Ss. Cyril and Methodius Ukrainian Catholic Church

St. Januarius (left) and the relic of the blood of St. Januarius. / Credit: Chapel of St. Januarius

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 16, 2025 / 12:58 pm (CNA).

The miracle of the liquefaction of the blood of St. Januarius, patron saint of the Italian city of Naples, occurred again on Tuesday, Dec. 16.

According to the Archdiocese of Naples, the miracle took place after Mass in the Royal Chapel of the Treasure of St. Januarius on the feast of the patronage of St. Januarius.

“At 9:13 a.m. local time, the blood already appeared semi-liquid. At 10:05 a.m., the complete liquefaction was announced,” the archdiocese reported.

“Dec. 16 is the third of three annual celebrations in honor of the martyred saint. This date commemorates the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1631, when the Neapolitans requested and obtained the miraculous intervention of St. Januarius to prevent the lava from engulfing the city,” he explained.

The announcement of the miracle was made by Monsignor Vincenzo De Gregorio, abbot of the Chapel of the Treasure of St. Januarius. The phial, once the miracle had occurred, was carried in procession to the chapel so that all those present could see it.

The miracle usually occurs on two other days of the year: every Sept. 19 (the anniversary of St. Januarius’ martyrdom) and the Saturday before the first Sunday of May (in remembrance of the transfer of his remains to Naples).

When the blood does not liquefy, as happened on Dec. 16, 2020, the inhabitants of Naples usually take it as a bad omen. However, in the face of this possibility, the Church encourages the faithful not to lose sight of what is essential.

On Sept. 19, 2024 — despite the miracle having occurred that day — the archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Domenico Battaglia, urged the faithful not to place their hope in physical manifestations but in Jesus, who calls us to care for the most vulnerable.

“I implore you, we should not worry about whether the blood of this relic liquefies or not, but rather we should worry about whether the blood of the dispossessed, the marginalized, the least fortunate, and the innocent is flowing in our streets and in our world,” the cardinal said.

“The blood of Bishop Januarius, let us never forget, always points to the blood of Christ, both the blood of Christ himself and the blood of the poor and the least fortunate in whom Christ lives,” he added.

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

The Berlaymont building in Brussels, seat of the European Commission. / Credit: EmDee/Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

EWTN News, Dec 16, 2025 / 11:30 am (CNA).

A drastic cut in EU funding has plunged the Federation of Catholic Family Associations in Europe (FAFCE) into financial crisis, according to the association, sparking accusations of “ideological discrimination” against the Brussels-based group.

FAFCE announced that the European Commission excluded all six of its recent project applications from funding, reportedly penalizing the Catholic group’s proposals for lacking sufficient “gender diversity” and “safeguards against discrimination,” according to documents reviewed by CNA.

Responding on social media, Hungarian Member of the European Parliament Kinga Gál, vice president of the Patriots for Europe group, condemned the European Commission’s decision as “the highest form of discrimination.”

She argued that the move targets the Catholic association “simply for defending family as the fundamental unit of society. In Brussels, that is now treated as unacceptable.”

“Strong families make strong communities. Strong communities make strong nations. We cannot allow Brussels to erase this core value in the name of gender ideology,” the European Member of Parliament wrote.

‘European values’

Founded in 1997 and based in Brussels, FAFCE is considered to be the only family nongovernmental organization (NGO) at the EU level that explicitly includes “Catholic” in its official name.

FAFCE represents 33 member organizations from 21 countries and bases its work on Catholic social teaching.

The cut in funding falls under two major EU programs: Erasmus+ and CERV (Citizens, Equality, Rights, and Values), which support civil society, education, and organizations that promote EU values.

The commission’s evaluation feedback cited “limited information on gender inequalities” in FAFCE’s proposals, claiming this deficit “may limit the depth of gender analysis.”

The evaluation also stated that “the approach may contravene EU equality provisions” and noted “limited safeguards against discrimination or victimization,” though the commission did not provide specific evidence for these assertions.

The rejected projects focused on child protection and youth welfare, including initiatives to prevent children’s access to pornography and combat loneliness among young people.

