St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church and Divine Infant of Prague Mission

Volunteers at Mount Saint Mary College collected more than 800 toys for their annual toy drive in Newburgh, New York, in December 2024. / Credit: Lee Ferris

CNA Staff, Dec 25, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Multiple Catholic groups and organizations this year have collected and distributed Christmas presents to children and families in need — some of them continuing yearslong traditions ensuring that even those without means are able to put something under the tree on Christmas morning.

Father Greg Fluet, who serves as vice president for mission and ministry at Mount Saint Mary College (MSMC) in Newburgh, New York, told CNA that the school runs a student-driven gift program that distributes hundreds of presents every year to children. 

“It’s an incredible thing,” he said. “We’ve been doing this for quite a number of years now. This year we collected over 800 toys that we gave to Catholic Charities in New York.”

“It’s something that we strongly believe at MSMC, that no child should be without a toy at Christmastime,” he said. 

“Obviously, we can only do a small part, a very small little thing,” Fluet acknowledged. “But boy, it will make a difference in the life of one child and one family. It’s something that students do a great job with.” 

Much of the school community, from the athletics department to the student government, gets involved in the effort, the priest said. 

“We collect donations from the local community,” he said. “The students bring in the toys, but we also receive monetary donations. We don’t go out and solicit, we simply announce the annual toy drive. The kids are great at making posters.” 

“They had a picture of me in my cassock and a Santa Claus hat,” he said, laughing. “It’s perfect.” 

Fluet said the coronavirus crisis several years ago launched a new way to collect gifts that the school still utilizes.

“During COVID, we went virtual and set up a gift registry through Amazon,” he said. ”And we still do that now.”

‘It could be one kid or up to nine’

In New York City, Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens utilized the parish basement at St. Vincent Ferrer Church to offer toys and gifts for city residents in need. 

“For many children, this is the only gift that will be under their tree this year,” Catholic Charities outreach worker Debbie Hampson told Current News. 

“We’ve had parents crying because of the fact that they’re able to provide at least a gift for their child,” she said. 

“It’s a beautiful blessing. I thank God,” one shopper told the news station.

Students in Michigan last week also partnered with Catholic Charities to distribute presents to families. And in the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, approximately 5,000 children were projected to receive presents from the “Christmas Gifts for Kids” program, an initiative spearheaded by several local organizations including the diocesan Catholic Social Services. 

“There are a lot of people out there that can’t afford gifts, especially with today’s economy. This helps a lot of families,” volunteer Jessica Bruno told the diocese. 

The program held toy distributions on Dec. 15–16. “About 2,000 families” registered for the gift program, the diocese said. 

Similar efforts, meanwhile, were undertaken in Nevada and North Carolina.

Father down south, Tony Nochim, a spokesman for St. Vincent de Paul Louisville in Kentucky, said the charitable organization has been running its annual “Santa Shop” for nearly 30 years. 

The organization normally houses and feeds community members in need, Nochim said; over the past year it served more than 126,000 individuals. This year’s gift exchange, meanwhile, was the 28th such event.

“It’s a mini-mall setup,” he said. “Parents or guardians register for their kids. It could be one kid or up to nine.” 

“This past year we were able to serve 1,159 children from 409 families,” he said. “That’s been our largest turnout yet.”

The program is run by a few hundred volunteers, he said. The offerings at the shop, meanwhile, go well beyond just toys. 

“Shoppers will walk with one of our volunteers — an ‘elf’ — to receive stuffed animals, toys, sports equipment, hair accessories, board games, winter coats, stocking stuffers,” he said. “We can wrap their gifts as well.”

Nochim said parents are “always super grateful” for the event.

“They all come from different situations,” he said. “Whether they’re coming for the first time or for a while, they’re grateful for the opportunity to be able to put presents under their Christmas trees for their kids.”

Fresco of the Holy Family in Dobling Carmelite Monastery in Vienna, Austria. The Church celebrates the feast of the Holy Family this year on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024. / Credit: Renata Sedmakova/Shutterstock

Denver, Colo., Dec 25, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

The Catholic calendar has several ways to divide the Christmas season. The Church’s Western liturgical tradition sees Christmas as an octave, an eight-day celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.

The octave of Christmas begins on Christmas itself, the feast of the Nativity of the Lord. It ends on the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, on Jan. 1, which this season falls on a Wednesday in the new year of 2025.

