Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church

null / Credit: Karina Lopatina/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Dec 2, 2025 / 12:33 pm (CNA).

The University of Colorado’s medical school will pay out a massive eight-figure settlement after it required multiple staffers, including a Catholic doctor, to obtain the COVID-19 vaccination. 

The Thomas More Society said the university’s Anschutz School of Medicine “agreed to pay more than $10.3 million in damages, tuition, and attorney’s fees” to 18 plaintiffs in the lawsuit. 

The legal group said in a Dec. 1 release that the plaintiffs had been “denied religious accommodations to mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations.” The suit has been active for nearly five years. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit had ruled in 2024 that the university had violated the plaintiffs’ “clearly established” First Amendment rights in refusing to issue religious exemptions to the COVID vaccine. Religious objectors have cited numerous concerns with the vaccines, including that they were developed using fetal cell lines. 

Thomas More Society attorney Michael McHale said the plaintiffs in the case “felt forced to succumb to a manifestly irrational mandate” without any exemption for their sincere religious beliefs.

“We are confident our clients’ long-overdue victory indeed confirms, despite the tyrannical efforts of many, that our shared constitutional right to religious liberty endures,” he said.

The lawsuit was originally filed on behalf of a Catholic doctor and a Buddhist medical student, with numerous other plaintiffs subsequently joining the litigation.

Thomas More Society litigation head Peter Breen said the objectors “stood up, at great personal cost, to an injustice that never should have been inflicted on them — or on any American.”

“Because they had the courage to say ‘no’ when their religious freedoms were trampled, people of faith across the country now enjoy stronger protections,” he said. 

Madison Gould, a plaintiff in the case, said in the legal group’s press release that the university’s policy “gutted the years of study and self-sacrifice poured out by so many in pursuit of serving the weakest among us.” 

Gould expressed gratitude to lawyers at the Thomas More Society “for standing by us when no one else would.”

“May our nation never witness anything like this travesty again,” she said. 

Religious objectors in recent years have won several major victories against institutions that have required them to undergo COVID vaccination with a religious exemption. 

In 2022 NorthShore University HealthSystem agreed to pay $10.3 million to more than 500 workers after the health system denied them religious exemptions to the vaccine.

In 2024, meanwhile, a Catholic woman in Michigan won $12.7 million after Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan fired her after refusing to grant her a religious exemption. 

And in July of this year, a federal appeals court revived a Catholic worker’s lawsuit against the Federal Reserve Bank of New York over the bank’s having fired her for refusing to take the COVID vaccine.

Bishop Patrick Neary of the Diocese of Saint Cloud, Minnesota. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Saint Cloud

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 2, 2025 / 12:03 pm (CNA).

Bishop Patrick Neary of Saint Cloud, Minnesota, has been appointed as the chair of Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) board. 

Neary was appointed by Archbishop Paul Coakley, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) president. Neary succeeds Archbishop Nelson Pérez of Philadelphia. 

Neary assumes responsibilities for the role immediately, and the term runs until November 2028. 

“It is a profound honor to serve as chairman of the Catholic Relief Services board,” Neary said, according to a press release. “My years in Africa and in parish ministry have shown me the face of Christ in the poor and the vulnerable, and I carry those encounters with me into this role.”

Neary praised CRS for embodying the Church’s mission of compassionate accompaniment of those in need and lauded his predecessor, Pérez, for “his commitment to advocating for the dignity of the poor and amplifying the voices of the vulnerable.”

“I hope to lead with a heart of mercy, listening and working alongside our partners to uphold the dignity of every person,” Neary said. “Together, we will continue to bring the light of Christ to communities around the world, especially those most in need.”

Neary has served as bishop of Saint Cloud since he was appointed by Pope Francis in December 2022. He served in Kenya and Uganda for eight years before returning to the U.S., then served as rector of Holy Redeemer Parish in Portland, Oregon. 

