Sacred Heart Catholic Church

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Washington, D.C., Dec 2, 2025 / 17:04 pm (CNA).

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday on whether a New Jersey faith-based pregnancy center may immediately assert its First Amendment right to challenge a state subpoena demanding donor information — including names, addresses, and places of employment — in federal court, or whether it must first proceed through the state court system.

The case, First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc. v. Platkin, has drawn support from a diverse array of groups, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, members of Congress, the Trump administration, and the ACLU. All argue that First Choice should be able to challenge the subpoena in federal court without first litigating the issue in New Jersey state court.

At the center of the dispute is a 2023 subpoena issued by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin seeking extensive donor information from First Choice. In 2022, Platkin created what he called a “reproductive rights strike force” to “protect access to abortion care,” and his office issued a “consumer alert” describing crisis pregnancy centers like First Choice as organizations that may provide “false or misleading information about the safety and legality of abortion.”

In its Supreme Court brief, First Choice describes itself as a faith-based nonprofit serving women in New Jersey by providing material support and medical services such as ultrasounds and pregnancy tests under a licensed medical director. The organization does not provide or refer for abortions, a point it plainly and repeatedly states on its website.

Platkin’s subpoena commanded First Choice to produce documents and information responsive to 28 separate demands, including the full names, phone numbers, addresses, and current or last known employers of every donor who contributed money by any means other than one specific website. It warned that failure to comply could result in contempt of court and other legal penalties.

The attorney general’s office said it needed donor identities to determine whether contributors were “misled” into believing First Choice provided abortions. Platkin argued he needed donor contact information so he could “contact a representative sample and determine what they did or did not know about their donations.”

First Choice quickly sued in federal court, arguing the subpoena violated its First Amendment rights by chilling its speech and freedom of association. The federal district court dismissed the case as “unripe,” ruling that the pregnancy center must wait until a New Jersey court seeks to enforce the subpoena. The Supreme Court later agreed to hear the case to determine whether First Choice may pursue its challenge in federal court now.

At oral argument, First Choice’s attorney, Erin M. Hawley, told the justices that the court has “long safeguarded the freedom of association by protecting the membership and donor lists of nonprofit organizations.” Yet, she said, “the attorney general of New Jersey issued a sweeping subpoena commanding on pain of contempt that First Choice produce donor names, addresses, and phone numbers so his office could contact and question them. That violates the right of association.”

Hawley urged the court to recognize that the subpoena was issued by “a hostile attorney general who has issued a consumer alert, urged New Jerseyans to beware of pregnancy centers, and assembled a strike force against them.”

She also noted that the attorney general “has never identified a single complaint against First Choice” and that the threat of contempt and business dissolution is “a death knell for nonprofits like First Choice.”

Arguing for New Jersey, Sundeep Iyer, the attorney general’s chief counsel, said First Choice had not demonstrated that the subpoena “objectively chilled” its First Amendment rights. He argued that the subpoena is “non-self-executing,” meaning it imposes no immediate obligation and cannot require compliance unless a court orders enforcement.

Justice Neil Gorsuch appeared skeptical, noting that New Jersey law gives attorney general subpoenas the force of law and allows the attorney general to seek contempt orders against those who fail to comply. “I don’t know how to read that other than it’s pretty self-executing to me, counsel,” he said.

Justice Elena Kagan questioned whether an “ordinary person” receiving such a subpoena would feel reassured by the claim that it required court approval before being enforced. A donor, she said, is unlikely “to take that as very reassuring.”

In an amicus curiae brief, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urged the court to side with First Choice. “Compelling disclosure of a religious organization’s financial support violates the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion,” the bishops wrote. Forced donor disclosure, they argued, interferes with a religious organization’s mission and burdens the free-exercise rights of donors who give anonymously in accordance with scriptural teachings.

The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision in the coming months.

Bishop Chad W. Zielinski of New Ulm, Minnesota. / Credit: Diocese of Fairbanks

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 2, 2025 / 15:38 pm (CNA).

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) allocated more than $7.8 million to strengthen American mission dioceses, which are dioceses that cannot sustain themselves without additional funds.

