so because of their election. Other examples include the so-called mitered abbesses, “women with the pastoral staff,” who exercised their authority over a territory and the faithful. 

Vatican II’s impact on Church governance

Over time, however, another approach has emerged that goes back to the Church of the first millennium: The power of government is closely linked to the sacrament of holy orders, so it is not possible to exercise one without the other except within certain limits, which are rather narrow. 

Hence, Pope John XXIII in 1962 decided that all cardinals should be ordained archbishops with the motu proprio Cum Gravissima.

This is the approach of the Second Vatican Council, which is found, for example, in Lumen Gentium, No. 21, in the Explanatory Note at No. 2, and in the two Codes of Canon Law, the Latin and the Eastern one.

Vatican II authoritatively reiterated that the episcopate is a sacrament and that by episcopal consecration, one becomes part of the College of Bishops, which, together with and under the authority of the pope, is the subject of supreme power over the entire Church.

This approach was followed in the two Curia reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council: Pope Paul VI’s constitution Regimini Ecclesiae Universae (1967) and Pope John Paul II’s Pastor Bonus (1988). John Paul II delineated the Curia into congregations and pontifical councils, which in lay terms might be defined as “ministries with portfolio” and “ministries without portfolio.”

The congregations had to be governed by cardinals because they participated in the decisions of the universal Church with the pope and, therefore, their heads had to have the rank of first advisers to the pope. The pontifical councils, on the other hand, could also be led by archbishops, but in any case, by ordained ministers because they still had to be in collegiality with the bishop of Rome — that is, the pope.

Francis’ Curia reform: breaking new ground 

The apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium, with which Pope Francis reformed the Curia in 2022, departed from this approach. There was no longer a distinction between congregations and pontifical councils, which were all defined as dicasteries. Therefore, there was no longer a difference in who could be the head of the dicastery, a position that could also go to a layperson. 

However, when presenting the reform of the Curia on March 21, 2022, the then-Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda — created cardinal by Pope Francis in the consistory of Aug. 27, 2022 — explained that there were still some dicasteries in which it was appropriate for a cardinal to lead and noted that the “constitution does not abrogate the Code of Canon Law, which establishes that in matters that concern clerics, clerics are the ones to judge.” 

In practice, the canonical mission was no longer given by order but by the pope’s decision. This is why a layman like Paolo Ruffini could be at the head of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication.

This is the heart of the debate: Are there offices that can be exercised only by papal appointment, or are there offices that, despite papal appointment, can be exercised only if one is ordained?

The question arises when a pro-prefect supports Sister Brambilla. The Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life has various competencies, but all competencies are generic acts of government that can be exercised without priestly ordination. There are situations of clerics’ judgment, though, and likely it was thought that these decisions cannot be managed without an ordination.

Thus, the figure of the pro-prefect was created. The definition of pro-prefect seems, however, to be used improperly. The document Praedicate Evangelium describes two pro-prefects who are the heads of the two sections of the Dicastery for Evangelization. That is because these two pro-prefects lead the sections of the dicastery “in place of” (i.e., pro-) pope, who is considered the prefect of the dicastery.

In other cases, a prelate who did not yet have the rank to hold the office formally was appointed pro-prefect. For example, when Angelo Sodano was appointed Vatican secretary of state on Dec. 1, 1990, he was still an archbishop. He was thus appointed pro-secretary of state because the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus provided that the secretary of state was always to be a cardinal. Sodano retained the title of pro-secretary of state until the consistory of June 28, 1991, when he was created cardinal and formally took the title of secretary of state starting July 1, 1991. 

Pro-prefect Artime, however, is already a cardinal and does not exercise jurisdiction in place of the pope. If anything, he works alongside the prefect, Sister Brambilla. His role is more co-prefect, and it remains to be seen whether the pope will appoint a secretary for the dicastery to understand the organizational chart.

A Jesuit model for Church governance? 

The choice to place an ecclesiastic alongside the prefect reflects some religious orders, which have “brothers” (consecrated laypeople) at their helm but are appointed alongside figures with sacramental authority.

Therefore, Pope Francis would have chosen to follow a path already followed by religious congregations for the governance of the Church. This is not new. Pope Francis, for example, also intervened in the governance crisis of the Order of Malta precisely by operating on the order as if it were only a religious and monastic entity, authoritatively imposing the new constitutions in September 2022 and establishing that the Holy Father needs to confirm the election of the grand master of the order.

