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
Pope Leo XIV receives a Thanksgiving pie on board the papal flight to Turkey, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025 / Credit: Courtesy of Claudio Lavanga Rome Newsroom, Nov 27, 2025 / 09:25 am (CNA). Aboard the papal plane on Thanksgiving Day, Pope Leo XIV kicked off his first international trip — a visit to Turkey — … Read more
The Roman Martyrology includes in commemoration:
The main altar of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. / Credit: Jorge Royan (CC BY-SA 3.0). Vatican City, Nov 26, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA). Pope Leo XIV has issued a new decree revising the financial and administrative norms governing the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Mary Major, bringing both institutions under the ordinary … Read more
Today Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. Catherine of Alexandria (d. 305). From time immemorial St. Catherine had been venerated at the monastery on Mount Sinai when, in the fifteenth century, the monks discovered her body. Legend has made of her a young Christian of Alexandria who rejected the advances of the Emperor Maximinus … Read more
Conductor Riccardo Muti has been awarded the 2025 Ratzinger Prize. / Credit: Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy Vatican City, Nov 25, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA). Pope Leo XIV will present the 2025 Ratzinger Prize to the renowned Italian conductor Riccardo Muti, one of the most influential and respected figures in international music, during a … Read more
null / Credit: Alex Studio/Shutterstock Vatican City, Nov 25, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA). A new Vatican document defends marriage as a monogamous relationship amid the growing popularity of polyamory and addresses the pastoral challenges caused by conversion to Catholicism of people in polygamous situations. “One Flesh: In Praise of Monogamy” was published in Italian … Read more