The drama of this time of the Catholic liturgical calendar even includes changes to the liturgical vestments of the clergy.

During these eight days of Christmas, clergy wear white during the Mass.

But there are exceptions when clergy wear red, the symbol of martyrdom: the feast of St. Stephen, Dec. 26, and the feast of the Holy Innocents, Dec. 28.

As the Book of Acts recounts, St. Stephen was a deacon who was the first martyr after the resurrection of Jesus. He was killed for preaching Christ as the fulfillment of the Old Testament. One of the witnesses of his death was a man named Saul, the future St. Paul.

The Holy Innocents, too, are considered martyrs. They died in place of Jesus when Herod sought to kill all boys under 2 years old.

On Dec. 27 the Church marks the feast of St. John the Apostle, Jesus’ “beloved disciple.” John was a great evangelist and credited with authoring the Gospel of John and three letters of the New Testament. Many credit him with authoring the Book of Revelation.

The feast of the Holy Family continues the story of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph with the flight into Egypt. It usually falls on the Sunday after Christmas.

The solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, looks to the role of Mary in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. She is the “Theotokos,” literally the God-bearer. She does not simply carry Jesus’ human nature, nor is she a vessel for his divinity alone. Because Jesus’ divine and human natures are united, she is truly the Mother of God.

The Christmas octave is when so many people have time to rest from a busy year and to spend time with family. One fitting way to observe the octave is to attend daily Mass and prayerfully reflect on the Mass readings.

This story was first published on Dec. 25, 2022, and has been updated.

Pope Francis carries the statue of the Child Jesus to place in the Nativity scene inside St. Peter's Basilica at the end of Mass on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2024, surrounded by children dressed in traditional clothing from their countries. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Dec 24, 2024 / 17:20 pm (CNA).

Hope lives, Pope Francis said in his homily for Christmas Eve Mass at the Vatican as he reflected on the incredible fact that the infinite God became a small Child.

“God is Emmanuel, he is God-with-us,” the pope said in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 24. “The infinitely great has become small; the divine light has shone through the darkness of the world; the glory of heaven has appeared on earth. And how? In the littleness of a Child. And if God comes, even when our hearts resemble a poor manger, then we can say: Hope is not dead, hope is alive, and it envelops our lives forever.”

The 88-year-old Pope Francis presided over Mass during the Night for the feast of the Nativity of the Lord after opening the Holy Door of the basilica to officially start the 2025 Jubilee Year.

With the opening of the Holy Door, the pontiff said, “each of us can enter into the mystery of this proclamation of grace.”

“This is the night when the door of hope has opened wide on the world; this is the night when God says to each one: There is hope for you too!” he said in his Christmas homily.

Francis said the jubilee, which has the theme “pilgrims of hope,” is an opportunity for all people to have hope in the Gospel, hope in love, and hope in forgiveness.

“It invites us to rediscover the joy of the encounter with the Lord, calls us to spiritual renewal, and commits us to the transformation of the world, so that this may truly become a jubilee time,” he underlined.

The world really needs hope right now, Pope Francis continued, especially amid wars, the bombing of hospitals and schools, and the machine-gunning of children.

While symptoms of a cold kept the pope indoors on the weekend before Christmas, he was well enough on Tuesday to open the Holy Door and preside over Christmas Eve Mass. It was also one of his first public appearances sporting hearing aids.

During the rite of opening of the Holy Door, Francis, seated in his wheelchair, leaned forward to knock on the gold door, which had been sealed since the last jubilee. As assistants opened the two sides of the door, the choir sang in Latin: “This is the Lord’s own gate. Where the upright enter. I enter your house, O Lord.”

The pope then passed through the door and into the basilica, followed by cardinals, bishops, priests, and ministers for Christmas Mass, as well as representatives of other Christian churches and Catholics from five continents wearing traditional clothing from their countries.

“On this night it is for you that the ‘holy door’ of God’s heart opens,” the pontiff said in his homily. “Jesus, God-with-us, is born for you, for me, for us, for every man and woman. And, you know, with him joy flourishes, with him life changes, with him hope does not disappoint.”

He said the task of Christians during the jubilee year is to bring hope into different situations of life, because Christian hope “is not the happy ending of a movie” to be passively awaited. “It is the Lord’s promise to be welcomed here, now, in this suffering and groaning earth.”