“We are delighted for Bishop Neary to join as CRS chairman of the board of directors,” said Sean Callahan, president and CEO of CRS. “We are certain that he will bring strong leadership and help CRS continue our mission of lifesaving work and advocacy for our sisters and brothers around the world.”

Neary was ordained a priest in 1991 at the University of Notre Dame, where he was also rector for many years. 

According to its website, CRS serves 225 million people across 122 countries annually and has 1,735 partners around the world. 

The faceless Nativity scene in Brussels, Belgium, in November 2025. / Credit: Maxim Van den Bossche

Brussels, Belgium, Dec 2, 2025 / 10:08 am (CNA).

A new Nativity scene featuring faceless cloth figures installed on Brussels’ historic Grand Place — and the theft of the infant Jesus — have ignited fierce debate across Europe, with critics calling it an erasure of Christian tradition and supporters defending it as inclusive art.

The traditional wooden figurines have been replaced with forms made from recycled textiles, with faces consisting only of patchwork fabric in beige and brown tones. Artist Victoria-Maria Geyer crafted the Nativity figures out of cloth with no identifying facial features.

The installation, titled “Fabrics of the Nativity,” was selected through a call for proposals after city officials said the previous wooden Nativity had become too deteriorated to use. The dean of Sts. Michael and Gudula Cathedral was involved in the search for a new project and approved it, according to both municipal and church sources.

The installation drew immediate criticism on social media. Belgian national team soccer player Thomas Meunier triggered widespread reaction on X with his comment: “We’ve hit rock bottom... and we keep digging,” a post that was shared thousands of times.

American conservative author Rod Dreher, who has written extensively about European Christianity, contrasted the Brussels installation with Hungary’s approach. Posting a photo of a traditional wooden Nativity scene outside the Hungarian Parliament, Dreher wrote: “A Nativity scene outside the Hungarian Parliament. A Christian country that is not ashamed of the gift of faith.”

Georges Dallemagne from Brussels’ Christian Democrats party called the missing faces “very shocking,” stating: “The Nativity is a message of universality, not a zombie exhibition.” Liberal party chairman Georges-Louis Bouchez called the installation an “insult to our traditions” and demanded its replacement.

Professor Wouter Duyck of Ghent University suggested political correctness and fear of angering Brussels’ large Muslim population was the real inspiration, noting: “In Islam, the faces of prophets are not depicted.”

Officials defend installation

Brussels Mayor Philippe Close, a Socialist Party member, defended the decision. At a Friday press conference, Close stated: “In this Christmas period, we need to tone it down,” adding that the city wanted to maintain the Nativity tradition while others had removed theirs entirely.

“The old Nativity scene had been in use for 25 years and was showing many defects,” Close said. “It was time to take a new direction. We are very happy with Victoria-Maria’s creation, and we want to make sure the artist is not attacked personally.”

Dean Benoît Lobet of Sts. Michael and Gudula Cathedral also defended the installation, interpreting the crumpled fabrics as symbols of precariousness: “The historical figures in the Nativity were precarious people who were rejected everywhere.”

The controversy intensified over the weekend when the baby Jesus figure’s head was removed, with an unknown perpetrator stealing the cloth head. City officials have replaced the figure and said they will monitor the scene more closely.

International reaction after vandalism

The installation is scheduled to remain on the UNESCO World Heritage site for at least five years. Bouchez’s Liberal party has launched a petition calling for the return of a traditional Nativity scene, stating: “These faceless figures look more like a tribute to the zombies you find around Brussels’ train stations than a Nativity scene.”

The debate has extended beyond Belgium’s borders, with international media framing it as emblematic of broader tensions over European identity and religious heritage in an increasingly diverse continent.

Three Augustinian nuns (pictured on Sept. 16, 2025) fled their nursing home and returned to their convent in Austria. / Credit: Courtesy of Nonnen_Goldenstein

EWTN News, Dec 2, 2025 / 09:14 am (CNA).

