By OSV News
Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans offered prayers for victims of what he described as a “sign of utter disrespect for human life” perpetrated by a man who drove a Ford pickup truck through crowds celebrating the New Year in New Orleans’ French Quarter around 3:15 a.m. Jan. 1. At least 15 people were reportedly killed, with around 35 others injured.

The driver was killed by police after leaving the vehicle and exchanging gunfire with law enforcement, striking two officers. The FBI is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism.

“Our prayers go out to those killed and injured in this morning’s horrific attack on Bourbon Street,” said Archbishop Aymond, a New Orleans native, in a Jan. 1 statement. “This violent act is a sign of utter disrespect for human life. I join with others in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans in offering prayerful support to the victims’ families. I give thanks for the heroic duty of hundreds of law enforcement and medical personnel in the face of such evil.”

Officials identified the driver as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, and said he likely did not act alone. An ISIS flag was located on the vehicle’s trailer hitch. The FBI found explosive devices in the pickup truck and elsewhere in the French Quarter, including reportedly near the historic Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis.

In an early afternoon press conference, officials described Jabbar, 42, as “a U.S.-born citizen from Texas” and U.S. Army veteran, and that law enforcement is looking for known associates. Anyone who had interacted with Jabbar within 72 hours prior to the attack is asked to contact the FBI at the agency’s tip line, 1-800-CALL-FBI.
New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick and other city officials confirmed that the attack was deliberate and that they were focused on ensuring the safety of the city’s residents and visitors. Officials did not release information about the identities of the victims known dead. A few hours later, authorities updated the death count from 10 to 15.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said during the press conference that there were “some people who are fighting for their lives right now in the hospital.”

“So I’d ask everyone to pray for them,” she said. “They need our support and they need our prayers.
“This was a heinous act. A heinous, cowardly act,” she added. “And we will find them and we will bring them to justice.”

At the press conference, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry announced he had issued an amended emergency declaration so “that we could bring all of our federal, state, and local agencies to bear in preparation for the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras.” Because of the attack, Landry said he also ordered “the mobilization of a military police company” in New Orleans.

Also speaking at the press conference, U.S. Sen. John Kennedy said, “I wish I understood better why bad things happen to good people.”

“If I make it to heaven, I’m going to ask,” he said. “For those people who don’t believe in objective evil, all you have to do is look at what happened in our city early this morning. If this doesn’t trigger the gag reflex of every American, every fair-minded American, I’ll be very surprised.”

Kirkpatrick, whose role includes chief of police, called the action “evil” and that “New Orleans Police and all law enforcement is built, we are built, for dealing with evil.”

President Joe Biden said in a statement that he was “grateful for the brave and swift response of local law enforcement in preventing even greater death and injury.”

“I have directed my team to ensure every resource is available as federal, state, and local law enforcement work assiduously to get to the bottom of what happened as quickly as possible and to ensure that there is no remaining threat of any kind,” he said.

University of Notre Dame president Father Robert Dowd, a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, shared a message on a website for Notre Dame alumni and friends and on X, where he said the university community extends “our deepest gratitude to the brave first responders who risked their lives to protect others.”

“To be in solidarity with those who suffer is to exemplify the spirit of Notre Dame,” he wrote. “Today, we are in solidarity with all those impacted by this tragedy.”

Saying that it is “always grounded in faith, hope, and love, especially at difficult times,” the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis posted on social media the archdiocese’s “Family Prayer” requesting the intercession of Mary under the title of “Our Lady of Prompt Succor.” It noted that the church “serves the entire Archdiocese and far beyond, but the French Quarter is our home and neighborhood.”

“We stand in solidarity with those who lost loved ones this morning,” it said. “We are grateful for the first responders and other healthcare and law enforcement professionals who put themselves in harm’s way and who care for the injured.”

The attack occurred on the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, and the World Day of Peace.

By Richard Szczepanowski
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Hours after Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of San Diego was announced Jan. 6 as the new archbishop of Washington, the prelate praised his new archdiocese as “truly sacramental in the rich diversity of its traditions and perspectives.”

He also pledged to “show reverence for the grace of God which is already present in your midst and in the commitment to discipleship that underlies this local church.”

“I come as your bishop seeking to know and understand this magnificent community of faith,” Cardinal McElroy said. “As your pastor, an essential element of my mission is to encounter the hearts and the souls of the disciples who form our local church.”

In a virtual news conference at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, Cardinal McElroy addressed his new flock via the Archdiocese of Washington’s YouTube channel because a major snowstorm shut down the city.

“I want to give thanks to God for the grace-filled life of this local church and to Our Holy Father, Pope Francis who today makes me a member of that church,” Cardinal McElroy said.