“Let us learn from the example of the shepherds: The hope born on this night does not tolerate the indolence of the sedentary and the laziness of those who have settled into their comforts — and so many of us, we are in danger of settling into our comforts,” Pope Francis warned.

“Hope,” he continued, “does not admit the false prudence of those who do not get off the hook for fear of compromising themselves and the calculation of those who think only of themselves; hope is incompatible with the quiet life of those who do not raise their voices against evil and against the injustices consummated on the skin of the poorest.”

Pope Francis opened the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica before Mass on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2024, officially launching the Jubilee Year 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Dec 24, 2024 / 14:10 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis opened the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica before Mass on Christmas Eve, officially launching the Jubilee Year 2025.

“O Christ, bright star of the morning, incarnation of infinite love, long-awaited salvation, sole hope of the world, illumine our hearts with your radiant splendor,” the pope prayed on Dec. 24 during the rite of opening of the Holy Door, which was preceded by readings from the Old and New Testaments, the singing of the O Antiphons, and the proclamation of Christmas.

“In this season of grace and reconciliation grant that we may put our trust in your mercy alone and discover once more the way that leads to the Father,” Francis continued. “Open our souls to the working of the Holy Spirit, that he may soften the hardness of our hearts, that enemies may speak to each other again, adversaries may join hands, and peoples seek to meet together.”

The rite to open the Holy Door — sealed since the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2016 — included the proclamation of a passage from the Gospel of John in which Jesus says: “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Seated in his wheelchair, the 88-year-old Pope Francis leaned forward to knock on the gold Holy Door. As assistants opened the two sides of the door, the choir sang in Latin: “This is the Lord’s own gate. Where the upright enter. I enter your house, O Lord.”

After breaking open the special door, Francis stopped at the threshold to pray briefly in silence as the bells of St. Peter’s Basilica pealed out into the cool Rome night.

The pope passed through the Holy Door into the basilica followed by cardinals, bishops, priests, and ministers for Christmas Mass as well as representatives of other Christian churches and Catholics from five continents wearing traditional clothing from their countries. The choir sang the Jubilee hymn, “Pilgrims of Hope.”

While symptoms of a cold kept the pope indoors on the weekend before Christmas, he was well enough on Tuesday to open the Holy Door and preside over Mass During the Night for the Nativity of the Lord. It was also one of Francis’ first public appearances sporting hearing aids.

The first ordinary jubilee since the Great Jubilee of 2000 is on the theme of hope, a virtue that “does not deceive or disappoint because it is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God’s love,” Pope Francis said in Spes Non Confundit, the “bull of indiction” formally announcing the holy year.

“For everyone, may the jubilee be a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the ‘door’ of our salvation, whom the Church is charged to proclaim always, everywhere, and to all as ‘our hope,’” he wrote.

The jubilee, a year filled with special spiritual, artistic, and cultural events in Rome, will conclude during the Christmas season 2025. An important part of the jubilee is the opportunity to receive a plenary indulgence — a grace granted by the Catholic Church through the merits of Jesus Christ to remove the temporal punishment due to sin.

Some of the biggest events of the Jubilee of Hope will be the canonizations of Blessed Carlo Acutis, during the Jubilee of Teenagers on April 27, and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, during the Jubilee of Young People on Aug. 3, and the Jubilee of Families, Children, Grandparents, and the Elderly on the weekend of May 30–June 1.

Pope Francis will also open a Holy Door in Rome’s Rebibbia Prison on the feast of St. Stephen on Dec. 26.

The Silent Night Memorial Chapel in Oberndorf, Austria, in December 2024. The building stands on the rubble of the original St. Nicholas Church, where “Silent Night” was first performed in 1818. / Credit: Rudolf Gehrig/EWTN News

Salzburg, Austria, Dec 24, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

As the Advent evening turns cold and dark, a young couple lingers atop a dike dividing two nations, their mulled wine steaming in the chill. One holds a phone, the other a cup, capturing a final selfie before heading to the train station. Recently married, they chose Europe for their honeymoon to experience a “real Christmas market” — a dream that led them to Salzburg and, now, to the tiny town of Oberndorf.

“We love the song ‘Silent Night,’ and since we were already in the area…” the bride explains, laughing as her husband snaps the photo. The train waits, but the allure of Oberndorf, the birthplace of the carol, holds them a little longer.