An attempt at an amicable solution in the conflict over Goldenstein Monastery in Austria has failed: The three elderly Augustinian nuns have rejected a compromise offer from their religious superior, Father Markus Grasl, provost of Reichersberg Abbey. Now Rome is expected to decide.

“We are surprised and disappointed by the sisters’ decision. What Grasl already said is coming true: Now the next authority, namely Rome, will be involved,” Grasl’s spokesperson told the Austrian news agency Kathpress.

The religious superior had presented an agreement last Thursday that would have allowed the sisters, who are between 81 and 88 years old, to remain in Goldenstein. This accommodated their expressed wish, although he continued to prefer placement in a nursing home for medical reasons.

The agreement stipulated that the three sisters could continue living in the monastery — but under certain conditions. These included the restoration of the cloister, meaning the monastic rules for retreat and prayer that include areas off limits to nonmembers of the order. In addition, spiritual accompaniment by a priest from Reichersberg Abbey, 24-hour care, and reliable medical care were to be ensured. Registration on the waiting list of a nursing home in Elsbethen “within sight of the monastery” was also part of the offer.

Just one day later, the sisters rejected the agreement. According to APA (Austrian Press Agency), the proposal was turned down because of the conditions attached to it. Grasl had demanded the immediate “cessation of all social media activities” as well as “all active media contacts.”

Another condition stated that the sisters “immediately relieve of duty all lawyers and jurists acting on their behalf” and permanently refrain from “any legal activities.” In addition, supporters were to withdraw from the monastery and no longer make decisions for the canonesses.

Conflict over Augustinian canonesses of Goldenstein

The conflict over the nuns of Goldenstein has been ongoing for years, as CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, reported. After the community shrank to fewer than five sisters with perpetual vows in September 2020, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life withdrew the right to elect their own superior, in accordance with the directive Cor Orans.

In 2022, the Vatican appointed Grasl as spiritual superior of the Goldenstein sisters. That same year, the three remaining religious transferred the monastery in equal halves to the Archdiocese of Salzburg and Reichersberg Abbey.

In the transfer agreement, the sisters were granted a lifetime right of residence — but only “as long as it is medically and spiritually reasonable.” After several hospitalizations, Grasl ordered the relocation of the three nuns to the Schloss Kahlsperg senior residence near Hallein in December 2023.

He justified this decision by the advanced age and poor health of the sisters as well as the deteriorated structural condition of the monastery. An independent life in Goldenstein was therefore no longer possible — neither for health reasons nor spiritual or structural ones.

In September 2025, the three nuns — Sister Rita, Sister Regina, and Sister Bernadette — left the nursing home and occupied their former monastery. They received broad social support from around 200 helpers and international media attention, including from BBC and CNN.

In early October, the three nuns continued their legal conflict with the order leadership. Through their lawyer, they submitted a factual statement to the Salzburg prosecutor’s office for the second time.

In it, the sisters called for an investigation of six “matters requiring examination” directed particularly against Grasl, who is responsible for them, as CNA Deutsch reported.

This story was first published by CNA Deutsch, CNA's German-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by Catholic News Agency.

A person detained is taken to a parking lot on the far north side of the city before being transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Chicago on Oct. 31, 2025. / Credit: Jamie Kelter Davis/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 2, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Catholic bishops in the United States have expressed unified disapproval of the “indiscriminate mass deportation of people” as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported over 527,000 deportations and another 1.6 million self-deportations since Jan. 20.

Several Catholics in the Trump administration, such as Vice President JD Vance and Border czar Tom Homan, have invoked their faith to defend the heavy crackdown on migrants who do not have legal status in the country after the bishops’ message of dismay.

Caring for immigrants is a clear command in Scripture. Catholic teaching on the matter of mass deportations is somewhat nuanced, with obligations on wealthy countries to welcome immigrants and responsibilities for immigrants to follow the laws of the nations receiving them. The Catholic approach to immigration in recent decades has underscored mercy and respect for the migrants’ human dignity and prudence on the part of public officials to safeguard the common good, with an emphasis on a response to migrants that “welcomes, protects, promotes, and integrates.”