Early Jan. 6, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory, Washington’s archbishop since 2019, and named the San Diego prelate as his successor. As required by church law, Cardinal Gregory had submitted his resignation to the pope when he turned 75, which was two years ago, on Dec. 7, 2022.

The new archbishop of Washington said he has embraced Pope Francis’ emphasis on synodality and its call for the faithful to “build up a church centered in the Eucharist and devoted to the Word of God and the sacraments which sustain us.”

“Synodality calls us to walk humbly as a church, acknowledging our faults and sinfulness, and seeking forgiveness,” said Cardinal McElroy, who is 70. “It seeks the participation of every disciple in the church’s journey in this earthly pilgrimage, and is oriented toward the building of unity in society rooted in God’s justice, which cares especially for the unborn, the poor, the marginalized and the dispossessed.”

He said that in the Archdiocese of Washington, “for the past 85 years, the Catholic community has radiated the light of Christ throughout the District of Columbia and the surrounding five counties in Maryland.”

The archdiocese is home to more than 671,000 Catholics in D.C. and Maryland’s Montgomery, Prince George’s, St. Mary’s, Calvert and Charles counties.

Cardinal McElroy praised the archdiocese for its “rich parish communities of faith” and its “path-breaking development of lay ministries and apostolates, and the nurturing in lay leadership in the church that is genuinely participative and inclusive.”

The people of his new archdiocese, the cardinal said, are “men and women who form the people of God, struggling in a world filled with turbulence, hardship and illusion, to follow the pathway of Jesus Christ … (and are) called to be both dispensers and receivers of mercy and forgiveness.”

He noted that the Archdiocese of Washington has experienced “mountain-top moments” such as the visits of St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis and has endured “moments of failure and shame,” including reports of the sexual abuse of minors.

“In this mixture of the mountain top and failure, we are no different from the first disciples of the Lord,” Cardinal McElroy said. “It is to this community on the journey of faith that the Holy Father has called me to be bishop and pastor.”

Cardinal McElroy said Cardinal Gregory – appointed by Pope Francis in 2019 as the seventh archbishop of Washington and elevated to the College of Cardinals the following year – displayed “courage, a deeply pastoral heart and abiding faith in God and the dignity of the human person” as he “made critically important contributions at crucial moments in order to bring the Gospel of Jesus to the heart and the soul of the Catholic community here in Washington.”

At the Jan. 6 conference, Cardinal Gregory said, “As I reflect upon the past nearly six years in this wonderful local church of Washington, my heart is filled predominantly with joy and gratitude for the many blessings, always appreciated but rarely deserved that God has granted me.”

He thanked the priests, auxiliary bishops and the faithful, noting that “we have loved one another, cared for one another, challenged one another to be the Catholic Church Jesus Christ calls us to be.”

Cardinal Gregory said that he plans to remain in Washington after his retirement and serve where needed.

(Richard Szczepanowski is managing editor of the Catholic Standard, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Washington.)

The Catechism of the Catholic Church instructs, “The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin.”

At the same time, the church has also made clear human laws are also subject to divine limits. St. John Paul II’s 1993 encyclical “Veritatis Splendor” (“Splendor of Truth”) and 1995 encyclical “Evangelium Vitae” (“The Gospel of Life”) both quote the Second Vatican Council’s teaching in “Gaudium et Spes,” the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, which names “deportation” among various specific acts “offensive to human dignity” that “are a disgrace, and so long as they infect human civilization they contaminate those who inflict them more than those who suffer injustice, and they are a negation of the honor due to the Creator.”

The late pontiff underscored their moral severity in “Veritatis Splendor” by calling them examples of “intrinsic evil,” explaining that, no matter the motives, these acts are “not capable of being ordered to God and to the good of the person.”

By Kimberley Heatherington
(OSV News) – Since President-elect Donald Trump’s Nov. 5 victory, most Americans expect him to tackle the issue of immigration within the first 100 days of reoccupying the Oval Office.

But will immigrants who registered with the federal government – hoping for a path to citizenship through programs such as Keeping Families Together (KFT), Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and Temporary Protected Status (TPS) – actually be the most vulnerable to deportation?

The answer may hinge both on whether the information provided to the Department of Homeland Security will be used for deportation purposes – and how quickly the Trump administration wants to deliver results on its mass deportation pledge.

When it comes to migrants’ information with DHS, in the past, “there has been a firewall between those who might have provided information because of a benefit they were seeking, and that information being used for enforcement purposes,” explained J. Kevin Appleby, senior director of International Migration Policy at the Center for Migration Studies of New York and former migration policy director for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

This time, he said, “all bets are off. They’ll have access to that information, so they could use it to track potential beneficiaries.”