Even the Council of Cardinals, established by Pope Francis at the beginning of his pontificate in 2013, resembles the general council that supports the government of the Jesuit General.

Many of these settings are given by Pope Francis’ main legal adviser, Cardinal Ghirlanda, also a Jesuit, who personally followed the reform of the Order of Malta and the reform of the Curia — as well as various other reforms, such as that of the statutes of the Legionaries of Christ.

Looking ahead: implications and questions 

Pope Francis established an innovation in the Roman Curia without outlining it with a precise law, leaving the management of the competencies to subsequent decisions, not using the criteria of the government of the Curia but rather those of the religious congregations. It seems “inside baseball.”

However, it speaks of a small revolution — or potentially a misuse of terms that could cause some confusion in the future.

null / Credit: Darko Stojanovic via Pixabay, CC0/Public Domain

CNA Staff, Jan 7, 2025 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

A lawsuit filed in federal court claims that officials in an Ohio city retaliated against a Catholic hospital, violating its constitutional rights in the process, after doctors there refused to perform a drug search on a patient.

The suit, filed by Mercy Health in Lorain, Ohio, said police in August brought a “detainee” to the hospital’s emergency room and requested that doctors “perform a body cavity search” to determine if the suspect was in possession of drugs.

Doctors refused to perform the search, the suit says, because they “determined there was an unjustifiably high risk of serious bodily injury or death” if the procedure released drugs into the patient’s system.

Police attempted to force doctors to perform the search, threatening arrest and obstruction of justice if they failed to do so. The doctors continued to refuse, citing a state statute that allows doctors to “refuse to participate in any medical procedure which violates the practitioner’s right of conscience.”

Police subsequently terminated an agreement with the hospital to provide policing services to its campus. That move “thrust the safety and operation of the hospital into uncertainty,” the lawsuit says, alleging “heightened risks to the hospital, its staff, providers, patients, and community.”

The hospital in its suit says its Catholic mission, and specifically its “Ethical and Religious Directives,” allows doctors to “[refuse] to provide or permit medical procedures that are judged morally wrong” and that patients “have the right and duty to protect and preserve their bodily and functional integrity.”

The guidelines exist to “reaffirm the ethical standards of behavior in health care that flow from the Church’s teaching about the dignity of the human person” as well as “to provide authoritative guidance on certain moral issues that face Catholic health care today,” the suit says.

The filing claims the defendants violated the hospital’s constitutional First and 14th Amendment rights as well as its rights under the Ohio Constitution by attempting to force them to perform the drug search.

In addition to the city of Lorain, the suit names two prosecutors as well as the city’s law directors. It also names Lorain Police Chief James McCann. 

The hospital is requesting compensatory and punitive damages for the allegations. 

The Lorain Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit. The hospital also did not respond to a request for comment.

A separate criminal complaint against the hospital, filed by the state through the Lorain County Prosecutor’s office, is also in the courts, the suit noted. That complaint alleges the doctors were required to perform the medical procedure.

President Joe Biden speaks during an interfaith prayer service at the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis, King of France, in New Orleans on Jan. 6, 2025, with the families and community members impacted by the New Year’s Day truck attack in New Orleans. / Credit: ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images

CNA Staff, Jan 7, 2025 / 13:30 pm (CNA).

Catholic leaders and U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday attended an interfaith prayer service in New Orleans to pray for the victims of the deadly terror attack in that city on New Year’s Day.

Fourteen people were killed on Jan. 1 by a driver who rammed his truck into a crowd of New Year’s partiers on the city’s Bourbon Street. Officials said the truck had on it a flag of the Islamic State. The driver was subsequently killed in a shootout with police.

Biden was among the dignitaries at the Monday evening event at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. Archbishop Gregory Aymond and Archbishop Emeritus Alfred Hughes presided over the service. 

“We know what it’s like to lose a piece of our soul,” Biden told the families of the victims. “The anger, the emptiness, the black hole that seems to be sucking you into your chest, the sense of loss, the questions of faith in your soul.”

“I promise you, the day will come,” Biden told them, “... when the memory of your loved one will bring a smile to your lips before a tear to your eye.”

“My prayer is that that day comes sooner rather than later, but it will come, and when it does, [that] you might find purpose in your pain,” the president said. 

Aymond told the assembly that the attack “was not just a wound to New Orleans. It was a wound to our nation, to our world, and to our search for freedom.” 