While Catholic teaching affirms human dignity and the right to migrate when necessary, debate has centered on the means of immigration policy.

When is a deportation policy ‘intrinsically evil’?

If something is “intrinsically evil,” it means that it is immoral under any circumstance and for any reason, regardless of one’s motivation or the intended consequence of the action. That term is reserved for actions themselves that can never be morally justified.

As St. John Paul II explained in his 1993 encyclical Veritatis Splendor, an “intrinsically evil” act is one that, by its very nature, is “incapable of being ordered to God” because the act is in conflict with “the good of the person made in his image.”

He cites Gaudium et Spes, the pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world issued by the Second Vatican Council in 1965, to offer some examples of intrinsic evils.

Although the council itself does not use the term “intrinsically evil,” he references the council’s description of actions that are “opposed to life itself,” which include “murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or willful self-destruction.” It also lists, among other things, action that “insults human dignity,” such as “subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, [and] the selling of women and children.”

Neither John Paul II nor the council elaborate on the meaning of “deportation” in this context in those specific documents. Although, in his 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus, the Holy Father spoke about deportations within the context of forced removal of people during World War II: “As a result of this violent division of Europe, enormous masses of people were compelled to leave their homeland or were forcibly deported.”

Joseph Capizzi, dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America, told CNA the context appears to refer to deportations that are both “arbitrary” and “without due process,” like during World War II.

“The context was, of course, mass deportations of people absent any due process and their treatment as movable property, or chattel,” he said. “That is by definition treating those humans as subhuman, offending their God-given status by their creation in his image and likeness.”

In relation to “subhuman living conditions” being intrinsically evil, Capizzi said all people “must be treated as humans” regardless of legal status. No person, he said, can be treated “with cruelty” or “absent basic human regard.”

Father Thomas Petri, OP, a moral theologian and former president of the Dominican House of Studies, told CNA that deportation, as an enforcement of immigration law, “in and of itself can’t be intrinsically evil.”

“There is going to be prudential debate and prudential discussion on what constitutes immoral, evil deportation,” Petri said.

“Even if there’s disagreement on who should be deported, when the deportation happens, it should happen in a way that doesn’t undermine the dignity of those being deported,” he said.

“Even when there is justified deportation, …  those who are being deported [must be treated] … humanely, respecting human dignity, which includes the natural rights to food, human living conditions [and] … access to religion,” Petri said.

“Anything that contradicts or harms their human dignity is certainly grave,” Petri said.

When can governments limit immigration?

The Church has consistently encouraged nations to welcome the stranger, in line with Christ’s command in Matthew 25:35, and has also recognized the government’s need to protect the common good.

In 1988, the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace issued a document called “The Church and Racism,” which addressed the subject.

For immigrants and refugees, the commission said governments must ensure their “basic human rights be recognized and guaranteed.” Such people could be “victims of racial prejudice” and are at risk of “various forms of exploitation, be it economic or other.”

The document also acknowledged that public powers are “responsible for the common good” and must “determine the number of refugees or immigrants which their country can accept.” The governments should consider “possibilities for employment and its perspectives for development but also the urgency of the need of other people.”

Another concern is a need to avoid “a serious social imbalance” that could be created “when an overly heavy concentration of persons from another culture is perceived as directly threatening the identity and customs of the local community that receives them.”

Pope Pius XII made similar observations when addressing American officials in 1946, saying then: “it is not surprising that changing circumstances have brought about a certain restriction being placed on foreign immigration” and “in this matter not only the interests of the immigrant but the welfare of the country also must be consulted.”

Such restrictions, he said, should still never forget “Christian charity and the sense of human solidarity existing between all men, children of the one eternal God and Father.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church sums up the Church’s position, teaching that prosperous nations have an obligation, “to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner.” The immigrant has an obligation “to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.”

“Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions,” it adds, without touting mass deportation as a moral ideal.