The USCCB Subcommittee on Catholic Home Missions announced the grants on Dec. 1, which will provide 69 dioceses and eparchies with funds for the 2025-2026 budget year, according to a news release. The subcommittee reviewed the grant requests in the fall.

Per the news release, the funds were generated through collections from parishioners during the Catholic Home Missions appeal, which is taken up annually throughout the country. Many mission dioceses are in regions with small Catholic populations and in rural areas that are affected by economic hardship, the bishops said in the announcement.

“When parishioners contribute to the Catholic Home Missions Appeal, they bring faith, hope, and love where it is most needed, regardless the amount of their gift,” Bishop Chad Zielinski of New Ulm, Minnesota, subcommittee chair, said in a statement.

“Their gifts have a profound, positive impact on Catholics who face poverty or the isolation of being a small, minority faith,” he said.

The recipients include the Diocese of Rapid City’s Standing Rock Reservation Ministry, which serves the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. Three Franciscan sisters and one priest lead the team to provide home visitations and faith formation, which cares for 500 Catholics at four parishes and offers social support and accompaniment to 8,000 other residents, according to the bishops.

Recipients include the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, for its Office of Deliverance Ministry, which provides prayers of deliverance for those with spiritual struggles. 

Another recipient is the Syro-Malankara Eparchy of St. Mary Queen of Peace, which has 24 priests that serve 11,000 parishioners but has no paid lay staff. The grant supports a youth summer camp, retreats, family conventions, and vocational discernment.

“These stories reveal the wide range of spiritual and financial needs that the Catholic Home Missions Appeal addresses,” Zielinski said. 

“Parishioners in mission dioceses already give sacrificially from their limited means,” he added. “My prayer is that their example of faith will inspire the rest of us [to] dig deeper to help our neighbors carry out the mission that Jesus has entrusted to us,” Zielinski said. 

St. Columba Cathedral in Youngstown, Ohio. / Credit: Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Dec 2, 2025 / 13:03 pm (CNA).

The Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, and one of its Catholic high schools are facing multiple lawsuits over the alleged mishandling of multiple reports of bullying and student-led abuse.

Of the four lawsuits, three were filed in federal district court and the fourth was filed in a county court of common pleas. They allege that Ursuline High School in Youngstown failed to prevent the bullying and harassment of several students.

In the federal lawsuits, attorneys allege that Ursuline ignored multiple instances of harassment and bullying from the school’s football players. Ursuline was aware of the abuse, the suits claim, though administrators allegedly did nothing in order to protect “the glory of [the school’s] football team.”

One suit alleges that a football player engaged in protracted sexual harassment and eventually physical abuse of a young female student, including “asking [her] for sex and nude photos” and eventually allegedly dragging her across the grass to give her “turf burn.”

In another suit, several football players are alleged to have “harassed, bullied, and ridiculed” a student identified in the filing as gay. The alleged victim is alleged to have reported the abuse to school officials, who reportedly “failed to stop or address the misconduct.”

Another suit claims football players participated in “hazing, physical and sexual abuse, kidnapping, production and dissemination of child pornography, and theft,” including an incident in which multiple players allegedly stripped a classmate nude, physically abused him, and recorded the attack to post on social media platform Snapchat.

A fourth lawsuit, filed by the mother of an Ursuline student in Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas, alleges that officials with the school knew ahead of time of a student’s intent to attack her daughter but did not take steps to prevent it, leading to the daughter allegedly being violently assaulted in the school cafeteria.

The three federal suits allege violations of Title IX education rules, while the suit in county court claims violations of Ohio law.

A spokeswoman for the Youngstown Diocese pointed to an earlier statement from Bishop David Bonnar on the suits. The prelate said the diocese was “deeply saddened” by the allegations. He added leaders in the diocese “will do their best and are doing their best to work through this.” 

Ursuline High School, meanwhile, pledged in a statement to “allow the legal process to proceed” regarding the four lawsuits.

“That said, the incidents in question were reviewed in detail at the time, and Ursuline High School is confident that all appropriate actions were taken by faculty and staff members,” the school said.