On Nov. 7, U.S. District Judge J. Campbell Barker of the Eastern District of Texas struck down the KFT program – rolled out in June – arguing the Biden administration exceeded its authority. KFT allowed U.S. citizens’ spouses and stepchildren, who lacked legal immigration status but lived in the U.S. for 10 years or more, to apply for permanent residency without first having to leave the country.

Approximately 500,000 spouses of U.S. citizens and 50,000 noncitizen children under 21 with a parent married to a U.S. citizen were eligible for the program.

DACA allows approximately 535,000 young immigrants brought to the U.S. without authorization as children, to seek temporary protection from deportation. The program, which began in 2012 under the Obama administration, also allows them to work legally. Trump attempted to end DACA in 2017, but the Supreme Court upheld the program in 2020.

TPS is a program for people from countries experiencing such extreme internal disruption that their deportation would be considered unsafe, or even life-threatening. TPS recipients have legal authorization to work and remain in the U.S. while their countries of origin retain that designation. The program garnered widespread media attention this fall after false reports of immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, exploded on social media during the U.S. presidential campaign. However, there was underlying friction between some of the town’s native residents and thousands of Haitian recipients of TPS legally living and working there.

Those migrants with legal immigration status are not necessarily safe, said Appleby.
“It’s basically an executive authority that provided them that legal status. So the new executive, he can revoke it,” Appleby said.

Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance both strongly suggested on the campaign trail that TPS, which currently protects 1 million people, will be curtailed in their administration. Trump himself pledged in October to revoke TPS for the Haitians living in Springfield and who are credited with fueling the Rust Belt city’s economic revitalization.

Erin Corcoran, executive director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and a faculty fellow at the Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights at the University of Notre Dame, shared Appleby’s concerns regarding Trump’s mass deportation plans for an estimated 11 million people.

During his first term, President Trump deported 1.5 million people – a number President Joe Biden matched in 2024 – compared to 4.8 million during President Barack Obama’s two terms, according to data tracked by the Migration Policy Institute.

“If they want to do it really quickly – if they want to effectuate it immediately – the people that are going to be the most at risk,” Corcoran said, “are the people that actually have come in contact already with the authorities. The people who don’t have actual status – but who have come in contact with DHS in some way – I think are at risk of deportation.”

Which perhaps seems contradictory, Corcoran said.

“Those are in some ways the most sympathetic groups of people. From a moral perspective, from a humanitarian perspective, those are people who actually have done what they’re supposed to do,” she said. “They’ve come forward, they’ve given information; they’re in the system.”

And unlike most unauthorized immigrants, they’re easily located by authorities.

“These people who have registered – families – they have names; they have addresses,” Corcoran said.
Trump’s new “border czar” Tom Homan, who was named to the role Nov. 10 and will not require Senate confirmation, has repeatedly addressed the question of mass deportation’s effects on families. Homan was Trump’s acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the 2017-2018 “zero tolerance” era that witnessed children taken from their parents in the midst of illegal border crossings.
In response to whether mass deportation can be conducted without separating families, Homan told CBS’ “60 Minutes” in October, “Of course there is – families can be deported together.”

On Dec. 26, Homan told multiple media outlets that the incoming Trump administration is considering open-air family detention centers for holding and deporting families. He said parents facing deportation will have to decide whether their U.S.-born children will come with them, or remain in the U.S. with a relative. He offered the following justification: “You knew you were in the country illegally and chose to have a child. So you put your family in that position.”

Pedro Alemán Perfecto, a policy advocate at the Catholic Legal Immigration Network Inc., also known as CLINIC, acknowledged Homan’s pledge to come after migrants with greater force. But he kept a measured outlook, noting that migrant advocates have also been preparing.

“It’s not about panicking the community or individuals. It’s being cautious – but vigilant – about this,” he said. “That’s what our community and vulnerable immigrant communities are feeling right now: They’re looking at who can be leading us; who can be working with us. And it’s knowing what’s going to happen in the next four years for them.”

Advocacy tactics, said Alemán, will likely need to adapt.

“At CLINIC, we strive to put a lot of information out there in the community, to combat misinformation and disinformation,” he said. “For us, it’s doing our research; doing our advocacy; knowing who we can trust with different partners – and then reaching out to impacted individuals on the ground.”

The destination of mass deportees also remains an open question. They may not even end up in their countries of origin.

NBC News reported Dec. 5 the incoming Trump administration is assembling a list of potential countries to ship migrants to if their home nations refuse to accept them. The Bahamas stated it had “reviewed and firmly rejected” the Trump plan, while NBC’s sources said other countries under consideration include Turks and Caicos, Panama, and Grenada.