Capizzi said governments must “protect an actual common good.” For immigration law, he said this means “sometimes by allowing immigrants in to assist, and also by limiting immigration to allow immigrants’ integration into the host nation, and to protect the nation’s work force.”

Enforcement, he said, can occur after a person has unlawfully entered, but cases that require deportation should inspire more prudence.

Petri said the primary concern comes “when you’re talking about [people] who have been in this country for 20 years.”

“There is a moral difference between deporting hard and violent criminals and deporting, say, a husband and a wife who have just tried to make a living,” he said.

Bishop Mario Avilés. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Brownsville

Vatican City, Dec 1, 2025 / 13:44 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Monday appointed Bishop Mario Avilés as the new bishop of Corpus Christi, selecting the Mexican-born Oratorian to lead the south Texas diocese. 

Avilés, 56, who has served as auxiliary bishop of Brownsville, Texas, since February 2018, will succeed Bishop Michael Mulvey, 76. Mulvey has led the Diocese of Corpus Christi since 2010.  

“We welcome Bishop-designate Avilés with open hearts and deep prayer,” Mulvey said in a statement after the Vatican announcement on Dec. 1. 

As the ninth bishop of Corpus Christi, Avilés will take responsibility for the spiritual leadership of more than 200,000 Catholics across a 12-county region in south Texas. 

“The Diocese of Brownsville will greatly miss Bishop Mario’s wise counsel and good judgment, his joyful presence in our parish communities, and his administrative skills in the service of our diocesan offices and Catholic schools. Yet at the same time we share in the special joy of the Diocese of Corpus Christi at the news of Bishop Mario’s appointment,” Brownsville Bishop Daniel Flores said in a statement. 

Avilés was born on Sept. 16, 1969, in Mexico City. In 1986, he joined the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, a pontifical society of apostolic life composed of priests and lay brothers founded in 1575, which now has more than 70 oratories worldwide.

He studied for the priesthood in Mexico City before continuing his education in Rome, earning bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and sacred theology at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum. He also holds a master’s degree in education administration and supervision and is a certified teacher in the state of Texas.

At the age of 28, Avilés was ordained a priest in the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle National Shrine in San Juan, Texas. He became parochial vicar at St. Jude Thaddeus Church in Pharr and worked in the Pharr Oratory Schools as a governance board member, teacher, principal, and rector. He also served as vicar, secretary, treasurer, and novice master for the Oratorian congregation. 

From 2000 to 2012, he served on the Permanent Deputation of the Confederation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri for Latin America. At the congregation’s 2012 General Congress, he was elected procurator general of the confederation, a Rome-based role representing Oratorian communities to the Holy See. He speaks Spanish, English, and Italian.

Avilés’ episcopal motto is “Caritas Dei diffusa est in cordibus nostris,” meaning “The love of God has been poured out into our hearts,” a reference to Romans 5:5 and the introit of the Mass for the feast of St. Philip Neri. His crest includes red roses honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe and his Mexican heritage as well as three gold stars drawn from the Neri family crest, symbolizing his long affiliation with the oratory.

“I ask all the faithful of the Diocese of Brownsville to pray for Bishop Mario as he prepares to take up his new mission of service in Corpus Christi,” Flores said. “May God bless Bishop Mario Avilés and may the maternal care of the blessed and ever-immaculate Virgin Mary accompany him always.”

Scenes of David as shepherd defending his flock from a lion and a bear at the base of the Tickhill Psalter’s Tree of Jesse. / Credit: Courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum

New York City, New York, Nov 30, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Part of the New York Public Library’s Spencer Collection, the Tickhill Psalter is on view throughout Advent and Christmas at The Morgan Library & Museum in its exhibit “Sing a New Song: The Psalms in Medieval Art and Life.” A full-page Jesse Tree introduces the Psalms in the Tickhill Psalter, a 14th-century illuminated manuscript from the Augustinian Worksop Priory in Nottinghamshire, England.