A Christmas pilgrimage

Oberndorf, nestled along the Salzach River, is about 30 minutes from Salzburg by car. Its famed Christmas market gleams with lights and fires. 

Here, on Christmas Eve in 1818, Father Joseph Mohr first strummed “Silent Night” on his guitar, accompanied by a melody composed by teacher Franz Xaver Gruber. More than 200 years later, the carol is sung in over 300 languages and was even praised by Pope Francis as his favorite Christmas song.

The song transcends the ordinary for visitors like Johannes Zeinler, a musician and organist at Klosterneuburg Monastery. “It’s almost like a hymn, something very special that brings people together,” he reflected. Zeinler noted the song’s “lullaby character” conveys a sense of security, drawing even those who struggle with its wide vocal range to church during Christmas.

The birthplace of ‘Silent Night’

Oberndorf embraces its heritage. The Silent Night Museum, Peace Path, and Christmas market are all built around the Silent Night Chapel, a modest octagonal building that replaced the original St. Nicholas Church demolished after floods in 1910. 

Josef Bruckmoser, vice president of the Silent Night Society, recounted how Mohr turned to Gruber for a melody after discovering the church organ was unplayable.

“It probably wasn’t first sung during midnight Mass but later at the Nativity scene,” Bruckmoser explained. The guitar, frowned upon as secular in 1818, became an instrument of sacred resonance through this carol.

A song of peace

Every Christmas Eve, thousands gather at the Silent Night Chapel to sing the carol in six languages, celebrating a melody that has endured centuries and conflicts. During World War I, the song united soldiers on opposing sides, marking brief moments of peace amid chaos. Bruckmoser believes it will hold special significance in today’s troubled times, especially in places like Ukraine.

“This longing for peace is universal,” reflected Father Nikolaus Erber, Oberndorf’s pastor. “It begins with each of us, this reconciliation Jesus brings.”

Watch the story of Pope Francis’ favorite Christmas carol on “EWTN News In Depth” below.

This story was first published by CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Greek icon of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, the Theotokos. / Credit: FWA Design/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Dec 24, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Earlier this month, the pro-abortion group “Catholics for Choice” stirred controversy online when it wrote in a tweet: “This holiday season, remember that Mary had a choice, and you should, too.”

The explicit pro-abortion message is meant to equate Mary’s choice to be the mother of God with a mother’s “choice” to have an abortion. “By explicitly seeking definitive consent from Mary to conceive of Christ, God empowered and uplifted her bodily autonomy,” the group claims on its website. “It’s clear that reproductive choice is God’s will.”

The Catholic Church, of course, has since its ancient beginnings forbidden abortion on the grounds that it constitutes homicide. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law” (No. 2271).

Catholics for Choice, meanwhile, has been strongly criticized by Church leadership for its explicitly un-Catholic advocacy: Cardinal Timothy Dolan several years ago said the group “is not affiliated with the Catholic Church in any way,” does “not speak for the faithful,” and is “funded by powerful private foundations to promote abortion as a method of population control.”

Yet the group’s misleading advocacy inadvertently underscored a key aspect of Catholic doctrine, one that has been part of the Catholic faith since it began 2,000 years ago: that Mary did indeed have a choice to assent to God’s will and become the “Theotokos,” the mother of God. 

‘Absolutely free’

Mark Miravalle, who holds the St. John Paul II Chair of Mariology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, told CNA that Mary was “absolutely free” in exercising the decision to become God’s mother on Earth. 

“She was free in exercising God’s greatest gift of free will,” he said. To suggest otherwise, he said, would be to imply that “she was somehow coerced or that it was some form of predestination, one that doesn’t allow for the expression of what makes us human, which is our freedom.”

The theologian noted that it was “a malicious equivocation” for Catholics for Choice to “imply that Mary’s ‘yes’ choice to bring our Redeemer into the world bears any similarity or moral equivalence to the tragic ‘no’ choice of a woman that leads to the direct killing of an innocent human being.” 

“Mary’s choice brings life and salvation,” he said. “The choice for abortion brings death and destruction. Morally, these two choices could not be more diametrically opposed, and thereby can never be honestly referred to as justification for the devastating evil of abortion.” 

Marian theologian Father Edward Looney, who serves in the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, said the question of Mary’s freedom to choose could arise from the nature of the Immaculate Conception. 