“For those of you who have lost loved ones, we cannot possibly imagine your pain, your feeling of loss, [or] the wounds in your heart that remain today and will remain,” he said. 

“But we can assure you that God embraces you in love in the midst of your sorrow, and helps you to wipe your tears, for you do not do that alone,” the prelate added. 

Representatives from Jewish and Protestant communities were also in attendance as well as leaders from other faiths in the area, many of whom also offered prayers and reflections at the event. 

Pope Francis last week offered his condolences after the attack, invoking prayers for the souls of the deceased as well as the healing and consolation of the injured and bereaved.

“In assuring the entire community of his spiritual closeness, His Holiness commends the souls of those who have died to the loving mercy of Almighty God and prays for the healing and consolation of the injured and bereaved,” the Vatican said.

In a statement published Jan. 3, 2025, Bishop Sithembele Sipuka of South Africa’s Mthatha Diocese weighed in on the situation of the illegal miners who have been trapped in a mine in South Africa’s North West Province since November. / Credit: SACBC

ACI Africa, Jan 7, 2025 / 13:00 pm (CNA).

The hundreds of illegal miners stuck in a disused mine in Stilfontein in South Africa’s North West Province are human beings whose dignity should be respected, said Bishop Sithembele Sipuka, president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference. 

In a statement published Jan. 3, Sipuka, bishop of South Africa’s Mthatha Diocese, weighed in on the situation of the illegal miners who have been trapped since last November. 

“The Stilfontein illegal mining saga is too complex,” Sipuka said, alluding to reports that law enforcement agencies have blocked food and water supplies to the miners to force them to resurface so they can arrest them for illegally searching for leftover gold in the abandoned mine.

The fact that most of the illegal miners are reportedly foreigners is part of the complexity, the bishop noted.

The challenge of the situation of illegal mining, Sipuka said, “includes the question of legality and law when it comes to people entering the country illegally, as it is alleged that most of the illegal miners are foreign nationals.”

“Then there is a question of syndicates that are allegedly using poor people to make huge profits,” he said, adding: “There is [also] a question of the trapped illegal miners refusing to come out of the mines or being forced to stay underground. So, it is complex and requires research to assign responsibility for it.”

In his statement, the South African bishop said that the “complexity notwithstanding, the immediate moral question is how you deal with human beings created in the image of God in a way that respects their dignity.”

“There is no one-way solution; we must agonize about all the frustrations around it but devise a humane way of dealing with them,” he emphasized.

Reuters reported on Nov. 18, 2024, that over 1,000 illegal miners had resurfaced and, based on local police information, “hundreds could still be underground.”

The Reuters report quoted South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, as saying: “The Stilfontein mine is a crime scene where the offense of illegal mining is being committed. It is standard police practice everywhere to secure a crime scene and to block off escape routes that enable criminals to evade arrest.”

Residents and human rights groups have reportedly criticized South African authorities for blocking food and water supplies to the illegal miners.

In his statement, Sipuka said the challenge of illegal mining in South Africa “involves the economic system which allegedly lets big mining companies get away with murder in the way they make maximum profits.”

As the big companies act with impunity, they destroy the environment and fail to improve “the lives of the people in the area of mining while at the same time clamping down on poor people trying to make a living,” Sipuka said.

The fact that the big companies fail to rehabilitate the mines adds to the challenge of mining in South Africa, the bishop said.

As a way forward, Sipuka urged relevant authorities in South Africa to “refrain from giving in to frustrations around this and end up disregarding the dignity of people, as expressed in some of the unfortunate utterings and actions of the government and the police.”

“While the solution is yet to be found, we need to be patient and listen to each other because human beings are involved in this situation,” he said. “I notice that the news focuses on the government, but nothing much is said about the mining companies who left these mines unrehabilitated and unclosed.”

“The possibility of introducing the use of old mines for economic and employment creation should be explored,” he said.

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

People visit the St. Patrick Catholic Church, illuminated with decorative lights on Christmas Eve in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, on Dec. 24, 2024. / Credit: R. SATISH BABU/AFP via Getty Images

Bangalore, India, Jan 7, 2025 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

In an appeal to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, more than 400 Christian and civil leaders along with 30 church groups have called for “immediate and decisive action … to curb a surge in violence against Christians and especially during Christmas prayers and celebrations.”

“We cry out to you from the depths of our hearts when we are attacked in villages and towns in several states on Christmas Day,” lamented the Christian leaders of diverse denominations in their joint appeal, also sent to federal President Droupadi Murmu, on Dec. 31.