David appears in the historiated B of Psalm 1, providing a conceptual link to scenes from his life in the Jesse Tree on the facing page. “Beatus vir,” or “Blessed is the man,” the first stanza opens in celebration of the one who delights in God’s law, concluding: “That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither, — what they do prospers.” 

These words and their historiated B, with its visual link to the facing page, highlight David as key author of the Psalms and their prefiguration of Christ, the good fruit of the Jesse Tree, a theme common to medieval illuminated manuscripts.

The central panel of a 1490 Flemish triptych with scenes from the life of Saint Augustine contextualizes the exhibit. This five-by-five-foot oil on wood painting references Augustine’s use of allegory, essential to his understanding of scripture and interpretation of the psalms as prophecy. One scene captures Augustine’s realization of the Trinity as boundless mystery that dwarfs human understanding, allegorized by a child trying to pour the sea into a hole in the sand. 

In the book accompanying the exhibit, Morgan curator Deirdre Jackson extends the psalms’ significance to this triptych through a reference to a surviving panel housed in Ireland that shows Augustine on his deathbed. It’s a scene described by contemporary bishop Possidius of Calama, who said that Augustine “ordered those psalms of David which are especially penitential to be copied out and, when he was very weak, used to lie in bed, facing the wall where the written sheets were put up, gazing at them and reading them, and copiously and continuously weeping as he read.”

In his book “The Tickhill Psalter and Related Manuscripts,” 20th-century art historian Donald Drew Egbert speculates that the Tickhill Psalter was decorated by highly skilled illuminators working for Augustinian monasteries and patrons of Augustinian houses during a high point of book arts in England.

This high point inspired a trend of books as personalized treasures, best exemplified in this exhibit by St. Thomas More’s prayer book. Containing much of his own writing in the margins, it consists of a Book of Hours and a Psalter and was with him in the Tower of London while he awaited execution. More’s notes during that time show his preoccupation with the psalms of David’s tribulations. Beside Psalm 87:5-10, “a man without help … in the dark places, and in the shadow of death,” More writes, “in severe tribulation and in prison.”

More’s thoughts in distress demonstrate the appeal of David’s story to the human heart, a reality repeatedly expressed throughout the treasures of this exhibit. In the Tickhill Psalter’s Jesse Tree, David is encircled by branches springing from a tree that grows out of his father, Jesse, sprawled in an active sleep, his elbow supporting a hand planted against his head as though dreaming of all that is to come. 

The branches of the tree wind around David and directly overhead to encircle the Virgin and Child, tracing Christ’s lineage through Mary to the House of David. At the top, the branches surround Christ enthroned in majesty, fulfilling the promise of victory over sin and death foreshadowed in the psalms.

David strikes a joyous pose and plays a harp in celebration, and foliage on either side of the main branch wraps around prophets who unfurl scrolls to hint at mysteries about to be foretold in the reading of the psalms.

Beneath the figure of Jesse, two separate depictions of David protecting his sheep from wild animals cast his actions as allegory in the fight against evil, segueing to his likeness in the historiated B, dancing and singing his story into the Psalms to animate their prefiguration of Christ.

Advent candles. / Credit: Romolo Tavini/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Nov 30, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Advent begins this year on Sunday, Nov. 30. Most Catholics — even those who don’t often go to Mass — know that Advent involves a wreath with candles, possibly a “calendar” of hidden chocolates, and untangling strings of Christmas lights. But Advent is much more than that. Here’s an explainer of what Advent is really about.

What is Advent?

The people of Israel waited for generations for the promised Messiah to arrive. Their poetry, their songs and stories, and their religious worship focused on an awaited savior who would come to them to set them free from captivity and to lead them to the fulfillment of all that God had promised.

Israel longed for a Messiah, and John the Baptist, who came before Jesus, promised that the Messiah was coming and could be found in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

Advent is a season in the Church’s life intended to renew the experience of waiting and longing for the Messiah. Though Christ has already come into the world, the Church invites us to renew our desire for the Lord more deeply in our lives and to renew our desire for Christ’s triumphant second coming into the world.