“In particular, there is no evidence that Ursuline failed or was derelict in any of its child protection duties,” the statement added, arguing that the allegations of dereliction appear to be “baseless and completely without merit.”

Subodh Chandra, whose law firm is representing the plaintiffs in the suits, said in a statement on his firm’s website that the suits indicate “a deep and pervasive culture of protecting Ursuline’s image, particularly its athletic program, above the sacred duty to protect children.”

“Our clients all continue to ask: How do these administrators still have jobs? Why has the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown done nothing to hold Ursuline’s administration accountable?” Chandra said.

The suits are seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages from the defendants.

null / Credit: Karina Lopatina/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Dec 2, 2025 / 12:33 pm (CNA).

The University of Colorado’s medical school will pay out a massive eight-figure settlement after it required multiple staffers, including a Catholic doctor, to obtain the COVID-19 vaccination. 

The Thomas More Society said the university’s Anschutz School of Medicine “agreed to pay more than $10.3 million in damages, tuition, and attorney’s fees” to 18 plaintiffs in the lawsuit. 

The legal group said in a Dec. 1 release that the plaintiffs had been “denied religious accommodations to mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations.” The suit has been active for nearly five years. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit had ruled in 2024 that the university had violated the plaintiffs’ “clearly established” First Amendment rights in refusing to issue religious exemptions to the COVID vaccine. Religious objectors have cited numerous concerns with the vaccines, including that they were developed using fetal cell lines. 

Thomas More Society attorney Michael McHale said the plaintiffs in the case “felt forced to succumb to a manifestly irrational mandate” without any exemption for their sincere religious beliefs.

“We are confident our clients’ long-overdue victory indeed confirms, despite the tyrannical efforts of many, that our shared constitutional right to religious liberty endures,” he said.

The lawsuit was originally filed on behalf of a Catholic doctor and a Buddhist medical student, with numerous other plaintiffs subsequently joining the litigation.

Thomas More Society litigation head Peter Breen said the objectors “stood up, at great personal cost, to an injustice that never should have been inflicted on them — or on any American.”

“Because they had the courage to say ‘no’ when their religious freedoms were trampled, people of faith across the country now enjoy stronger protections,” he said. 

Madison Gould, a plaintiff in the case, said in the legal group’s press release that the university’s policy “gutted the years of study and self-sacrifice poured out by so many in pursuit of serving the weakest among us.” 

Gould expressed gratitude to lawyers at the Thomas More Society “for standing by us when no one else would.”

“May our nation never witness anything like this travesty again,” she said. 

Religious objectors in recent years have won several major victories against institutions that have required them to undergo COVID vaccination with a religious exemption. 

In 2022 NorthShore University HealthSystem agreed to pay $10.3 million to more than 500 workers after the health system denied them religious exemptions to the vaccine.

In 2024, meanwhile, a Catholic woman in Michigan won $12.7 million after Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan fired her after refusing to grant her a religious exemption. 

And in July of this year, a federal appeals court revived a Catholic worker’s lawsuit against the Federal Reserve Bank of New York over the bank’s having fired her for refusing to take the COVID vaccine.

Bishop Patrick Neary of the Diocese of Saint Cloud, Minnesota. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Saint Cloud

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 2, 2025 / 12:03 pm (CNA).

Bishop Patrick Neary of Saint Cloud, Minnesota, has been appointed as the chair of Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) board. 

Neary was appointed by Archbishop Paul Coakley, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) president. Neary succeeds Archbishop Nelson Pérez of Philadelphia. 

Neary assumes responsibilities for the role immediately, and the term runs until November 2028. 

“It is a profound honor to serve as chairman of the Catholic Relief Services board,” Neary said, according to a press release. “My years in Africa and in parish ministry have shown me the face of Christ in the poor and the vulnerable, and I carry those encounters with me into this role.”

Neary praised CRS for embodying the Church’s mission of compassionate accompaniment of those in need and lauded his predecessor, Pérez, for “his commitment to advocating for the dignity of the poor and amplifying the voices of the vulnerable.”