In an NBC “Meet the Press” interview broadcast Dec. 8, Trump echoed many of Homan’s comments, noting his deportation agenda will focus on those with criminal histories – while also vaguely referring to “other people outside of criminals.”

He also reinforced his pledge to end birthright citizenship, while saying he was open to working with Democrats to devise a plan concerning “the Dreamers,” or DACA recipients.

At the U.S. bishops’ general meeting in November, Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, the bishops’ migration committee chair, said the bishops are “waiting to see just exactly what takes shape.” But he promised they will “raise our voice loudly,” if Trump’s deportation rhetoric becomes a reality.

Reports indicate not only that the incoming Trump administration’s mass deportation policy will be ready to launch Day 1 – it will run headlong into the life of the church.

On Dec. 11, NBC News reported Trump’s incoming administration plans to rescind a long-standing “sensitive locations policy” previously prohibiting the arrest of unauthorized migrants – except under certain circumstances – at churches, schools, and hospitals.

Appleby said the U.S. bishops are facing a critical moment that will “test the resolve of the church.” While statements of solidarity are helpful, Appleby said plans for direct action – including direct support and legal assistance to immigrant families – are required.

“If Trump fully implements this,” Appleby predicted, “it’s going to impact the life of the church. You’re going to have ICE agents outside the Mass door. You certainly will see some immigrants seek sanctuary in their parishes. And it will put the bishops in a difficult position with the government.”

“We have a pope who is a strong defender of migrants,” Appleby said. “And hopefully, the U.S. church will reflect that in their response to this massive deportation plan.”

(Kimberley Heatherington writes for OSV News from Virginia.)

The over 60 million abortions since the 1973 decisions of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton reflect with heartbreaking magnitude what Pope Francis means by a “throwaway culture.” However, we have great trust in God’s providence. We are reminded time and again in Scripture to seek the Lord’s help, and as people of faith, we believe that our prayers are heard.

And while, on June 24, 2022, the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturned Roe v. Wade, right now state and federal laws, in many instances, are still hostile to preborn children. So, great prayer and advocacy is still very needed.

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal, no. 373, designates January 22 as a particular day of prayer and penance, called the “Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children”: “In all the Dioceses of the United States of America, January 22 (or January 23, when January 22 falls on a Sunday) shall be observed as a particular day of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life and of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion.”

By Gina Christian
(OSV News) – Despite a few high-profile delays in recent years, the beatification of Venerable Fulton J. Sheen – the popular, scholarly archbishop and 20th-century pioneer of Catholic broadcasting – is “inevitable,” said the head of the foundation supporting his cause.

“The desire to see Sheen beatified is increasing, and there is a growing devotion to him,” Msgr. Jason Gray, executive director of the Archbishop Fulton John Sheen Foundation, told OSV News.

In an article for the foundation’s 2024 year-end newsletter, Msgr. Gray – who also serves as the judicial vicar and episcopal vicar for consecrated life for the Diocese of Peoria, Illinois, as well as pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Peoria Heights – pointed to several indicators of Archbishop Sheen’s expanding reputation for holiness, or “fama sanctitatis” in canonical terms.

“He didn’t just know about Jesus Christ,” Msgr. Gray told OSV News. “He knew Jesus Christ personally.”
That relationship enabled Archbishop Sheen to put his considerable intellect and communications skills at the service of the Catholic Church, with international impact, said Msgr. Gray.

Born in 1895, Fulton John Sheen sensed an early call to priesthood, and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Peoria in 1919. He then obtained a doctorate in philosophy and taught both that subject and theology at The Catholic University of America in Washington from 1927 to 1950.

But rather than confine himself to academia, then-Father Sheen also leveraged modern social communications platforms to spread the Gospel. He launched a weekly radio show while still a fairly young priest, drawing some 4 million regular listeners during a two-decade run. After being appointed as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York, he transformed the show into a television program, “Life is Worth Living,” which peaked at 30 million weekly viewers.

His ministry continued to expand, with then-Bishop Sheen serving as national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith from 1950-1966. He was then appointed bishop of Rochester, New York, in 1966, where he launched a second television show. He resigned three years later as his 75th birthday approached; canon law requires bishops to submit their resignation to the pope at 75. He was appointed a titular archbishop by Pope St. Paul VI, which afforded him time to continue preaching. Archbishop Sheen, who had suffered from heart disease in later years, died in 1979 before the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel of his Manhattan residence.

His cause for canonization, opened in 2002, has been stalled by two controversies – a public battle to relocate his remains from St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York to its current location, the side chapel of the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Peoria; and concerns that as bishop of Rochester from 1966-1969, the prelate might have overlooked sexual abuse by at least one former diocesan priest there.