“During this Christmas season alone, at least 14 incidents targeting Christians were reported, ranging from threats and disruptions to arrests and outright attacks, underscoring an alarming trend of rising intolerance and hostility,” said the appeal signed by dozens of prominent Catholic priests, lay leaders, and advocacy groups.

Recent incidents of violence and hostility have included Hindu groups shouting ahead of Christmas services in front of a Catholic cathedral in Lucknow as well as antagonists forcing staff to remove Christmas decorations at a preparatory school in western Gujarat state.

Carol singers were also stopped and teachers threatened in central Madhya Pradesh state, while a food delivery man was stripped of a Santa dress in the city of Bangalore.

The appeal pointed out that these incidents happened “just two days after [Modi] in his address to our Catholic prelates condemned those inciting violence and spreading disharmony which caused disruption in society.”

Attending the Christmas celebration of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) in New Delhi, Modi on Dec. 23 said the “teachings of Lord Christ celebrate love, harmony, and brotherhood. It is important that we all work to make this spirit stronger.”

“However, it pains my heart when there are attempts to spread violence and cause disruption in society. It is essential that we come together to fight such challenges,” Modi said at the time.

John Dayal, an outspoken Catholic columnist among the signatories to the appeal, claimed in an interview with CNA on Jan. 3 that Modi exhibited “hypocrisy” in the speech.

“After expressing his ‘pain’ over incidents of violence, Modi did not mention a single incident from daily two cases of targeted hate violence in 2024 in the country. Instead, he cited the bloody Christmas market attack in Germany as an example. This is duplicity and this is what encourages the belligerent Hindu fundamentalists,” Dayal said.

The ecumenical United Christian Forum (UCF) that monitors anti-Christian incidents reported in December that the number of acts of violence throughout 2024 had reached 745 at the end of November.

“In reality, the figures will be much higher. Many other incidents which may have happened but were not reported on our hotline are not included in the total number,” A.C. Michael, the Catholic coordinator of UCF, told CNA.

The Modi government recently sent a special government emissary to Bangladesh over recent atrocities against Hindus there, but the UCF urged the Modi government “to consider setting up a national level enquiry led by a government of India secretary to look into these incidents of Christian minority persecution within India.”

The Christians urged the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government to “issue clear guidelines to state governments on protecting constitutional rights to religious freedom, ⁠⁠initiate regular dialogue with representatives of all faith communities, and protect the fundamental right to freely profess and practice one’s faith.”

“Inclusivity and harmony are vital not only for the moral fabric of the nation but also for its economic and social prosperity,” they said in the appeal.

Spirits were uplifted and joyful following the concluding Mass at the end of the SEEK25 conference on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025, as some 3,500 young Catholics, priests, and religious poured out of the Washington Hilton in downtown Washington, D.C. / Credit: Migi Fabara/CNA

Washington D.C., Jan 7, 2025 / 12:00 pm (CNA).

Some 3,500 young Catholics who gathered in Washington, D.C., for SEEK25 earlier this week said goodbye to new friends late Sunday morning as the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) conference came to an end.

Spirits were uplifted and joyful following the concluding Mass as some 3,500 young Catholics, priests, and religious poured out of the Washington Hilton in downtown Washington, D.C.

Bishop Nelson Jesus Pérez of Philadelphia delivered the homily, telling those gathered for the final liturgy: “Never, never, never underestimate the power of the spirit of God working in you, through you, and despite you.”

“It is such an incredible blessing to have seen SEEK, both in Salt Lake City as well as here in Washington, D.C., to see, combined, more than 21,000 on fire Catholics,” 40 Days for Life founder David Bereit told CNA after the Mass.

“It provides enormous hope for the current state of the Church as well as for the future of the Church,” the pro-life advocate and recent Catholic convert said. “To hear so many great speakers, to meet so many young people who are falling deeper in love with Our Lord, and to see them making commitments to go out and set the world on fire.” 

“I have great hope for where the Church is going, and it makes me so proud to be a Catholic,” he added. 

Attendees reflect on their time at SEEK: joy and revelation 

A student from Mercy University, Gina Capello, 20, told CNA that she had been struck by “seeing so many people come together with such joy, especially during adoration — just looking around and seeing people reach out to Jesus, all wanting the same thing.”

“We all want God,” she added.