Advent is the time in which we prepare for Christmas, the memorial of Jesus Christ being born into the world. Preparations are practical, like decorating trees and gift giving, but they’re also intended to be spiritual.

During Advent, we’re invited to enter more frequently into silence, into prayer and reflection, into Scripture, and into the sacramental life of the Church — all to prepare for celebrating Christmas.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says the goal of Advent is to make present for ourselves and our families the “ancient expectancy of the Messiah ... by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming.”

What does the word ‘Advent’ mean?

Advent comes from the Latin “ad + venire,” which means, essentially, “to come to” or “to come toward.” “Ad + venire” is the root of the Latin “adventus,” which means “arrival.”

So Advent is the season of arrival: the arrival of Christ in our hearts, in the world, and into God’s extraordinary plan for our salvation.

So, it’s four weeks long?

Advent is a slightly different length each year. It starts four Sundays before Christmas. But because Christmas is on a fixed date and could fall on different days of the week, Advent can be as short as three weeks and a day or as long as four weeks.

Does Advent mark a ‘new year’?

The Church’s feasts and celebrations run on a yearlong cycle, which we call the “liturgical year.” The “liturgical year” starts on the first Sunday of Advent. So it’s a new liturgical year when Advent starts. But the Church also uses the ordinary calendar, so it would probably be a bit weird to have a “New Year’s Eve” party the night before Advent starts.

What is the significance of the Advent wreath?

The Catholic Church has been using Advent wreaths since the Middle Ages. Lighting candles as we prepare for Christmas reminds us that Christ is the light of the world. And the evergreen boughs remind us of new and eternal life in Christ, the eternal son of the Father.

It is definitely true that Germanic people were lighting up candle wreaths in wintertime long before the Gospel arrived in their homeland. They did so because candle wreaths in winter are beautiful and warm. That a Christian symbol emerged from that tradition is an indication that the Gospel can be expressed through the language, customs, and symbols of cultures that come to believe that Christ Jesus is Lord.

One candle is pink on the wreath — why?

There are four candles on the Advent wreath. Three are purple and lit on the first, second, and fourth Sundays of Advent. The pink candle is lit on the third Sunday of Advent, which we call Gaudete Sunday. On that Sunday, in addition to the pink candle, the priest wears a pink vestment, which he might refer to as “rose.”

Gaudete is a word that means “rejoice,” and we rejoice on Gaudete Sunday because we are halfway through Advent. Some people have the custom of throwing Gaudete parties, and this is also a day on which Christmas carolers may begin caroling door to door.

The three purple candles are sometimes said to represent prayer, fasting, and almsgiving — the three spiritual disciplines that are key to a fruitful Advent.

Is it wrong to sing Christmas songs during Advent?

No, but there are a lot of great Advent hymns and songs, such as “O Come O Come Emmanuel,” “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus,” “O Come Divine Messiah,” “Come Thou Fount,” and “Hark! A Thrilling Voice Is Sounding.”

When should the tree go up?

When to put up the tree is a decision that families decide on their own. Some people put up their tree and decorate it on the first Sunday of Advent to make a big transformation in their home and get them into “preparing for Christmas” mode.

Some put up the tree on the first Sunday of Advent, put on lights the next Sunday, ornaments the next, and decorate it more and more as they get closer to Christmas.

Some put up the tree on Gaudete Sunday, as a kind of rejoicing, and decorate it in the weeks between Gaudate and Christmas.

When the tree goes up and gets decorated is up to the individual and family, but having a Christmas tree is a big part of many people’s Advent traditions.

This story was first published in November 2019 and has been updated.

null / Credit: Lisa Missenda/Shutterstock

Denver, Colorado, Nov 29, 2025 / 12:36 pm (CNA).

