Sharing a “joyful noise” with their neighborhood and beyond, a group of students, teachers and staff of Shakopee Area Catholic School in Shakopee gathered in front of the building every afternoon for five days — Dec. 14-18 — ringing bells and singing.
It had been St. Casimir's tradition to leave their impressively large Christmas crib standing in the sanctuary, surrounded with evergreens, until the Feast of the Purification of Mary, on Feb. 2. But this year would prove to be exceptional.
Much as they did last Easter, Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Bishop Andrew Cozzens will offer a special blessing Christmas Day, greeting people for 90 minutes as the faithful drive up to the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul.
Four days after issuing a joint statement with another bishop saying the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines were acceptable and could be taken "as an act of charity," Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas, reiterated this message noting there had been some misunderstanding about it.
What had been separate Democratic and Republican coronavirus relief bills became a bipartisan effort thanks to Congress' Problem Solvers Caucus, according to a lobbyist for Network, a Catholic social justice lobby.
The Catholic bishop of Gboko, Nigeria, and the Knights of Columbus added their voices to a Dec. 17 congressional hearing spotlighting sectarian violence in Nigeria in which thousands of Christians have been killed simply for their faith identity.
Appealing for a worldwide commitment to initiating a "culture of care" for one another and for the environment, Pope Francis again called on nations to divert money from their military budgets to create a global fund to end hunger and promote development in the world's poorest nations.