“I hope to lead with a heart of mercy, listening and working alongside our partners to uphold the dignity of every person,” Neary said. “Together, we will continue to bring the light of Christ to communities around the world, especially those most in need.”

Neary has served as bishop of Saint Cloud since he was appointed by Pope Francis in December 2022. He served in Kenya and Uganda for eight years before returning to the U.S., then served as rector of Holy Redeemer Parish in Portland, Oregon. 

“We are delighted for Bishop Neary to join as CRS chairman of the board of directors,” said Sean Callahan, president and CEO of CRS. “We are certain that he will bring strong leadership and help CRS continue our mission of lifesaving work and advocacy for our sisters and brothers around the world.”

Neary was ordained a priest in 1991 at the University of Notre Dame, where he was also rector for many years. 

According to its website, CRS serves 225 million people across 122 countries annually and has 1,735 partners around the world. 

A person detained is taken to a parking lot on the far north side of the city before being transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Chicago on Oct. 31, 2025. / Credit: Jamie Kelter Davis/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 2, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Catholic bishops in the United States have expressed unified disapproval of the “indiscriminate mass deportation of people” as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported over 527,000 deportations and another 1.6 million self-deportations since Jan. 20.

Several Catholics in the Trump administration, such as Vice President JD Vance and Border czar Tom Homan, have invoked their faith to defend the heavy crackdown on migrants who do not have legal status in the country after the bishops’ message of dismay.

Caring for immigrants is a clear command in Scripture. Catholic teaching on the matter of mass deportations is somewhat nuanced, with obligations on wealthy countries to welcome immigrants and responsibilities for immigrants to follow the laws of the nations receiving them. The Catholic approach to immigration in recent decades has underscored mercy and respect for the migrants’ human dignity and prudence on the part of public officials to safeguard the common good, with an emphasis on a response to migrants that “welcomes, protects, promotes, and integrates.”

While Catholic teaching affirms human dignity and the right to migrate when necessary, debate has centered on the means of immigration policy.

When is a deportation policy ‘intrinsically evil’?

If something is “intrinsically evil,” it means that it is immoral under any circumstance and for any reason, regardless of one’s motivation or the intended consequence of the action. That term is reserved for actions themselves that can never be morally justified.

As St. John Paul II explained in his 1993 encyclical Veritatis Splendor, an “intrinsically evil” act is one that, by its very nature, is “incapable of being ordered to God” because the act is in conflict with “the good of the person made in his image.”

He cites Gaudium et Spes, the pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world issued by the Second Vatican Council in 1965, to offer some examples of intrinsic evils.

Although the council itself does not use the term “intrinsically evil,” he references the council’s description of actions that are “opposed to life itself,” which include “murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or willful self-destruction.” It also lists, among other things, action that “insults human dignity,” such as “subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, [and] the selling of women and children.”

Neither John Paul II nor the council elaborate on the meaning of “deportation” in this context in those specific documents. Although, in his 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus, the Holy Father spoke about deportations within the context of forced removal of people during World War II: “As a result of this violent division of Europe, enormous masses of people were compelled to leave their homeland or were forcibly deported.”

Joseph Capizzi, dean of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America, told CNA the context appears to refer to deportations that are both “arbitrary” and “without due process,” like during World War II.

“The context was, of course, mass deportations of people absent any due process and their treatment as movable property, or chattel,” he said. “That is by definition treating those humans as subhuman, offending their God-given status by their creation in his image and likeness.”

In relation to “subhuman living conditions” being intrinsically evil, Capizzi said all people “must be treated as humans” regardless of legal status. No person, he said, can be treated “with cruelty” or “absent basic human regard.”

Father Thomas Petri, OP, a moral theologian and former president of the Dominican House of Studies, told CNA that deportation, as an enforcement of immigration law, “in and of itself can’t be intrinsically evil.”

“There is going to be prudential debate and prudential discussion on what constitutes immoral, evil deportation,” Petri said.

“Even if there’s disagreement on who should be deported, when the deportation happens, it should happen in a way that doesn’t undermine the dignity of those being deported,” he said.