“Since she was chosen by God and God already had acted in her life with a prevenient grace, sparing her from original choice, one could rightly ask, did Mary have free choice?” he said. 

Yet the Blessed Mother did indeed have free will to choose, Looney said. 

“Her life was aligned with God to that extent that what God wanted for her she wanted,” he pointed out. “Aligning oneself with the will of God does not imply that one lacks free choice; rather it shows one wishes to cooperate with God and carry out his plan and will.” 

“God’s ways are better than our ways,” he added. “Mary wanted to remain a virgin. She was willing to remain a virgin and yet be a mother.”

Catholic theologians have long cited Mary’s freely chosen assent as a model for all Catholics. Then-Pope Benedict XVI said in a 2006 homily that “in being loved, in receiving the gift of God, Mary is fully active, because she accepts with personal generosity the wave of God’s love poured out upon her.” 

“In this too, she is the perfect disciple of her son, who realizes the fullness of his freedom and thus exercises the freedom through obedience to the Father,” the pope pointed out. 

That theme can be seen over the centuries: St. Augustine of Hippo, for instance, wrote that Mary effectively served as the mother of the Church, “because she cooperated by her charity, so that faithful Christians … might be born in the Church.”

Looney, meanwhile, cited the homily “In Praise of the Virgin Mother” by St. Bernard. In it, the 10th-century priest summed up the Virgin Mother’s response to the angel by imploring her: “Answer quickly, O Virgin. Reply in haste to the angel or rather through the angel to the Lord.”

“Answer with a word, receive the Word of God,” Bernard wrote. “Speak your own word, conceive the divine Word. Breath a passing word, embrace the eternal Word.”

A marble sculpture of St. Cajetan holding the infant Jesus identifies the spot where the saint’s vision occurred in the crypt of the Chapel of the Nativity, the side chapel to the right of the main altar of the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. / Credit: Courtney Mares/CNA

Vatican City, Dec 24, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

On Christmas Eve in 1517, a saint experienced a mystical vision in which the Blessed Virgin Mary placed the Christ Child in his arms as he offered his first Mass in Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major.

The little-known but profound experience of the newborn Jesus occurred within the storied walls of the Marian basilica’s Chapel of the Nativity, where St. Cajetan of Thiene prayed before the relics of Christ’s manger.

“In the hour of his most holy birth, I found myself in the true and material most holy Nativity,” St. Cajetan wrote to Sister Laura Mignani, an Augustinian nun and spiritual confidant. 

“From the hands of the timid Virgin, I took that tender child, the Eternal Word made flesh.”

St. Cajetan also recounted that St. Jerome, whose relics are said to rest in the basilica, appeared in the vision and encouraged him to embrace the child. 

“To encourage me was the most blessed Jerome, my father, a great lover of the Nativity, whose remains rest at the entrance of the same crib,” he wrote.

The vision, which St. Cajetan said occurred again on Jan. 1 and Jan. 6 during the feast days of the Circumcision and Epiphany, has remained a central spiritual moment for Congregation of Clerics Regular, or Theatines, the order of priests he co-founded.

In an interview with CNA in Rome, Father Juan Roberto Orqueida, the Theatine order’s chief archivist, revealed a copy of St. Cajetan’s letter, the original of which is housed in Naples.

Orqueida noted that St. Cajetan was ordained on Sept. 30, the feast of St. Jerome, and deliberately waited for three months in order to celebrate his first Mass on Christmas Eve in the Chapel of the Nativity.

The choice was deeply symbolic. The Basilica of St. Mary Major has long been a cornerstone of devotion to the Nativity of Christ. Known as “the Bethlehem of the West,” it houses a relic believed to be fragments of the manger in which Jesus was laid, which can now be venerated in the crypt beneath the basilica’s main altar.

Orqueida underlined that devotion to the Nativity of Christ remains a central part of the spirituality of the Theatine order today, “especially to see in the child Jesus, God who becomes part of our humanity, becomes man.”

St. Cajetan was one of the great reformers of the Church during the period of the Reformation. He is remembered as the “saint of divine providence,” a title reflecting his unwavering trust in God. He co-founded the Theatine order in 1524 to counter the corruption of his time, combining monastic poverty with active ministry caring for the poor and marginalized.