Two members of the European Parliament have tabled written questions to the European Commission regarding the funding decisions: Paolo Borchia and Gál, seeking assurance of equal treatment for all NGOs applying for EU grants.

CNA reached out to the European Commission for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Financial impact

The funding freeze has created severe financial strain for FAFCE. In a fundraising newsletter, FAFCE President Vincenzo Bassi stated that the organization needs 150,000 euros (approximately $157,000) to continue its current projects. Without this funding, FAFCE will be forced to dismiss employees and reduce its presence at the European Union level in 2026.

“I consider this as ideological discrimination,” Bassi wrote. “How can a federation of associations whose primary mission is the promotion of the family be excluded from EU-funded projects such as CERV or Erasmus+?”

Bassi emphasized that FAFCE has “consistently promoted dialogue and upheld the dignity of each person” and argued that “the richness of European civil society is its pluralism, a principle enshrined in art. 2 of the Treaty on the European Union.”

“No organization should ever be penalized for defending a legitimate position in the public square,” he stated.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, archbishop of Luxembourg, presided over the beatification Mass of the 50 martyrs of the Catholic apostolate, held Dec. 13, 2025, at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 16, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, archbishop of Luxembourg, celebrated in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on Dec. 13 the Mass of beatification for 50 young martyrs who were murdered by the Nazis out of hatred for the Catholic faith during World War II.

In an apostolic letter he sent to the French capital, Pope Leo XIV established that the feast day of the 50 new blessed martyrs, belonging to about 30 French dioceses, will be May 5, 2026.

“Raymond Cayré, priest; Gérard-Martin Cendrier, of the Order of Friars Minor; Roger Vallé, seminarian; Jean Mestre, layman; and 46 companions were beatified in Paris. They were killed in hatred of the faith in 1944-45 during the Nazi occupation,” Pope Leo XIV said after the Angelus on the third Sunday of Advent (Gaudete Sunday).

“Let us praise the Lord for these martyrs, courageous witnesses to the Gospel, persecuted and killed for remaining close to their people and faithful to the Church!” the Holy Father said, recalling that on Dec. 13, 124 martyrs were also beatified in Spain.

Light in the midst of the ‘dark century of terrible carnage’

“The first half of the 20th century will go down in European history as the dark century of terrible carnage. To the victims of the two world wars, the soldiers, are added the victims of the Nazi dictatorship. But in this darkness, there are points of light, and even now we can identify names and faces associated with some of these points of light,” Hollerich said in his homily, as reported by the Archdiocese of Paris.

“They had an immense love for God, for Christ. This love compelled them to serve their brothers and sisters who had been sent to forced labor in Germany. Indeed, there can be no love of God without love of one’s neighbor,” the Jesuit cardinal continued, referring to the more than 1 million French people sent to Nazi factories and labor camps.

The new blesseds, the archbishop continued, were “these young Catholics — priests, religious, seminarians, Catholic Action activists, and Scouts — all answered the call of Cardinal [Emmanuel Célestin] Suhard [then-archbishop of Paris] and Father Jean Rodhain.”

“Most of them were between 20 and 35 years old, and, along with so many other anonymous apostles, they understood the spiritual and moral distress of 1.5 million young French workers deported to Germany, now without any religious guidance, since German priests were forbidden to minister to them,” Hollerich noted.

“They were truly ‘Martyrs of the Apostolate.’ Their lives and their work in the service of their brothers and sisters were a trial crowned by the sacrifice of martyrdom,” he emphasized.

With their service of love and mercy, the cardinal continued, these martyrs “in the hell of the concentration camps, succeeded in creating oases of paradise, where love managed to restore courage, heal the wounds of the heart, overcome indifference, and convey serenity and peace.”

One of them, the young Scout Joël Anglès d’Auriac, who was beheaded at the age of 22 on Dec. 6, 1944, after going to confession, receiving Communion, and praying the rosary, told the prison chaplain: “I am completely at peace ... for I am going to Jesus Christ.”

Another young man, Jean Mestre, decided against requesting an exemption from the Nazi’s Compulsory Labor Service for the war effort in Germany and told his mother of his decision in this way: “I love you with all my heart, but I love Jesus Christ even more than you, and I feel that he is calling me to be his witness to my fellow workers who are going through difficult times. Forgive me if I am hurting you.”