The latter concern was magnified after the state of New York adopted lookback laws that allowed hundreds of abuse claims to be considered, with the Diocese of Rochester ultimately filing for bankruptcy.
However, Msgr. Gray told OSV News, “Sheen is clean. … Not one accusation has been raised that impugned Sheen.”

He said the foundation has examined “all of the pleadings” relevant to claims against the Rochester Diocese, and “there hasn’t been anything that was brought up there” implicating Archbishop Sheen.
The monsignor said the only thing remaining is a “dormant” investigation by New York State Attorney General Letitia Jones, who opened several such inquiries into other dioceses that have now been settled.
Msgr. Gray told OSV News there are “three reasons” for renewed interest in Archbishop Sheen’s canonization, which has been evidenced by a surge in visits to his tomb, requests for both relics and for his more than 50 books, and reports of favors and graces received through Archbishop Sheen’s intercession.

“The first is maybe the most obvious, and it’s just that he was someone who used the modern means of communication,” said Msgr. Gray, adding “if he (Archbishop Sheen) were around today, (imagine) what he’d be doing with the internet.”

Even more important, Archbishop Sheen “was very devoted to the Eucharist,” and serves as “a model for devotion to the Blessed Sacrament” – a role that has taken on deeper significance amid the National Eucharistic Revival, said Msgr. Gray.

And, he added, Archbishop Sheen was “someone who was just so insightful on so many issues,” including the most contentious ones “facing modern man today.

“He would talk about psychology, politics, sociology,” said Msgr. Gray. “And I think maybe more than ever, we need someone … (like) Sheen to speak with so much clarity, and so much passion and so much charity about the issues that are just roiling our societies today.”

Because of his personal relationship with Christ, Archbishop Sheen “could speak from a personal perspective, and with personal passion,” said the monsignor. “He wasn’t just quoting a book. … He brought his knowledge of the faith and his knowledge of Jesus Christ into the personal trials that we face in the world today.”

(Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @GinaJesseReina.)

By Maria Wiering

(OSV News) — Signs around the Eternal City declare “Roma si trasforma” — “Rome is transformed” as an explanation for the ubiquitous infrastructure projects underway, including the restoration of iconic sculptures and monuments, ahead of Jubilee 2025, a Holy Year that begins Christmas Eve.

While the metropolis is seizing the opportunity for renewal, that is ultimately the jubilee’s expectation for the entire church. “For everyone, may the Jubilee be a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the ‘door’ … of our salvation, whom the Church is charged to proclaim always, everywhere and to all as ‘our hope,'” Pope Francis wrote in the document that officially declared the year.

Here are 10 things to know about the upcoming Jubilee Year.

1. A jubilee year, also known as a “holy year,” is a special year in the life of the church currently celebrated every 25 years. The most recent ordinary jubilee was in 2000, with Pope Francis calling for an Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2015-2016. Jubilee years have been held on regular intervals in the Catholic church since 1300, but they trace their roots to the Jewish tradition of marking a jubilee year every 50 years.

According to the Vatican website for the jubilee, these years in Jewish history were “intended to be marked as a time to re-establish a proper relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation, and involved the forgiveness of debts, the return of misappropriated land, and a fallow period for the fields.”

2. Jubilee 2025 opens Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, at 7 p.m., with the rite of the opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican immediately before Pope Francis celebrates midnight Mass. Holy Doors will also be opened at Rome’s three other major basilicas: St. John Lateran on Dec. 29, St. Mary Major on Jan. 1, and St. Paul’s Outside the Walls on Jan. 5.

A Holy Door will also be opened Dec. 26 at Rebibbia Prison, a Roman prison Pope Francis has visited twice before to celebrate Mass and wash inmates’ feet on Holy Thursday.

The doors represent the passage to salvation Jesus opened to humanity. In 1423, Pope Martin V opened the Holy Door in the Basilica of St. John Lateran — the Diocese of Rome’s cathedral — for the first time for a jubilee. For the Holy Year of 1500, Pope Alexander VI opened Holy Doors at Rome’s four main basilicas. At the end of a holy year, the Holy Doors are formally closed and then bricked over by masons.

3. The theme of the Holy Year is “Pilgrims of Hope.” The papal bull, issued May 9, that introduced the coming Jubilee Year is titled “Spes Non Confundit,” or “Hope does not disappoint,” drawn from Romans 5:5. “Everyone knows what it is to hope,” Pope Francis wrote. “In the heart of each person, hope dwells as the desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future may bring.

