Workers erect the Vatican’s 2025 Christmas tree in St. Peter’s Square on Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025 / Credit: Vatican Media Vatican City, Nov 27, 2025 / 14:30 pm (CNA). A towering Christmas tree now stands in the center of St. Peter’s Square, after the spruce arrived at the Vatican on Thursday morning. The 88-foot-tall spruce tree … Read more
It is the Liturgical New Year’s Eve: today is the last day of Ordinary Time and the current Liturgical Year. Evening marks the beginning of Advent and the New Liturgical Year..
Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass at the Volkswagen Arena in Istanbul, Turkey, on November 29, 2025. / Screenshot: Vatican Media Istanbul, Turkey, Nov 29, 2025 / 11:20 am (CNA). Pope Leo XIV marked the start of Advent on Saturday with an appeal for unity and peace, telling thousands gathered for Mass in Istanbul that Christians … Read more
Pope Leo XIV and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople sign a joint declaration at the Palace of the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul, Turkey, on November 29, 2025. / Vatican Media Istanbul, Turkey, Nov 29, 2025 / 10:07 am (CNA). Pope Leo XIV and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople said on Saturday they … Read more
The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. James of the Marches (1391-1476). St. James became a doctor of canon and civil law, and then decided to live austerely as a Franciscan friar. St. James studied theology with Saint John of Capistrano. He became a popular preacher, traveling all over Italy and through thirteen Central and Eastern European … Read more
Pope Leo XIV and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople at an ecumenical event marking the 1,700th anniversary of Nicene Creed, in Iznik, Turkey, on November 28th, 2025. / Screenshot: Vatican Media Iznik, Turkey, Nov 28, 2025 / 08:05 am (CNA). Pope Leo XIV commemorated the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea on … Read more
The Council of Nicaea in 325 as depicted in a fresco in Salone Sistino at the Vatican. / Credit: Giovanni Guerra (1544-1618), Cesare Nebbia (1534-1614) e aiuti, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 28, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA). In the summer of A.D. 325, more than 300 bishops gathered in Nicaea … Read more
A long, long time agoI can still remember how that music used to make me smileAnd I knew if I had my chanceThat I could make those people danceAnd maybe they’d be happy for a while—Don McLean, “American Pie.” This last November 8, I passed a milestone – I turned 65 years of age. There … Read more
Today in the United States is the Optional Memorial of Thanksgiving Day in the dioceses of the United States. In 1621 colonists in New England gave communal thanks and praise to God for his abundant mercies and blessings. This became a tradition and in 1863 Thanksgiving Day was proclaimed a legal holiday. It is celebrated … Read more
Pope Leo XIV with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara, Turkey, on November 27, 2025. / Vatican Media Vatican City, Nov 27, 2025 / 08:25 am (CNA). Pope Leo XIV opened his first international trip on Thursday with a sweeping call for unity, renewed dialogue, and a rejection of the global drift toward division … Read more