A message for young people today

Hollerich said that all these martyrs remind us that “whatever our vocation, our profession, or our responsibilities, we are committed, as disciples of Christ, to serving our brothers and sisters wherever God, in his providence, has placed us.”

“The Nazis, on the other hand, despised religious freedom. While forced to respect it in Germany, they revealed their true nature in the occupied territories. The love of our martyrs for Christ and for the people they helped made them martyrs for religious freedom,” he continued.

“Perhaps this point will be an important testimony for us regarding the future of the Church in Europe. Faith is never a private matter; it must find expression in concrete service to our sisters and brothers,” the Jesuit cardinal emphasized.

“Following in the footsteps of our martyrs, let us strive to be faithful disciples of Christ, the Prince of Peace, and let us ask those whom we celebrate today to obtain for us the grace to live our faith,” he said.

Prayer for the canonization of the new blesseds

At the conclusion of the Mass, those present were given a prayer card with a prayer approved by the archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, to ask the Lord for the intercession of the new blesseds and for their canonization:

Lord our God,

You granted to the blessed martyrs of the Catholic apostolate

To be inspired by the ardent desire to accompany and serve their brothers

who were conscripted for Compulsory Labor Service in Germany.

Rather than saving their lives, they answered your call

and chose to imitate Christ, who became a servant,

even to the point of following him in the sacrifice of the Cross.

Deign, O Lord, to glorify our blessed martyrs

and grant me, through their intercession,

the grace [state the grace requested] that I implore with confidence,

through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Note: People who receive graces through the intercession of the blessed martyrs are invited to write to the postulator of their cause, Father Bernard Ardura, at Viale Giotto, 27, 00153 Rome – Italy.

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

Italian Bishop Antonio Staglianò celebrates a Mass for the Jubilee of Tourism at Rome’s Church of San Salvatore in Lauro on Dec. 15, 2025. / Credit: Kristina Millare/EWTN

Rome, Italy, Dec 16, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

About 400 people participated in a Jubilee of Tourism pilgrimage in Rome on Monday evening, celebrating the unique role the industry plays in supporting the faith and religious experience of millions of pilgrims and tourists.

Isabella Ruggiero, president of the Associazioni Guide Turistiche Abilitate (Associations of Qualified Tourist Guides), who helped organize the jubilee dedicated to tourism workers, said the Dec. 15 pilgrimage was a way to bring together the professional community that daily supports visitors to Italy and the Vatican.

“This special jubilee is dedicated not only to tourist guides but to all those who work in the world of tourism: guides, tour leaders, travel agencies, tour operators, hotels, accommodation providers,” Ruggiero told CNA.

“Every pilgrimage and every single trip is the result of the work of dozens of people who help organize and carry out the trip and the pilgrimage at every stage, and who generally remain ‘behind the scenes’: from booking transportation, to cleaning the accommodation where people stay, from conceptual work, to the humblest tasks — all are necessary,” she said.

Italian Bishop Antonio Staglianò, president of the Pontifical Academy of Theology and rector of the Basilica of Santa Maria in Montesanto, opened the pilgrimage with a Mass celebration at San Salvatore in Lauro, one of Rome’s 13 Jubilee of Hope churches located near the popular tourist destination Piazza Navona.

The pilgrimage also included a candlelit procession over the Bridge of the Angels, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, in front of Castel Sant’Angelo, and crossing the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica on the evening the Vatican unveiled its Nativity display in the square.

Roman tour guide Elizabeth Lev said the evening pilgrimage was a “great moment of reconciliation” and a chance to renew her own joy and hope of guiding pilgrims in the Eternal City, especially as the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope draws closer to its conclusion.

“The Jubilee of Tourism was an opportunity for us to become pilgrims, to pass through the Holy Door [at St. Peter’s Basilica] for prayer, instead of profession, and to give thanks for the many gifts of the year,” she told CNA.

“We have spent so much time arranging other people’s events that we only realized, ‘in extremis,’ that we didn’t have one for ourselves,” she said. “As luck would have it, the Vatican Christmas tree was lit as we entered the square so the last steps were accompanied by the joyful lights and sounds of Christmas hymns.”