“Even so, uncertainty about the future may at times give rise to conflicting feelings, ranging from confident trust to apprehensiveness, from serenity to anxiety, from firm conviction to hesitation and doubt,” he continued. “Often we come across people who are discouraged, pessimistic and cynical about the future, as if nothing could possibly bring them happiness. For all of us, may the Jubilee be an opportunity to be renewed in hope. God’s word helps us find reasons for that hope.”

Pope Francis also hopes the year draws Catholics toward patience, which he described in “Spes Non Confundit” as a “virtue closely linked to hope,” yet can feel elusive in “our fast-paced world, we are used to wanting everything now.”

4. Drawing on their Jewish roots, jubilee years emphasize the sacrament of reconciliation and restoring relationships with God. They also provide an opportunity for a special jubilee indulgence, which can remove the residual effects of sin through the grace of Christ.
5. The year calls Christians to action. Pope Francis called for “signs of hope” in the Jubilee Year, including the desire for peace in the world, openness to life and responsible parenthood, and closeness to prisoners, the poor, the sick, the young, the elderly, migrants and people “in difficult situations.” Pope Francis has called on affluent counties to forgive the debts of countries that would never be able to repay them, and address “ecological debt,” which he described as “connected to commercial imbalances with effects on the environment and the disproportionate use of natural resources by certain countries over long periods of time.”
6. Expect an influx of pilgrims in the Eternal City. Italy’s National Tourist Research Institute projects 35 million visitors in 2025, nearly triple of its 13 million visitors in 2023. Pilgrimage is a “fundamental” part of jubilee events, Pope Francis said in “Spes Non Confundit.” “Setting out on a journey is traditionally associated with our human quest for meaning in life. A pilgrimage on foot is a great aid for rediscovering the value of silence, effort and simplicity of life,” he wrote.

He noted that jubilee pilgrims are likely to visit Rome’s Christian catacombs and its seven pilgrim churches — the basilicas of St. Peter, St. Mary Major, St. John Lateran, St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. Lawrence, Holy Cross and St. Sebastian — destinations St. Philip Neri popularized in the 16th century with a 15-mile walk. Twelve other Roman churches, including the Sanctuary of Divine Love in southeast Rome, are designated “jubilee churches” intended as gathering spots for pilgrims during the jubilee.

Experts in the travel and hospitality industries suggest anyone heading to Rome in 2025 — pilgrim or not — book accommodations, tickets and tours in advance. Visitors may also be expected to pay an increased tourist tax, depending on their type of accommodations.

7. Major events are happening in Rome, including jubilee gatherings with liturgies, speakers and papal audiences to celebrate different groups within the church. The first is the Jubilee of the World of Communications Jan. 24-26, followed by the Jubilee of the Armed Forces, Police and Security Personnel Feb. 8-9. The jubilee also includes gatherings for artists (Feb. 15-18), deacons (Feb. 21-23) and even marching bands (May 10-11). Some of these special gatherings will coincide with major canonizations, such as the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis during the Jubilee of Teenagers April 25-27, and the canonization of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati during the Jubilee of Young People July 28-Aug. 3.

Expect some events to highlight the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, from which Christians received the Nicene Creed. This year, despite different liturgical calendars, the dates for celebrating Easter align in the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, leading some, including Pope Francis, to call for a “decisive step forward towards unity around a common date for Easter,” which was discussed in 325 at the Council of Nicaea.

8. Expect Rome to sparkle and shine. Many famous sites and artworks in Rome and at the Vatican have been cleaned or restored for the jubilee, much to the chagrin of many tourists in 2024, who found major monuments obscured by fencing, scaffolding and tarps. Many of those projects are expected to be completed with a fresh-face reveal in time for the jubilee. In October, St. Peter’s Basilica revealed its newly restored baldacchino, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the 1600s, after 10 months of work. Also receiving cleaning or restoration are Michelangelo’s Pietà, Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona, and Bernini’s angels on the Ponte Sant’Angelo.
9. While many jubilee events will take place in Rome and at the Vatican, it’s a celebration for the whole church. On Dec. 29, diocesan bishops are expected to open the Holy Year locally with Masses at their cathedrals and co-cathedrals. Catholics are encouraged to make pilgrimages to their cathedral during the year, and should watch diocesan communications for local events. While Pope Francis encouraged bishops to designate Holy Doors for their own cathedrals during the Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2015, there will only be Holy Doors at the Vatican and in Rome this year.
10. The Jubilee Year concludes with the closing of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica Jan. 6, 2026, on the feast of the Epiphany. However, the Holy Doors at Rome’s other major basilicas will close Dec. 28, 2025, the same day dioceses are to end local celebrations of the Holy Year.