Father Enrico Danese described St. Cajetan’s humility and austerity: “He was blameless, chaste, meek, merciful, and full of all pity toward the sick. With his own hands he fed them and served them. As for his room, it was poor. There was a poor straw sack where he rested … His dress was of coarse cloth.”

St. Cajetan, canonized in 1671, is often depicted in art holding the infant Jesus, as is St. Anthony of Padua, who also had a mystical experience involving the Christ Child.

Near Rome’s Piazza Navona, the Basilica of Sant’Andrea della Valle, the Theatine order’s basilica in the Eternal City, a grand altarpiece painting and a statue depict St. Cajetan holding the infant Jesus.

At Christmastime, the Sant’Andrea basilica hosts an elaborate display of dozens of Nativity scenes, a tradition that echoes St. Cajetan’s devotion to the Christ Child.

Hidden in the crypt of the Chapel of the Nativity, to the right of the main altar in St. Mary Major, a marble sculpture of St. Cajetan holding the infant Jesus identifies the sacred spot where the vision occurred. (St. Ignatius of Loyola also chose to offer his first Mass in the same chapel in 1538.)

As pilgrims gaze upon the marble statue of Cajetan holding the Christ Child, they are invited to enter the mystery of the Nativity and, like the saint himself, embrace the tender and eternal Word made flesh.

The Theatine Order has offered this prayer to St. Cajetan to be prayed in front of any image of the baby Jesus during the Christmas season:

“Gentle baby Jesus, you, in an admirable vision, wanted to come from the embrace of your mother to those of your priest St. Cajetan, who was pleasing to you because of the holiness of his life and the great faith he always had in your providence. Through his intercession, turn to us your glance, which is part of the delight of the blessed in heaven, and listen to the prayer we send to you from the bottom of our hearts. We present to you the filial abandon which St. Cajetan had in you, confident that, through his intercession, everything we ask in front of your venerated image will be granted to us. Amen.”

A variety of fish dishes served on Christmas Eve. / Francesca Pollio Fenton / CNA

CNA Staff, Dec 24, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

There are numerous Christmas Eve traditions families around the world take part in, whether it’s watching a certain movie together, baking cookies for Santa, opening one present before going to bed, or eating a specific meal for dinner. The Feast of the Seven Fishes — in Italian “La Vigilia,” which means “The Eve” — is one of these Christmas Eve traditions.

So, where does this tradition come from?

This feast stems from the southern part of Italy and spans generations. Before 1861, Italy was made up of different regions. Each had its own government, however, and the southern regions were the poorest. This remained true before and after the unification of the country. The new unified government allocated many of its resources to northern Italy, which caused poverty and organized crime in the south. The area, however, though poor, was plentiful in fish since it was so close to the ocean.

The Feast of the Seven Fishes tradition is also tied to the Catholic Church’s practice of not eating meat during certain times of the year — for example, on Fridays during Lent and on the eve of some holidays.

The number seven is also symbolic in that it is repeated more than 700 times in the Bible, and in Catholicism there are seven sacraments, seven days of Creation, and seven deadly sins.

Although it is not an actual feast day on the Catholic liturgical calendar, it is definitely a feast in terms of the amount of food on the table!

Put all these things together and that is how the Feast of the Seven Fishes began in the 1900s.

Additionally, many Italians who fled the country due to poverty and immigrated to the United States brought this tradition with them so the feast continued among many Italian Americans.

So what is eaten during this seven-course meal?

While there is no specific menu, there are some guidelines that are followed. The first being, of course, having seven different fish dishes. These dishes can include any type of seafood including shellfish. Based on the fish you plan to prepare, you can then determine the different courses that typically include appetizers, a soup, pasta, a side salad, and the main entrees.

Many families may also include a palette cleanser, or a small fruit dish, before bringing out the highly-anticipated desserts!

Some dishes include “insalata di mare” (“ocean salad”), which typically has shrimp and mussels; “insalata di polipo” (“salad with octopus”); “capestante,” which are clam shells filled with salmon, shrimp, and bechamel sauce; “linguine con frutti di mare,” which is a pasta with several different kinds of fish; and other dishes that include fried fish, eel, crab, and lobster.

And we can’t forget dessert! “Struffoli” are little balls of fried dough covered in honey and sprinkles and are considered a Neapolitan dessert. Others include “mostaccioli” and “roccocò,” which are types of cookies, and “pandoro” and “panettone” are sweet breads.