“It was one of the most moving days of my life,” she added.

According to Ruggiero, more than 3,000 licensed tour guides of different nationalities currently operate in Rome.

“The role of the guide is to bring people of every social background and culture closer to beauty, art, and history, and to teach respect for our shared heritage,” the tourism association president said. “In the case of pilgrims, [it is] to highlight the spiritual and religious dimensions above all others.”

While religious tourism in Rome has “consistently remained high” with approximately 10 million pilgrims and visitors each year, Ruggiero said these numbers significantly increase during the Church’s jubilee years.

“In the Holy Year 2000, Rome welcomed approximately 25 million pilgrims,” she said. “Estimates for the current jubilee indicate that around 30 million pilgrims are expected to have visited the city by the end of the year.”

The 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope will conclude with the closing of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica on the Jan. 6 solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord.

null / Credit: JulieStar/Shutterstock

EWTN News, Dec 16, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A new report published by the General Secretariat for Catholic Education (SGEC) in France has sent shockwaves through the country’s educational landscape, reopening the debate over the methods used in state oversight, possible ideological abuses, and their impact on educational freedom.  

Published on Dec. 8, the 14-page document widely cited in the French press compiles testimonies from teachers, principals, and staff in Catholic schools under state contract who report having been subjected to what Catholic education leaders describe as “abusive,” “intrusive” inspections carried out by officials from the Ministry of National Education. The report highlights that it does not challenge the principle of state oversight itself but denounces the methods employed — methods that, according to Catholic leaders, risk undermining both the dignity of educators and the very identity of Catholic schools. 

The controversy erupted just a few months after the publication of a parliamentary report calling for increased oversight of Catholic institutions in the name of child protection. Catholic school officials are now issuing a strong warning against the climate of suspicion and political exploitation that they have seen develop in recent months.

In July, revelations of physical and sexual abuse at Notre Dame de Bétharram, a Catholic boarding school in southwestern France, triggered a nationwide debate on how abuse in schools is identified, reported, and addressed, alongside similar cases at other institutions. A parliamentary inquiry subsequently examined these cases, highlighting serious institutional failures while also prompting questions about how oversight is carried out at faith-based schools operating under state contract.

According to the testimonies gathered, inspections have at times taken the form of what the report calls “disproportionate shows of force.” Inspectors reportedly arrived unannounced in groups of 10 to 16, dispersing throughout school buildings without accompaniment, interrupting classes, photographing classrooms, questioning students, and even searching pupils’ backpacks. Some teachers describe inspectors entering classrooms without identifying themselves, leafing through students’ notebooks mid-lesson, and interrogating staff in front of children.

Catholic educators say the nature of some of the questions asked has been particularly troubling. Teachers reported being questioned about their personal religious practices, including whether they attend Sunday Mass. Inspectors allegedly examined and took pictures of students’ personal spiritual journals — documents explicitly intended to remain private. Principals recount being pressured to remove Christian references from school projects or to take down religious symbols, demands that directly contradict the legal recognition of Catholic schools’ distinctive character under French law. 

A chilling effect on educators 

Beyond individual incidents, the report paints a picture of a widespread sense of demoralization. Educators describe a climate of fear and anxiety, with trust in institutional partners badly eroded. Some inspectors reportedly dismissed positive academic results by suggesting students were already strong before enrollment. Others sent critical notices to local elected officials containing contested or potentially defamatory claims, leaving school leaders feeling publicly discredited before any dialogue could take place.

Guillaume Prévost, who became secretary-general of Catholic education in September, expressed his dismay in an interview with weekly magazine Famille Chrétienne.

“We could not continue letting our teachers be humiliated,” he said to explain why Catholic education leadership decided to make the report public.

Prévost also insisted that Catholic education does not categorically oppose inspections. In his introduction to the report, he recalled that “there can be no freedom without control” and described inspections as an essential component of the system. According to him, many inspections ultimately lead to constructive exchanges, with inspectors highlighting strengths such as schools’ relationships with families, their support for students with disabilities, and the overall coherence of their educational projects. He nonetheless emphasized that inspections must be conducted within a clear legal framework and with due professionalism, restraint, and discernment. 