“Even when there is justified deportation, …  those who are being deported [must be treated] … humanely, respecting human dignity, which includes the natural rights to food, human living conditions [and] … access to religion,” Petri said.

“Anything that contradicts or harms their human dignity is certainly grave,” Petri said.

When can governments limit immigration?

The Church has consistently encouraged nations to welcome the stranger, in line with Christ’s command in Matthew 25:35, and has also recognized the government’s need to protect the common good.

In 1988, the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace issued a document called “The Church and Racism,” which addressed the subject.

For immigrants and refugees, the commission said governments must ensure their “basic human rights be recognized and guaranteed.” Such people could be “victims of racial prejudice” and are at risk of “various forms of exploitation, be it economic or other.”

The document also acknowledged that public powers are “responsible for the common good” and must “determine the number of refugees or immigrants which their country can accept.” The governments should consider “possibilities for employment and its perspectives for development but also the urgency of the need of other people.”

Another concern is a need to avoid “a serious social imbalance” that could be created “when an overly heavy concentration of persons from another culture is perceived as directly threatening the identity and customs of the local community that receives them.”

Pope Pius XII made similar observations when addressing American officials in 1946, saying then: “it is not surprising that changing circumstances have brought about a certain restriction being placed on foreign immigration” and “in this matter not only the interests of the immigrant but the welfare of the country also must be consulted.”

Such restrictions, he said, should still never forget “Christian charity and the sense of human solidarity existing between all men, children of the one eternal God and Father.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church sums up the Church’s position, teaching that prosperous nations have an obligation, “to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner.” The immigrant has an obligation “to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.”

“Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions,” it adds, without touting mass deportation as a moral ideal.

Capizzi said governments must “protect an actual common good.” For immigration law, he said this means “sometimes by allowing immigrants in to assist, and also by limiting immigration to allow immigrants’ integration into the host nation, and to protect the nation’s work force.”

Enforcement, he said, can occur after a person has unlawfully entered, but cases that require deportation should inspire more prudence.

Petri said the primary concern comes “when you’re talking about [people] who have been in this country for 20 years.”

“There is a moral difference between deporting hard and violent criminals and deporting, say, a husband and a wife who have just tried to make a living,” he said.

Bishop Mario Avilés. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Diocese of Brownsville

Vatican City, Dec 1, 2025 / 13:44 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Monday appointed Bishop Mario Avilés as the new bishop of Corpus Christi, selecting the Mexican-born Oratorian to lead the south Texas diocese. 

Avilés, 56, who has served as auxiliary bishop of Brownsville, Texas, since February 2018, will succeed Bishop Michael Mulvey, 76. Mulvey has led the Diocese of Corpus Christi since 2010.  

“We welcome Bishop-designate Avilés with open hearts and deep prayer,” Mulvey said in a statement after the Vatican announcement on Dec. 1. 

As the ninth bishop of Corpus Christi, Avilés will take responsibility for the spiritual leadership of more than 200,000 Catholics across a 12-county region in south Texas. 

“The Diocese of Brownsville will greatly miss Bishop Mario’s wise counsel and good judgment, his joyful presence in our parish communities, and his administrative skills in the service of our diocesan offices and Catholic schools. Yet at the same time we share in the special joy of the Diocese of Corpus Christi at the news of Bishop Mario’s appointment,” Brownsville Bishop Daniel Flores said in a statement. 

Avilés was born on Sept. 16, 1969, in Mexico City. In 1986, he joined the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, a pontifical society of apostolic life composed of priests and lay brothers founded in 1575, which now has more than 70 oratories worldwide.

He studied for the priesthood in Mexico City before continuing his education in Rome, earning bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and sacred theology at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum. He also holds a master’s degree in education administration and supervision and is a certified teacher in the state of Texas.

At the age of 28, Avilés was ordained a priest in the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle National Shrine in San Juan, Texas. He became parochial vicar at St. Jude Thaddeus Church in Pharr and worked in the Pharr Oratory Schools as a governance board member, teacher, principal, and rector. He also served as vicar, secretary, treasurer, and novice master for the Oratorian congregation. 