The first Sunday of Advent 2025 is tomorrow, Nov. 30, less than four weeks before Christmas this year, and while the Church provides this time to allow you to be caught by the joy of the Incarnation, you can be easily caught by surprise that it is Christmas. To help remedy this surprise, the Church provides songs, signs, and symbols to enter into the season of Advent more fruitfully.

Here are three ways the Church teaches us about the meaning of the season:

Advent hymns

Many of the customary hymns for Advent highlight the movement of the soul toward what Pope Francis termed in a homily on Advent as a “horizon of hope.” No hymn epitomizes this better than “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” with its overtones of expectation and its mournful remorse over the state of man, captive to sin. The cultivation of hope and expectation is also seen in Advent hymns such as “O Come Divine Messiah” and “People Look East.” 

The commingled darkness and hope that God will fulfill his promises, a theme characteristic of Advent, deepens with songs like the Spanish carol “Alepun.” The lyrics of “Alepun” move the faithful into an experience of waiting with a pregnant Blessed Virgin Mary while the rhythm and percussion evoke donkey hooves clattering across the plains of Israel to Bethlehem.

Church decor

Advent is a season of penance marked by joy and, in many ways, a little Lent. This is why the colors of purple and pink — with their ties to penance and the Lord’s passion, and the joy of Laetare Sunday when Lent is almost over — are the colors of Advent. But did you know that the deep purple of Advent has a blue hue to it to teach the faithful in symbol about the Marian heart of the season?

The lack of church decor also teaches about the penitential nature of the season. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, the lack of flowers on the altar, the restrained use of instruments, and the absence of the resounding and angelic Gloria all lead to a deliberate emptiness.

The emptiness will first be filled on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, and, later, flowers will be allowed on Gaudete Sunday as the first expression of the festivity of the coming Christmas.

Saints and solemnities 

Following the solemnity of Christ the King, Advent begins with echoes of the power of Christ coming in glory before it stretches forward to the humble beginnings of the mystery of the Incarnation.

This means there is a certain focus the Church helps people enter into even in the way the liturgical calendar is marked by very few memorials of saints: just five in the course of the four weeks, most of whom are deeply embedded in the celebration of and preparation for Christmas in various countries.

St. Nicholas is the best known of the five: the generous bishop whose gifts inspired generations of lore and giving. St. Lucy, whose desire to give charity to prisoners in the catacombs meant she wore candles in her hair to free her hands, is another well-known saint with connections to Christmas whom we celebrate in Advent.

The Church also shows forth the importance of Mary during this season, which places her Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8, a solemnity and holy day of obligation, at the very beginning of the liturgical year. Combined with the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec. 12, the Church shows forth what God has wrought in a soul full of grace — a foreshadowing of the entire mystery of salvation in one soul.

Though there are many more signs and symbols that communicate the meaning of Advent, these can assist you as you enter the season of expectation, building anticipation for the celebration of Christmas so it doesn’t catch you by surprise.

This story was first published on Nov. 28, 2022, and has been updated.

The flights for Pope Leo XIV’s first apostolic journey are taking place aboard an ITA Airways Airbus A320neo, one of thousands of Airbus planes affected by a computer issue, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/EWTN News

Rome Newsroom, Nov 29, 2025 / 08:30 am (CNA).

The papal plane set to fly Pope Leo XIV from Turkey to Lebanon on Sunday is one of thousands of Airbus A320 aircraft affected by a computer issue.

Around 6,000 Airbus planes were grounded this weekend after it was discovered that intense solar radiation could interfere with onboard flight control computers, according to the BBC.

For most of the affected aircraft, the issue could be resolved with a software update, but around 900 planes, including the papal plane, needed onboard computers physically replaced.

According to Director of the Holy See Press Office Matteo Bruni, a plane arrived in Istanbul from Rome on Saturday with a technician and the replacement computer for Pope Leo’s ITA Airways A320neo. 

Leo is scheduled to take a two-hour flight from Istanbul to Beirut around midday on Nov. 30 for the second leg of his apostolic journey to Turkey and Lebanon.