The deeper danger, in his view, lies not only in individual abuses but also in a systemic drift. If inspections become a tool to neutralize Catholic identity, impose administrative guardianship, or align Catholic schools entirely with the public model, he warned, France risks destroying one of its greatest educational strengths in the name of uniformity.

Such tensions are not new and reflect a long history of strained relations between the French state and Catholic institutions. The 1959 Debré Law was intended to find a balance and improve church–state relations by allowing private schools to operate under state contract while preserving their distinctive identity. Recent debates around inspections have revived questions about how that balance should be interpreted in practice. 

In recent years, French President Emmanuel Macron’s government has sought to tighten oversight in several areas of education, including proposals to restrict home schooling and increase scrutiny of certain Catholic schools, including high-profile cases such as Paris’ Stanislas School, although inspections did not establish systemic violations there. 

The government’s response 

In a statement following the publication of the SGEC report, the Ministry of National Education has sought to lower tensions, reaffirming that inspections are governed by a strict legal framework and explicitly acknowledging that questions aimed at identifying a student’s religious affiliation are prohibited. “Firm instructions,” the ministry said, would be sent to all rectors to clarify both the substance and the conduct of inspections. “If there have been failings, all consequences will be drawn.” 

Minister of Education Édouard Geffray has emphasized that oversight remains necessary in light of past abuses, noting that more than 850 inspections have already been conducted this year, with 1,000 expected by year’s end.  

Catholic education in France currently serves more than 2 million students from a wide range of social backgrounds. Its representatives emphasize that the manner in which inspections are carried out has concrete implications not only for schools themselves but also for the families who place their trust in them.

The coffin of Cardinal Josef Beran is carried by a horse-drawn carriage toward St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague on April 21, 2018. The cardinal’s remains were repatriated to his homeland 49 years after his death in exile in Rome. / Credit: PetrS./Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

EWTN News, Dec 15, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

The District Public Prosecutor’s Office for Prague 1 has filed a proposal to judicially rehabilitate Cardinal Josef Beran, the former archbishop of Prague who was persecuted during the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.

The move, confirmed in an official notification dated Dec. 8, follows a monthslong review of archival materials by the police’s Office for the Documentation and the Investigation of the Crimes of Communism. The proposal has now been submitted to the District Court for Prague 1 under the country’s 1990 law on judicial rehabilitation.

Beran’s beatification process is currently underway.

As a priest, Josef Beran (1888–1969) suffered in the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau before becoming archbishop of Prague, the capital of Czechoslovakia, after World War II. When the communists took over, he refused to pledge loyalty to the atheist regime. He was not jailed but was interned in several locations, a confinement that included complete isolation from the outside world and a loss of privacy.

When he was created a cardinal by Pope Paul VI in 1965, he was allowed to travel to Rome. Yet he was unable to return. The prelate spent the rest of his life in exile, visiting compatriots in Europe and the U.S.

“We are very happy for the news but do not have further information,” the press office of the Czech Bishops’ Conference told CNA. Beran’s family also did not have any more information.

“Anyone can submit a motion to the public prosecutor’s office to correct an injustice,” lawyer Lubomír Müller explained to a press agency.

Müller, who has successfully handled similar cases for persecuted clergy, filed the initial motion in May. He acted upon a formal request from Jan Kratochvil, the director of the Museum of Czech, Slovak, and Ruthenian Exile of the 20th Century in Brno. The request specifically cited Beran’s illegal internment from 1951 to 1965.

Last year, the regional court in Hradec Králové rehabilitated priest Josef Toufar for his illegal arrest and prosecution at the beginning of the communist regime. Toufar was tortured to death, and his beatification process is now underway as well. The museum’s request also noted Müller’s work in rehabilitating Jesuit priest Father František Lízna.

Therefore, “the official ruling that the internment of Josef Beran was illegal may also come,” Jaroslav Šebek, a historian at the Czech Academy of Sciences, told CNA.