From 2000 to 2012, he served on the Permanent Deputation of the Confederation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri for Latin America. At the congregation’s 2012 General Congress, he was elected procurator general of the confederation, a Rome-based role representing Oratorian communities to the Holy See. He speaks Spanish, English, and Italian.

Avilés’ episcopal motto is “Caritas Dei diffusa est in cordibus nostris,” meaning “The love of God has been poured out into our hearts,” a reference to Romans 5:5 and the introit of the Mass for the feast of St. Philip Neri. His crest includes red roses honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe and his Mexican heritage as well as three gold stars drawn from the Neri family crest, symbolizing his long affiliation with the oratory.

“I ask all the faithful of the Diocese of Brownsville to pray for Bishop Mario as he prepares to take up his new mission of service in Corpus Christi,” Flores said. “May God bless Bishop Mario Avilés and may the maternal care of the blessed and ever-immaculate Virgin Mary accompany him always.”

Scenes of David as shepherd defending his flock from a lion and a bear at the base of the Tickhill Psalter’s Tree of Jesse. / Credit: Courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum

New York City, New York, Nov 30, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Part of the New York Public Library’s Spencer Collection, the Tickhill Psalter is on view throughout Advent and Christmas at The Morgan Library & Museum in its exhibit “Sing a New Song: The Psalms in Medieval Art and Life.” A full-page Jesse Tree introduces the Psalms in the Tickhill Psalter, a 14th-century illuminated manuscript from the Augustinian Worksop Priory in Nottinghamshire, England.

David appears in the historiated B of Psalm 1, providing a conceptual link to scenes from his life in the Jesse Tree on the facing page. “Beatus vir,” or “Blessed is the man,” the first stanza opens in celebration of the one who delights in God’s law, concluding: “That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither, — what they do prospers.” 

These words and their historiated B, with its visual link to the facing page, highlight David as key author of the Psalms and their prefiguration of Christ, the good fruit of the Jesse Tree, a theme common to medieval illuminated manuscripts.

The central panel of a 1490 Flemish triptych with scenes from the life of Saint Augustine contextualizes the exhibit. This five-by-five-foot oil on wood painting references Augustine’s use of allegory, essential to his understanding of scripture and interpretation of the psalms as prophecy. One scene captures Augustine’s realization of the Trinity as boundless mystery that dwarfs human understanding, allegorized by a child trying to pour the sea into a hole in the sand. 

In the book accompanying the exhibit, Morgan curator Deirdre Jackson extends the psalms’ significance to this triptych through a reference to a surviving panel housed in Ireland that shows Augustine on his deathbed. It’s a scene described by contemporary bishop Possidius of Calama, who said that Augustine “ordered those psalms of David which are especially penitential to be copied out and, when he was very weak, used to lie in bed, facing the wall where the written sheets were put up, gazing at them and reading them, and copiously and continuously weeping as he read.”

In his book “The Tickhill Psalter and Related Manuscripts,” 20th-century art historian Donald Drew Egbert speculates that the Tickhill Psalter was decorated by highly skilled illuminators working for Augustinian monasteries and patrons of Augustinian houses during a high point of book arts in England.

This high point inspired a trend of books as personalized treasures, best exemplified in this exhibit by St. Thomas More’s prayer book. Containing much of his own writing in the margins, it consists of a Book of Hours and a Psalter and was with him in the Tower of London while he awaited execution. More’s notes during that time show his preoccupation with the psalms of David’s tribulations. Beside Psalm 87:5-10, “a man without help … in the dark places, and in the shadow of death,” More writes, “in severe tribulation and in prison.”

More’s thoughts in distress demonstrate the appeal of David’s story to the human heart, a reality repeatedly expressed throughout the treasures of this exhibit. In the Tickhill Psalter’s Jesse Tree, David is encircled by branches springing from a tree that grows out of his father, Jesse, sprawled in an active sleep, his elbow supporting a hand planted against his head as though dreaming of all that is to come. 

The branches of the tree wind around David and directly overhead to encircle the Virgin and Child, tracing Christ’s lineage through Mary to the House of David. At the top, the branches surround Christ enthroned in majesty, fulfilling the promise of victory over sin and death foreshadowed in the psalms.