Katerina Carducci, a recent graduate of Clemson University, told CNA that her experience at SEEK25 had been one of “revelation.” Carducci explained that she uses a wheelchair on account of a nerve pain disorder in her left leg, which prevents her from being able to walk for extended periods of time.

“I had a really bad flare-up yesterday and the day before,” the young woman told CNA. “I was like, ‘Why is this happening now at SEEK, when this is supposed to be a great time and everyone coming together?’”

However, at Eucharistic adoration on Friday night, which was coordinated by FOCUS to take place at the same time at the SEEK conference in Salt Lake City, Carducci said she felt that God “opened my eyes to show me that it’s like, not only is this pain the pain that Jesus feels, but it’s also how Jesus feels when we don’t turn to him.”

“As someone in a wheelchair, a lot of the time, it’s like I’m invisible almost,” she continued. “And it feels like not a lot of people, when they see someone in a wheelchair, see the person — they see the chair first.”

“God’s shown me that this is how Jesus feels sometimes, even though he’s always here with us, we just don’t see that ‘does Jesus also feel this invisible,’ so that’s something that I’ve been praying on a little bit today,” Carducci said. 

‘SEEK is for the Church’: record growth and SEEK26

This past week marked the beginning of a new chapter of growth for the FOCUS flagship event, with a record-high attendance of more than 21,000 participants between the two locations in Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C. 

Speaking to the increasing popularity of the conference, Lizzi Lugo, the FOCUS missions director and emcee for the Washington, D.C., event told CNA that FOCUS is “anticipating continued growth” from past years. Next year, SEEK will take place in three locations across the U.S.: Denver; Columbus, Ohio; and Fort Worth, Texas.

Lugo told CNA that as the event grows, FOCUS hopes to make SEEK the same experience across locations year to year.

“We really wanted to emphasize live speakers, live content, that same SEEK experience, [with] Mission Way, having our sponsors involved, having religious orders come and run booths and talk to students,” she said.

This year, several speakers, including Bereit; Monsignor James Shea, the president of the University of Mary in North Dakota; and theologian Edward Sri flew between Salt Lake City and D.C. in order to be present at both locations. 

Although Lugo noted the prominent presence of FOCUS missionaries and content catered toward them, she said “SEEK is for everyone.” Out of all of the opportunities that FOCUS offers participants, including retreats, mission trips, and summer projects, she said, “SEEK really is the widest capture point.”

“You don’t really need to be super churched, you don’t need to be super well catechized to come and experience it,” she told CNA. 

Lugo also said FOCUS leadership has witnessed “a desire for partnership with the Church as a whole” in its coordination of the event.

“Seek isn’t just the FOCUS thing,” she added. “SEEK is for the Church.”

Bishop Dominique Rey of Fréjus-Toulon, France. / Credit: Claude Truong-Ngoc via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Rome Newsroom, Jan 7, 2025 / 11:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis accepted Tuesday the early resignation of French Bishop Dominique Rey of Fréjus-Toulon following years of Vatican scrutiny over the ordination of clerics using pre-Vatican II liturgical books and other concerns.

Bishop François Touvet, appointed coadjutor bishop of the same diocese in November 2023, now automatically succeeds Rey.

In a Jan. 7 press release, Rey, who has led the diocese since 2000, said he was recently informed by the nuncio, the pope’s ambassador in France, that Pope Francis wanted him to submit his resignation after he had encouraged him not to resign in December 2023.

While Rey added that he does not know what changed in the intervening year, “faced with misunderstandings, pressures, and polemics that are still harmful to the unity of the Church, the ultimate criterion of discernment for me remains that of obedience to the successor of Peter.”

The Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon in the south of France was able to ordain six men to the transitional diaconate last month after all ordinations in the diocese were halted by the Vatican in June 2022 following a fraternal visit by Archbishop (now Cardinal) Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille.

The ordinations of six seminarians from the traditionalist community Missionaries of Divine Mercy took place in the Collegiate Church of Saint-Martin in Lorgues on Dec. 1, 2024.

In his announcement ahead of the ordinations, Touvet said they were “the fruit of a trusting and peaceful dialogue maintained with the superior of the community [of the Missionaries of Divine Mercy] and the Dicastery for Divine Worship [and the Discipline of the Sacraments].”

Pope Francis appointed Touvet a coadjutor bishop of Fréjus-Toulon in November 2023, putting him in charge of economic and real estate management, religious communities, and the training of priests and seminarians.