Beran also spoke at the Second Vatican Council about religious freedom and proposed a new view of Jan Hus, the rector of Charles University in Prague who was burned at the stake in 1415. The communists in Czechoslovakia tried to portray Hus as a rebel and the “first communist.” However, Beran opted for “a more conciliatory view of this personality of ... European spiritual history so that the views of Archbishop Beran and [the late] Pope John Paul II aligned,” Šebek noted at a recent conference in Rome.

He quoted part of the cardinal’s speech in which he lamented that authorities in the past had at times imposed faith: “Secular power, even if it wants to serve the Catholic Church, or at least pretends to do so, in reality, by such acts, causes a permanent, hidden wound in the nation’s heart. This trauma hindered the progress of spiritual life and it provided cheap material for objections to the enemies of the Church.”

Beran is believed to have been the only Czech prelate buried in St. Peter’s Basilica before his body was moved to the Czech Republic in 2018.

Simon Schwarz, head of the Caritas Vilnius Convicts Consultation Center, talks to university students in Vilnius, Lithuania. / Credit: Caritas Lithuania

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

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

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

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

Growing demand for help

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

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

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

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

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

Program details and costs

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

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

Shifting demographics of clients

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

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

Addressing stigma in Christian communities

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

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

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

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

Women also affected

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

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

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

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

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

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

Children participate in the annual St. Lucy’s Day celebration in Sweden. / Credit: Claudia Gründer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Detail of the commemorative painting of the 124 martyrs of Jaén, Spain, beatified in 2025. / Credit: Diocese of Jaén

ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 12, 2025 / 16:03 pm (CNA).

The Diocese of Jaén in Spain will celebrate on Dec. 13 the beatification of 109 priests, 14 laypeople, and one Poor Clare nun martyred during the Spanish Civil War.

With the addition of these 124 new blesseds, the number of 20th-century martyrs in Spain recognized by the Catholic Church rises to 2,254, 11 of whom have been canonized.

The beatification ceremony will be presided over by Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, and will take place in Assumption Cathedral in Jaén, where some of the new blesseds spent their last days before being murdered out of hatred for the faith. 

Bishop Sebastián Chico of Jaén in the pastoral letter published on the occasion of the beatification stated that “their blood, far from being sterile, has become a fertile seed that today nourishes the faith of our parishes, communities, families, and confraternities, and impels us to live Christ more deeply so that we, too, may be witnesses of hope in the midst of the world.”

Chico also shared a reflection on the theological meaning of martyrdom, which he summarized as “the victory of love and the fullness of hope.”

The prelate observed that Scripture “teaches us that blood shed for the love of God is a seed of fidelity, eternal life, and hope.”

Regarding the Catholic Church’s teaching on this mystery of self-sacrifice, Chico noted that each martyr “has been a grace from God for the Church and a rich legacy of charity and hope that we must know and preserve.”

He also emphasized that “martyrdom is the supreme testimony of Christian hope,” because it reminds us that “with the eloquence of their own lives, violence, hatred, or death do not have the last word.”

The bishop of Jaén also pointed out that the martyrs “were not heroes, humanly speaking, nor ideological fighters, nor casualties in a war for earthly interests” but rather men and women “marked by weakness and sin, like any of us, but who conquered evil in the last moment of their lives with the sole strength of an unwavering faith in Christ. Their only weapon was love.”

Jaén, the ‘Holy Kingdom’

The Diocese of Jaén is traditionally known as the “Holy Kingdom,” and throughout its history it has been marked by not a few martyrs, from the Roman soldiers Sts. Bonosus and Maximian to St. Potenciana, virgin, the priest St. Amador, and, in the Middle Ages, the bishop St. Peter Pascual.

Along with them, the new blesseds are not the only sons and daughters of the diocese martyred in the 20th century. In addition to a group beatified in Tarragona in 2013, St. Pedro Poveda, founder of the Teresian Institution, stands out: He was murdered in Madrid in 1936.

With the new blesseds, “Jaén sees its name confirmed and enriched: Holy Kingdom. It is not an empty or merely historical title but a profound spiritual truth,” the prelate emphasized.