David strikes a joyous pose and plays a harp in celebration, and foliage on either side of the main branch wraps around prophets who unfurl scrolls to hint at mysteries about to be foretold in the reading of the psalms.

Beneath the figure of Jesse, two separate depictions of David protecting his sheep from wild animals cast his actions as allegory in the fight against evil, segueing to his likeness in the historiated B, dancing and singing his story into the Psalms to animate their prefiguration of Christ.

Advent candles. / Credit: Romolo Tavini/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Nov 30, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

Advent begins this year on Sunday, Nov. 30. Most Catholics — even those who don’t often go to Mass — know that Advent involves a wreath with candles, possibly a “calendar” of hidden chocolates, and untangling strings of Christmas lights. But Advent is much more than that. Here’s an explainer of what Advent is really about.

What is Advent?

The people of Israel waited for generations for the promised Messiah to arrive. Their poetry, their songs and stories, and their religious worship focused on an awaited savior who would come to them to set them free from captivity and to lead them to the fulfillment of all that God had promised.

Israel longed for a Messiah, and John the Baptist, who came before Jesus, promised that the Messiah was coming and could be found in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

Advent is a season in the Church’s life intended to renew the experience of waiting and longing for the Messiah. Though Christ has already come into the world, the Church invites us to renew our desire for the Lord more deeply in our lives and to renew our desire for Christ’s triumphant second coming into the world.

Advent is the time in which we prepare for Christmas, the memorial of Jesus Christ being born into the world. Preparations are practical, like decorating trees and gift giving, but they’re also intended to be spiritual.

During Advent, we’re invited to enter more frequently into silence, into prayer and reflection, into Scripture, and into the sacramental life of the Church — all to prepare for celebrating Christmas.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says the goal of Advent is to make present for ourselves and our families the “ancient expectancy of the Messiah ... by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming.”

What does the word ‘Advent’ mean?

Advent comes from the Latin “ad + venire,” which means, essentially, “to come to” or “to come toward.” “Ad + venire” is the root of the Latin “adventus,” which means “arrival.”

So Advent is the season of arrival: the arrival of Christ in our hearts, in the world, and into God’s extraordinary plan for our salvation.

So, it’s four weeks long?

Advent is a slightly different length each year. It starts four Sundays before Christmas. But because Christmas is on a fixed date and could fall on different days of the week, Advent can be as short as three weeks and a day or as long as four weeks.

Does Advent mark a ‘new year’?

The Church’s feasts and celebrations run on a yearlong cycle, which we call the “liturgical year.” The “liturgical year” starts on the first Sunday of Advent. So it’s a new liturgical year when Advent starts. But the Church also uses the ordinary calendar, so it would probably be a bit weird to have a “New Year’s Eve” party the night before Advent starts.

What is the significance of the Advent wreath?

The Catholic Church has been using Advent wreaths since the Middle Ages. Lighting candles as we prepare for Christmas reminds us that Christ is the light of the world. And the evergreen boughs remind us of new and eternal life in Christ, the eternal son of the Father.

It is definitely true that Germanic people were lighting up candle wreaths in wintertime long before the Gospel arrived in their homeland. They did so because candle wreaths in winter are beautiful and warm. That a Christian symbol emerged from that tradition is an indication that the Gospel can be expressed through the language, customs, and symbols of cultures that come to believe that Christ Jesus is Lord.

One candle is pink on the wreath — why?

There are four candles on the Advent wreath. Three are purple and lit on the first, second, and fourth Sundays of Advent. The pink candle is lit on the third Sunday of Advent, which we call Gaudete Sunday. On that Sunday, in addition to the pink candle, the priest wears a pink vestment, which he might refer to as “rose.”

Gaudete is a word that means “rejoice,” and we rejoice on Gaudete Sunday because we are halfway through Advent. Some people have the custom of throwing Gaudete parties, and this is also a day on which Christmas carolers may begin caroling door to door.

The three purple candles are sometimes said to represent prayer, fasting, and almsgiving — the three spiritual disciplines that are key to a fruitful Advent.

