News

By Vatican News - A report presenting the results of the Commission’s work has been released. It rules out admitting women to the diaconate understood as a degree of the sacrament of Holy Orders, but says that it is not currently possible “to formulate a definitive judgment, as in the case of priestly ordination.”... “The status quaestionis of historical research and theological investigation, as well as their mutual implications, rules out the possibility of moving in the direction of admitting women to the diaconate understood as a degree of the sacrament of Holy Orders. ...

Fr. Benedict Kiely, The Catholic Thing - “O God be gracious and bless us and let Your face shed its light upon us.” So begins Psalm 68, often said in the Daily Office, or Breviary, at the start of the day. In St. John’s Gospel, Philip says to Jesus, “show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus responds, “Philip, to have seen Me is to have seen the Father.” The light shining from the face of Christ is the light of the Father. The blessing of seeing the face of Christ is the gift we will soon celebrate at Christmas: God has become man, and we can look upon Him.

By Felix Miller, Catholic Vote - A new children’s picture book brings its readers on a journey through the life of Saint Nicholas, the Catholic bishop who inspired the legend of Santa Claus... Written by Mike McGrew and illustrated by Kim Merritt, The Boy Who Would be Santa aims to both inform children about Christmas’ religious significance and inspire them to pursue sanctity... In a Dec. 11 email interview, McGrew told CatholicVote that he wrote about Santa in hopes that children would cease to “see him as a secular figure but as a religious person who advocates kindness throughout the year, especially to the less fortunate.”