St Ann Catholic Church Fayetteville, NC

While denying a link between homosexuality and pedophilia, Father Jordi Bertomeu Farnos, an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that “a certain homosexual subculture typical of some clerical groups and present in certain seminaries or novitiates, with the consequent tolerance of active homosexual behaviors, may lead to pederasty.” The priest also criticized the notion that clerical celibacy was a medieval innovation; instead, he said, scholars have shown that it dates from the time of the Gospels.

“We are living like in an earthquake,” said Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop George Bacouni of Beirut, the capital of the Middle Eastern nation of 6.1 million (map). “We’re facing enormous economic problems, including a failing banking system … There’s a risk of losing the young generation: they don’t want to stay in Lebanon.”

Bishop Andreas Laun, OSFS, 77, is the retired auxiliary bishop of Salzburg.

Born in 1936, the future Pope Francis entered the Society of Jesus in 1958 and was ordained to the priesthood on December 13, 1969. Archbishop José Gómez of Los Angeles, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, called for prayers for the Pope.

Consecrated in 1935, the National Basilica of the Sacred Heart (photograph) is located in Koekelberg, a suburb of Brussels.

“Our bishops’ conference verified the issues—authority, participation, the separation of powers, sexual morality, the priestly form of life, women in Church services and orders—and wishes to face these issues, especially because a vast number of believers await this,” said Matthias Kopp, the bishops’ spokesman.

Speaking in Manila, the new prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples discussed the importance of “listening to God and listening to each other with patience, interest and attention. This is a necessary first step in evangelization.” Young people and women, he added, should have a great involvement in evangelization: the former “know the digital world better than us and can give us wonderful advice,” while the latter “have a natural predisposition to interpersonal communication: let us also learn from them.”

The Byzantine-rite Eparchy of Mukachevo “is the mother of many martyrs, who with their own blood confirmed their fidelity to Christ, to the Catholic Church, and to the Bishop of Rome,” Pope Francis said in a December 11 audience marking the 30th anniversary of the emergence of the eparchy from hiding. “In particular, let us remember the Blessed Martyr Bishop Teodor Romzha, who in the darkest moments of your history was able to guide God’s people with evangelical wisdom and courage.”

In a series of decrees issued on December 12, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints proclaimed 17 new martyrs from the Spanish civil war. The Congregation also approved a miracle through the intercession of Maria Luigia of the Blessed Sacrament, a 19th-century Italian religious; and acknowledged the heroic virtue of six other candidates for beatification from Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Brazil.