Of the 124 new blesseds, Chico highlighted three names “as examples of unwavering faith, generous love, and certain hope”: the priest Francisco de Paula Padilla Gutiérrez, who “voluntarily offered to die in place of a father of six children”; the lay doctor Pedro Sandoica y Granados, who “was murdered for publicly confessing his faith, without fear of the consequences, moved by hope in the kingdom of God”; and the widow Obdulia Puchol, a “woman of profound charity who opened her home to transients and the most disadvantaged, and who was shot for her fidelity to Christ, keeping hope alive until her last breath.”

The prelate said he believes the recognition of these martyrs should be considered “as yet another link in the chain of holiness that unites Jaén with the universal Church, from the first Christians to our own day.”

The martyrs, through their lives and their final sacrifice, “are not just a memory of a heroic past but teachers for the present … In this sense, the witness of the martyrs does not belong solely to history; it is a living word that God addresses to the Church and to the society of today.”

Chico emphasized that the martyrs invite us to renew our own hope because they “urge us to live our faith radically, without lukewarmness or compromise”; they teach people “to forgive, always, even in the midst of violence and injustice, following the example of Christ on the cross”; they call the faithful “to be builders of reconciliation and peace”; and they show that “holiness is possible in all vocations.”

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

Official appearance of the exhibition in Vienna from Vienna Künstlerhaus website. / Credit: Vienna Künstlerhaus website

CNA Deutsch, Dec 12, 2025 / 10:11 am (CNA).

On Dec. 8, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, a prayer rally against an exhibition called “Du sollst dir ein Bild machen” (“You shall make yourself an image”) took place in front of the Vienna Künstlerhaus Vereinigung, a cultural center for artists.

The prayer rally’s organizers said the show, which includes a crucified frog and a depiction of the Virgin Mary as a transgender woman, is an attack on the Catholic faith.

Organized by the Austrian Society for the Protection of Tradition, Family, and Private Property (TFP), the rosary rally featured participants carrying placards calling for an immediate stop to blasphemy.

Protesters said the exhibition strikes “at the heart of the Catholic faith with abominable depictions, including a crucified green frog mocking Our Lord, a bearded man dressed as the Mother of God holding a child, a naked parody of the Pietà.”

The Austrian TFP also launched an online petition calling for the immediate closure of the exhibition, gathering signatures from Austria and internationally, with support from the American TFP.

Criticism rejected by curator

The management of the Künstlerhaus defended the exhibition against calls for its closure, rejecting criticism and invoking the legal protection of artistic freedom.

Günther Oberhollenzer, artistic director and curator of the exhibition, and Tanja Prušnik, president of the Künstlerhaus Vereinigung, said in the statement on Dec. 2: “We strongly oppose the calls for closure as well as all anti-art statements in this context. In Austria, freedom of art is a constitutionally protected fundamental principle that shapes democratic culture, enables critical social reflection, and is actively supported by the state.”

Oberhollenzer and Prušnik also said the exhibition was not intended to offend religious beliefs.

“We respect that people may feel irritated or even offended by works of art. Whether a work of art is provocative is often in the eye of the beholder. Many visitors, including Christians and high-ranking Catholic clergy, were very impressed by the exhibition, and there were repeated harmonious, profound discussions and conversations on an equal footing.”

Bishop Hermann Glettler of Innsbruck praised the controversial exhibition, calling it “evidence of the endless struggle to somehow do justice to the mystery of God, who has inscribed himself into a wounded world.”

The Austrian prelate explicitely mentioned the “crucified frog” and other pieces on display in Vienna in his statement on Instagram.

Pope Benedict XVI intervened in 2008

Back in 2008, the “crucified frog” caused international controversy when it was exhibited in Bolzano in northern Italy’s South Tyrol region. At that time, Pope Benedict XVI, among others, intervened in the debate.

In a letter to Franz Pahl, president of the South Tyrolean Regional Council, the Bavarian-born pontiff wrote at the time that the work offended the religious sensibilities of many people “who see the cross as a symbol of God’s love and our salvation, which demands recognition and religious veneration.”

Despite these words from the pope, the museum decided at the time to keep the exhibit, which is now on display again in Vienna.

This story was first published by CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner, and has been translated for and adapted by CNA.