The Vatican requested the suspension of ordinations in the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon in the summer of 2022 due to “questions that certain Roman dicasteries were asking about the restructuring of the seminary and the policy of welcoming people to the diocese,” according to an announcement by Rey at the time.

Known for his support of the Traditional Latin Mass, Rey had also ordained diocesan clerics using the 1962 Roman Pontifical.

After Pope Francis promulgated Traditionis Custodes, the 2021 motu proprio restricting the celebration of Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, Rey highlighted the concerns of some priests and communities present in his diocese who offered Mass according to the old rite. 

Rey said in his Jan. 7 statement, posted to X, that “just as I have always tried to respond to the calls for the new evangelization of St. John Paul II, then to the encouragements of Benedict XVI to welcome and form priestly vocations, and finally to the orientations of Francis, I have agreed, in this case, to hand over the pastoral charge that had been entrusted to me in 2000 by John Paul II.”

“As I reach my 25th year of episcopate in service of the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, I thank God for the blessings and missionary fruits,” he added.

Rey announced he will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving in the diocese on Feb. 1.

Pilgrims cross the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on Dec. 25, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

Vatican City, Jan 7, 2025 / 11:00 am (CNA).

More than half a million people have passed through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, two weeks after its Christmas Eve opening. 

Pope Francis, the first “pilgrim of hope” to cross the Holy Door’s threshold, inaugurated the 2025 Jubilee Year by opening the papal basilica’s door on Dec. 24, 2024. 

Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization Cardinal Rino Fisichella said the great number of pilgrims marks “a very significant beginning” for the Catholic Church’s holy year, which will conclude on Jan. 6, 2026. 

“Hundreds of groups of faithful have already made their pilgrimage,” Fisichella said in a Jan. 7 media statement released by the Dicastery for Evangelization. 

“The dicastery is working tirelessly to ensure that pilgrims receive a welcome and an experience that lives up to their expectations,” he added.

Holy See and Italian authorities are collaborating to welcome an estimated 30 million people expected to come to Rome throughout the jubilee year.

“Preparations are underway all over the world to reach Rome in the coming months, with many children, young people, adults, and the elderly who have already entered the jubilee climate with the celebrations for the opening of the holy year,” Fisichella said.

Jubilees — a tradition celebrated in the Catholic Church since 1300 — are filled with special spiritual, artistic, and cultural events for people intending to come to Rome for pilgrimage. 

An important part of the jubilee is the opportunity to receive a plenary indulgence — a grace granted by the Catholic Church through the merits of Jesus Christ to remove the temporal punishment due to sin — by passing through a “Holy Door.”

Besides the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica, the other four Holy Doors of the 2025 Jubilee are located at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, the Basilica of St. Mary Major, the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, and in Rome’s Rebibbia prison.

“The thousands of people who filled the four papal basilicas during the days of the celebrations for the opening of the Holy Doors” reflects the “great desire” among pilgrims to participate in the Church’s jubilee festivities, according to the Dicastery for Evangelization.

The first major calendar event of the 2025 holy year is the Jubilee of the World of Communications to be held from Jan. 24–26. Thousands of journalists and media professionals from around the world are expected to come to Rome for the occasion.

Father Roberto Pasolini. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Rome, Italy, Jan 7, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).

Franciscan Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini is very comfortable with public speaking — it’s basically his job as a Scripture expert called on to give talks and lead retreats around Italy.

Yet, just late last year, he began a new adventure, one he finds a bit more intimidating: preaching to Vatican employees, cardinals, and the pope during Lent and Advent.

On Nov. 9 last year, Pope Francis named Pasolini the next preacher of the Papal Household, succeeding 90-year-old Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, who held the post for 44 years.

The 53-year-old Pasolini said the call to become the pope’s preacher was a big surprise and caused him “a great deal of fear.”

“The fact that God is calling me, at this moment, to go right into the heart of the Church, in front of the pope, the cardinals, the people who support the Christian institution, to speak such important, meaningful words, it scares me,” he told CNA during an interview at the Capuchin General House in Rome on Dec. 11, 2024.

“On the other hand, I also felt a great alignment with what was already happening [in my life],” he noted, “because I have always been following words, reading texts, and searching reality for the meaning that can give clarity to our existence.”

After receiving the news about the new role, Pasolini had just under a month before he gave his first Advent meditation to the Roman Curia on Dec. 6, 2024, the first of three he delivered on the December Fridays leading up to Christmas.