The Jubilee Year also looks ahead to 2033, when the church will mark the 2,000th anniversary of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection, which Pope Francis called “another fundamental celebration for all Christians.”

(Maria Wiering is senior writer for OSV News.)

By Lauretta Brown

(OSV News) — The church must continue to stand for the dignity of all human life under the incoming Trump administration.

That was the message from Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, chair of the bishops’ migration committee, and Bishop Daniel E. Thomas of Toledo, Ohio, the bishops’ new pro-life committee chair, who both spoke with OSV News at the U.S. bishops’ November meeting.

On the abortion issue, Bishop Thomas told OSV News that “the role of the church is very clear.”

“The church has taught forever and she continues to teach that the life of the unborn — as the U.S. bishops have repeatedly affirmed — that it’s the preeminent life issue because in the end the most innocent and vulnerable and voiceless of us are preborn children,” he said.

“We don’t know what that administration is or is not going to seek as policy,” he said of the Trump administration. “We have every idea of what people said in an election cycle. That does not mean that they’re going to be doing those things after their election.”

He said with the new administration, he will “look for the same thing I look for in any administration, that is the capacity to listen to the church, to work with the church and to try to respect what the church is trying to promote, to teach, to advocate and to pronounce and that is the Gospel of the life of Jesus Christ.”

“They can be certain that we will do everything we can to advocate for the dignity and sanctity of all human life and first and foremost, preeminently for the unborn,” he added.

Regarding the incoming Trump administration’s embrace of in vitro fertilization on the campaign trail, Bishop Thomas referenced the church’s long-standing teaching against IVF.

He said that the church will continue to say that “within a marital relationship between a man and a woman,” there should be openness to life, and that life “is the result of two elements which the sexual union is: unitive and procreative.”

If one of those elements is unnaturally impeded, he said, then “that is problematic both for what the church believes regarding life itself and what the church regards as marriage and family because ultimately it disrespects individuals and it disrespects persons.”

He said that while “the church is deeply understanding of and compassionate for those Catholic couples who have a difficulty having children,” at the same time, IVF “blocks the unitive dimension of a couple’s marriage, marital love and — as a result — makes it something which we are not able not only not to condone, but we have to say what marital love is truly like.”

Bishop Thomas expressed gratitude for the three pro-life victories in the 2024 election in the defeat of ballot measures in Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota.

While he deferred to the episcopal conferences in those states regarding their specific strategies, he said “there were practices across the board that were done that were very, very critical to education, to promotion, to clarity so that people would understand clearly what they were voting on because many of our Catholic people did not understand what they were voting on nor how radical those things were.”

“The reality is now we have to go forward and still press to work against those issues,” he said, “but I would certainly hope that the witness to life has not been diminished and I think we can say that people are encouraged.”

As for the path forward for the pro-life movement, Bishop Thomas said that path is “the path of the cross and Jesus trod that path for us.”

“Some people thought that with Roe v. Wade, it was over and it was done,” he said. “Tragically, now we’ve seen each state take to itself to address that and we will not be deterred and we will not in any way be discouraged because we know that we have the one who is the way, the truth and the life — Jesus himself — and if he is that, then we will follow his way. We will trust in his truth and convey that truth and we will depend on the life that he gives us to not only promote, but defend that life itself.”

Regarding the church’s concern for the lives of those seeking asylum in the U.S. under the Trump administration, Bishop Seitz told OSV News that for “those who are arriving to our southern border, we have a great concern for the suffering that they will undergo because Mexico has become an extremely dangerous place that profits off of the lives of immigrants.”

He said immigrants are “faced with extortion from not only organized crime, but from official police organizations and security organizations. The organized crime has found that they can make a lot of money off of them by kidnapping them and contacting people — relatives and the like — especially in the United States in order to pay the ransom. Many of them are facing attacks on their persons, physical attacks, rape.”

In light of what he sees immigrants face, he expressed concern that the U.S. is ignoring asylum law and “not allowing people even access to make an asylum claim.”

“You might have opinions on whether people who come are truly candidates for asylum,” he said, but “if you do not allow them a process, then are you willing to accept in conscience, the responsibility of sending people, perhaps to their death, who haven’t even had the opportunity to make that claim?”

“We need an effective, active asylum system, and remember, asylum by its nature, doesn’t allow you to wait six months or five years, for a person, in most cases, they are being under threat right now,” he said, “their children are starving right now and we need to have some response.”

He said that in order to mitigate the “extreme situation in which desperate people, who feel that they’re running for their life, need to choose desperate means in order to cross into the United States,” there should be “opportunities for asylum and you provide opportunities for work where work is available and you vet people to give them a visa, so they can work seasonally or longer term.”

