The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has lent its support to the Trump administration’s proposal to replace the word “gender” with the word “sex” in forms published by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Citing the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s 2024 document Dignitas Infinita, as well as the 2019 Vatican document Male and Female He Created Them, attorneys for the USCCB said that “the proposal reflects a true anthropology that is grounded in the biological sexual identity that is either male or female, an anthropology that promotes human flourishing.”

The chapel in Rome’s Termini railway station—Italy’s busiest—has been closed after a man who appeared intoxicated desecrated the altar.

“The closure deprived commuters, workers and vulnerable individuals of a modest spiritual refuge,” noted the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe.

The vicar apostolic of Istanbul said in an interview that Pope Leo XIV’s recent apostolic journey there has awakened Turkish Catholics from their slumber.

Bishop Massimiliano Palinuro told AsiaNews that Pope Leo’s “powerful words, his message of peace, and his testimony of faith have rekindled hope in our communities. It was wonderful to see people’s enthusiasm, both in the preparation of the events and in their execution.”

“All of this creates a desire to start over and has awakened and reawakened our community from a certain torpor into which it had fallen, also generating considerable interest in the Christian message outside of the ecclesial context,” Bishop Palinuro said. In a nation that is 98% Muslim, “we could say that this visit has certainly had a positive impact on evangelization, on bearing witness to the Gospel message.”

A Nigerian archbishop dismissed claims that Christians are persecuted there.

Addressing a gathering of the Knights of St. Mulumba, Archbishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto asked:

If you are a Christian in Nigeria and you say you are persecuted, my question is: how? At least 80% of educated Nigerians are Christians, and up to 85% of the Nigerian economy is controlled by Christians. With such figures, how can anyone say Christians are being persecuted?

Referring to reports on the scope of Christian persecution, he added, “They are saying that 1,200 churches are burnt in Nigeria every year, and I ask myself, in which Nigeria? Interestingly, nobody approached the Catholic Church to get accurate data.”

The Holy See renewed its call for an end to the war in Ukraine, “not at some undefined moment in the future, but right now.”

Speaking yesterday at a special session of the UN General Assembly, Msgr. Robert D. Murphy, chargé d’affaires of the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, said that “the Holy See renews its appeal for an immediate ceasefire, which will pave the way for sincere and courageous dialogue.”

He added, “The Holy See calls upon all nations gathered here to reject passivity and provide tangible support for any initiative that could lead to genuine negotiations and lasting peace.”

Pope Leo XIV has abolished a commission set up by Pope Francis to encourage and coordinate donations to the Holy See.

In a decree made public on December 4, Pope Leo suppressed the Commission for Donations to the Holy See, which was created by Pope Francis in February of this year. Pope Leo explained that he was eliminating the new commission in accordance with a recommendation from the Council for the Economy, which is charged with streamlining Vatican finances.

The wording of the December 4 papal decree suggests that Vatican officials were unhappy with the structure and performance of the Commission for Donations. The document states that a new Vatican working group will be set up “to formulate proposals regarding the general structure of fundraising for the Holy See,” while the Council for the Economy will be asked to nominate members of this body.

Stating that the Russo-Ukrainian war has entered a “particularly dangerous” phase, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church called on members of his church to pray the Rosary daily at 8:00 PM and to engage in fervent prayer and fasting for peace.

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk’s call to prayer and fasting followed a decision of the church’s Synod of Bishops. Each of the church’s eparchies in Ukraine has a different designated day of prayer and fasting.

Major Archbishop Shevchuk said, “We see how various events of this full-scale war are unfolding before our eyes, and we ask ourselves: what should our response be? Let our response, as Christians who are ready for spiritual struggle, be prayer and fasting. Make this sacrifice for Ukraine.”

Caritas Internationalis, the Church’s confederation of relief and development agencies, issued a statement on the agreement reached by participants in COP30, the recent UN Climate Change Conference in Brazil.

“COP30 closed in Belém on 22 November with a fragile compromise that disappointed many climate-vulnerable nations,” Caritas said in a statement issued yesterday. “The summit ended ‘with a whimper’: progress on adaptation and just transition offered thin silver linings, while the failure to agree [to] a fossil fuel phase-out roadmap left a glaring hole at the heart of the deal.”

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who heads the Archdiocese of the Military Services, has criticized the Trump administration’s attacks on Venezuelan drug traffickers at sea.

“In the fight against drugs, the end never justifies the means, which must be moral, in accord with the principles of just-war theory, and always respectful of the dignity of each human person,” said the archbishop, who is a past president of the US bishops’ conference.

Reacting to reports that US forces had killed survivors after an assault on a boat engaged in the drug trade, the archbishop said that a moral prohibition “forbidding the intentional killing of noncombatants is inviolable.” He urged US military leaders to respect the consciences of their subordinates “by not asking them to engage in immoral actions.”

A top-level Vatican commission ordered by Pope Francis to study the possibility of ordaining female deacons has issued a report that “excludes the possibility” of diaconal ordination for women. But the commission cautions that its conclusion “is not a definitive judgment” on the idea of a female diaconate.

The commission, chaired by Cardinal Giuseppe Petrocchi, concluded that Catholic doctrine bars women from priestly ministry, and “if the admission of women to the first degree of Holy Orders were approved, exclusion from the others would become inexplicable.” The group called for the development of new ministries which “could contribute to synergy between men and women.”

The commission—one of three studies of the female diaconate formed by Pope Francis—acknowledged that at times in Church history women have been identified as deacons. But in those cases, the commission concluded after study of the history that these female “deacons” served in charitable work rather than priestly ministry: a distinction that is crucial to the theology of Holy Orders.

The commission’s report—which was presented to Pope Leo in September, but made public on December 4—quotes an earlier study’s conclude: “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.”