“During Advent, since the call was very recent, [I was] immediately trying to rummage through my pockets to find some words, some reflections that in recent years maybe I’ve already prepared a bit around the theme of the Incarnation, Advent, and Christmas,” he said about preparing his meditations.

‘I will not hold back my humanity’

The position of preacher of the Papal Household has existed in a stable way since the pontificate of Pope Paul IV in the mid-1500s. In 1743, Pope Benedict XIV established that the role should always go to a member of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchins.

On following the long and celebrated legacy of Cantalamessa, Pasolini said he is trying not to compare himself too much and plans to bring his own contribution, “giving catecheses that are maybe a little bit more narrative and more biblical than the theological genre that Father Raniero [Cantalamessa] used.”

“I think I will not hold back my humanity, which is the humanity of a much younger friar than Father Raniero, to communicate also through a language and a way of address that corresponds more to people of my age,” he said.

“I will try as much as possible to be natural, to remain myself,” he added, “and to continue to do what basically I have been doing until now: announce, with all my heart, with all the intelligence of which I am capable, the mystery of God.”

Return to faith

Before becoming a priest or preacher, Pasolini grew up in northern Italy, passionately following his favorite soccer team, Milan.

He grew up Catholic, but as a teenager, the priest experienced the desire to distance himself from the faith. “So I took my time off from God, and I did some years in which I sought the meaning of my life elsewhere, outside the parish and Church context in which I had grown up,” he explained.

Pasolini described those years as good, though difficult: “Because when we distance ourselves from God, on the one hand we feel a little bit free, and on the other hand we find that we still don’t know how to use our freedom well.”

“They were also years of choices that led me to suffer, to realize the darkness that was inside me,” he noted. 

The priest’s journey back to the faith began unexpectedly while studying information sciences at a university in Milan. 

Traveling one day on the city’s subway, he found a copy of the Gospel of St. Matthew, a free giveaway inside a newspaper, and started reading it. Little by little, he found his way back to the Church.

“I felt the desire to go to confession and then to participate in the Eucharist and to involve myself a little bit in my parish life, which I had hastily dismissed,” he said. “And that was kind of the time when I started to comprehend again the mystery of faith, the mystery of the Church, but especially the beauty of the Gospel, the love of Christ.”

‘A second calling’

As Pasolini was rediscovering the faith and experiencing more and more God’s love for him, he felt the growing desire to share this beauty with others.

It was during this time that he “met” St. Francis of Assisi through his writings, he said. 

“I found his style, his way of life, so beautiful, so simple, so inspired by the Gospel, that I got curious and tried to go and meet the friars in Milan,” the priest explained. “And little by little, going there, I felt my desire to live my baptism become concrete through embracing that form of life together with other brothers. And so I graduated [from university], left everything, and entered the convent.”

It was not long after entering the Capuchins that the friar’s superiors noticed the centrality of the word of God in “my life, my days, my way of speaking, my way of praying,” Pasolini elaborated. And so, after his initial formation for religious life and the priesthood, he was sent to Rome to study at the Pontifical Biblical Institute.

This, he said, was the beginning of “a second calling within my first calling” to be not only a priest friar but also an expert in sacred Scripture.

During his years of biblical formation, Pasolini studied in Rome and Jerusalem and was awarded a doctorate for a thesis on the Gospel of Mark.

He described that time as “seven years of wonderful formation in the word of God … which definitely defined me as a friar and a biblical scholar, and then as a preacher, able to draw from Scripture the resources to proclaim the Gospel, the kingdom of God, to others.”

Approach to preaching

According to Pasolini, the best preparation for preaching can and should begin long before standing at the ambo.

“For years, before I started the preaching ministry, I got into the habit of meditating on God’s word every day for me first of all — for my heart, for my life,” he said. “This habit of doing ‘lectio divina,’ as we would say today, accustomed me to stand before God, every day, as one who listens to him, receives a word, and tries to respond to this word.”

“So,” he continued, “when I became a priest and started giving homilies and catechesis, I would just tell others what God and I had already said to each other during prayer. Of course, in a somewhat organized form, because maybe God and I said some things to each other in prayer that are not really good to be told to everyone.”

“But … the best preparation to give a homily, to give a catechesis, is to let God’s word touch your heart personally,” he said to priests and others who preach publicly. “Then, if we have allowed ourselves to be touched, we will surely be able to touch the hearts of others.”