He referenced the 175 people who died this year in the El Paso sector of the border that he ministers to; most of them died because “they didn’t have water and they were in the desert on a hot day.”

“They’re taking those risks for a reason,” he said. “They’re not stupid. They just know they don’t have any other options right now.”

Bishop Seitz is also concerned about continued legal challenges such as the one the El Paso Catholic nonprofit, Annunciation House, faced from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton this year.

He said the state of Texas is “raising some direct challenges to the work of the church and other organizations that serve people who are extremely vulnerable” and that the vast majority of the immigrants served by these organizations “have been vetted through the system, they’ve applied, they’ve turned themselves in, they’ve been processed and given the opportunity to make their asylum case.”

The church, he said, has a responsibility “not to be doing the security vetting,” but “our task is to care for people who are in need. It’s simple.”

Bishop Seitz emphasized the church’s long history of teaching on immigration. “We’ve had a day, a World Day for Migrants and Refugees, for more than 100 years,” he noted, “from the early 1900s, but even before that, the church has always received pilgrims and migrants. And so, it is one of her fundamental works, the kind of work that hospices did in the past led to the creation of hospitals which were a Catholic work of grace.”

He encouraged the faithful to “read what the church has to teach” including statements from St. John Paul II and Pope Francis on the issue. He also encouraged people to “meet a migrant, meet a person who has recently entered your community. Ask them to tell you their story, and you’ll come to a very different understanding than what you’re perceiving in the media.”

(Lauretta Brown is culture editor for OSV News. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @LaurettaBrown6.)

By Kate Scanlon

(OSV News) — The incoming Trump administration should “rethink” its plans to carry out mass deportations, the bishops of New Mexico wrote in an open letter.

President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on hardline immigration policies, including his call for mass deportations, arguing in a September presidential debate that those without legal status “destroyed the fabric of our country,” and has since indicated willingness to use military force for a mass deportation program.

While Trump has not offered specifics on how he would carry out such a program, in principle, mass deportations run contrary to the Second Vatican Council’s teaching in “Gaudium et Spes” condemning “deportation” among other actions, such as abortion, that “poison human society,” a teaching St. John Paul II affirmed in two encyclicals on moral truth and life issues.

In their letter, the border state’s bishops — Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, Bishop Peter Baldacchino of Las Cruces and Bishop James S. Wall of Gallup — said immigration “remains a complicated and challenging issue for the country.”

“While the Statue of Liberty is emblematic of immigration policies that have given immigrants a new lease on life and made our country great, we continue to witness tragic failures in our immigration policy that have put those fleeing injustice, persecution, and crime at great risk,” they wrote. “Moreover, our failure to enact comprehensive immigration reform has weakened the moral fiber of our society.”

“From the Catholic Church’s experience in working with migrants and refugees, we find that many who arrive to our nation are forced to migrate because of oppression and persecution,” they said. “They are victims of smugglers, human traffickers, and drug cartels. They suffer severe economic hardship and simply want to support their families with dignity. Most are not electing to migrate on a whim but are forced migrants, fleeing intolerable and inhumane conditions.”

The bishops added that at the same time, “we acknowledge that, as with any group, there are those who come for nefarious reasons and who commit violent crimes, and that Americans should be protected from these people. Likewise, we agree that a sovereign country has the right to manage its borders, albeit in a manner which protects human rights and dignity.”

Arguing that the immigration system “is broken and is in need of reform,” the bishops said policies “that ignore the human rights of those who come to the border and undermine human dignity are not the way to fix things.”

“While it is true that sovereign nations have a right and a responsibility to control their borders, this is not an absolute right, as the management of borders must be accompanied with humane treatment and due process protections,” the letter said. “We can achieve both goals: the protection of human rights and the security of the border and the nation.”

A mass deportation policy, they argued, will not fix those problems but would instead “create chaos, family separation, and the traumatization of children.”

“While removing those who cause harm to us is necessary, deporting immigrants who have built equities in our communities and pose no threat is contrary to humanitarian principles and to our national interest,” they said. “We urge the new administration to rethink this proposed deportation policy and instead return to bipartisan negotiations to repair the US immigration system.”

While they are not politicians, they added, they believe elected officials should embrace these moral principles as a foundation for good and just laws.

“As Scripture tells us, for those to whom much has been given, much is expected,” the letter said, in reference to Luke 12:48. “We, the bishops of New Mexico, pray that the United States — our great nation under God — will continue to justly receive our fellow human beings into our country, recognizing the many gifts that are ours in the world of great human suffering.”

The bishops added they “stand ready to work with the new administration on achieving immigration policies which are just, humane, and reflect the values of America.”

Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) @kgscanlon.