Is it wrong to sing Christmas songs during Advent?

No, but there are a lot of great Advent hymns and songs, such as “O Come O Come Emmanuel,” “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus,” “O Come Divine Messiah,” “Come Thou Fount,” and “Hark! A Thrilling Voice Is Sounding.”

When should the tree go up?

When to put up the tree is a decision that families decide on their own. Some people put up their tree and decorate it on the first Sunday of Advent to make a big transformation in their home and get them into “preparing for Christmas” mode.

Some put up the tree on the first Sunday of Advent, put on lights the next Sunday, ornaments the next, and decorate it more and more as they get closer to Christmas.

Some put up the tree on Gaudete Sunday, as a kind of rejoicing, and decorate it in the weeks between Gaudate and Christmas.

When the tree goes up and gets decorated is up to the individual and family, but having a Christmas tree is a big part of many people’s Advent traditions.

This story was first published in November 2019 and has been updated.

null / Credit: Lisa Missenda/Shutterstock

Denver, Colorado, Nov 29, 2025 / 12:36 pm (CNA).

The first Sunday of Advent 2025 is tomorrow, Nov. 30, less than four weeks before Christmas this year, and while the Church provides this time to allow you to be caught by the joy of the Incarnation, you can be easily caught by surprise that it is Christmas. To help remedy this surprise, the Church provides songs, signs, and symbols to enter into the season of Advent more fruitfully.

Here are three ways the Church teaches us about the meaning of the season:

Advent hymns

Many of the customary hymns for Advent highlight the movement of the soul toward what Pope Francis termed in a homily on Advent as a “horizon of hope.” No hymn epitomizes this better than “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” with its overtones of expectation and its mournful remorse over the state of man, captive to sin. The cultivation of hope and expectation is also seen in Advent hymns such as “O Come Divine Messiah” and “People Look East.” 

The commingled darkness and hope that God will fulfill his promises, a theme characteristic of Advent, deepens with songs like the Spanish carol “Alepun.” The lyrics of “Alepun” move the faithful into an experience of waiting with a pregnant Blessed Virgin Mary while the rhythm and percussion evoke donkey hooves clattering across the plains of Israel to Bethlehem.

Church decor

Advent is a season of penance marked by joy and, in many ways, a little Lent. This is why the colors of purple and pink — with their ties to penance and the Lord’s passion, and the joy of Laetare Sunday when Lent is almost over — are the colors of Advent. But did you know that the deep purple of Advent has a blue hue to it to teach the faithful in symbol about the Marian heart of the season?

The lack of church decor also teaches about the penitential nature of the season. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, the lack of flowers on the altar, the restrained use of instruments, and the absence of the resounding and angelic Gloria all lead to a deliberate emptiness.

The emptiness will first be filled on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, and, later, flowers will be allowed on Gaudete Sunday as the first expression of the festivity of the coming Christmas.

Saints and solemnities 

Following the solemnity of Christ the King, Advent begins with echoes of the power of Christ coming in glory before it stretches forward to the humble beginnings of the mystery of the Incarnation.

This means there is a certain focus the Church helps people enter into even in the way the liturgical calendar is marked by very few memorials of saints: just five in the course of the four weeks, most of whom are deeply embedded in the celebration of and preparation for Christmas in various countries.

St. Nicholas is the best known of the five: the generous bishop whose gifts inspired generations of lore and giving. St. Lucy, whose desire to give charity to prisoners in the catacombs meant she wore candles in her hair to free her hands, is another well-known saint with connections to Christmas whom we celebrate in Advent.

The Church also shows forth the importance of Mary during this season, which places her Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8, a solemnity and holy day of obligation, at the very beginning of the liturgical year. Combined with the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec. 12, the Church shows forth what God has wrought in a soul full of grace — a foreshadowing of the entire mystery of salvation in one soul.

Though there are many more signs and symbols that communicate the meaning of Advent, these can assist you as you enter the season of expectation, building anticipation for the celebration of Christmas so it doesn’t catch you by surprise.

This story was first published on Nov. 28, 2022, and has been updated.