This is just a glimpse into the variety of dishes southern Italian families will spend hours preparing ahead of Christmas Eve dinner. Each family has its own fish dishes and ways of cooking them; however, one thing is for sure: You can expect to be filled to the brim with delicious food before heading off to bed.

This story was originally published Dec. 23, 2022, and has been updated.

Deacon Nathan Ledoux and his friend Michael Figura at the National Art Gallery in London on Dec. 27, 2023. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Deacon Nathan Ledoux

Rome Newsroom, Dec 23, 2024 / 17:45 pm (CNA).

Christmas abroad for American seminarians studying in Rome can offer a chance to travel, serve Mass with the pope, or spend more time with their fellow students.

During the first three years of formation at the Pontifical North American College (NAC) on Rome’s Janiculum Hill, seminarians stay in Europe for the Christmas holiday and break from studies. During their last year as students, as ordained transitional deacons, they can go home.

Here’s what five NAC seminarians from the United States are doing this Christmas, what they’ve done in the past, and a little bit about their favorite Christmas hymns and traditions — including which traditional Italian Christmas sweet they prefer: pandoro or panettone.

Deacon Will Robbins, Diocese of Beaumont, Texas (fourth year at NAC)

Christmas this year: It’ll be a great joy to be able to go home this year after spending three Christmases away. I know I’ll be in my home parish, St. Ann Parish, for the about two weeks that I’m home, and the priest back home has already let me know I’ll be preaching and helping with Masses. So I’m just really looking forward to being able to one, be able to celebrate Christmas at home again, but also to be able to exercise diaconal ministry. It’ll be a great blessing to be able to be a deacon at home with my people that have supported me all these years and my faith community. I’m really looking forward to it.

Christmases past: I’ve done a whole mix of stuff. My first year was still COVID time, so it was not as easy to do stuff. That year I stayed in Rome itself for Christmas. We went to the Christmas Mass at 7 p.m. with the Holy Father, which turns out was his last full Mass to celebrate before he went into the wheelchair. So for me, that was a real grace to be able to be at that Mass and liturgy with him. We cooked ourselves a big breakfast dinner in the middle of the night afterward. And then that year, my family was supposed to come over for New Year, but because of COVID and all the testing, it got canceled at the last second. So a couple of us, we just found some stuff to do and visited some little towns around Rome and really got to make the city our own. During that time there weren’t as many pilgrims and travelers, so you could easily do things. It was a really great way to make Rome feel like home. 

Favorite Christmas tradition: As a kid, we would go to church on Christmas Eve, and then we’d come back and watch “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” while eating chicken and sausage gumbo. I’m from the Cajun part of Texas, down on the coast next to Louisiana, so you got these fun traditions thrown in. I tried to kind of bring it here [to the NAC] a little, so when we decorate our hallways for Christmas every year, I make a big pot of chicken and sausage gumbo to bring down to the hallway to have as we put the Christmas trees up and the lights, and just to bring that little bit of home to Rome.

Favorite Christmas song: At Christmas Mass, my favorite is “Adeste Fidelis.” It’s just such a grand hymn, and it’s so joyful. And they usually pull out all the stops on the organ. There’s just something about it that just lifts my soul up and kind of fills you deep inside with a lot of joy.

Pandoro vs. panettone: Pandoro, any day of the week. I am not a huge panettone fan, but I love a pandoro because you can dip it in your coffee.

Nathan Ledoux of the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island (third year at NAC)

Christmas this year: I’m going to Derry, Northern Ireland, to a parish that I served in my first summer [at the NAC]. I knew a priest in the Diocese of Derry, so he connected me and I was able to serve in their cathedral parish for a summer. So I’m going back to visit these folks for Christmas — which is a really great gift to me — and to see a bit of culture and learn about my own family. So it’ll be nice to reconnect with some folks at Christmas.

I’m getting petitions from home right now, so I’m going to bundle all those up and bring them to the Shrine of Our Lady of Knock. And I’m also planning to go to Fatima as well, to spend some time there in prayer and do a little kind of retreat in Portugal.

Christmases past: My first year I went to Paris with a couple of guys from [the NAC] and we knew a seminarian from the Foreign Mission Society of Paris who was serving in a parish, so we went to his parish Masses on Christmas Eve, which was just a wonderful time. They actually have a meal in between the Vigil Mass and the Mass during the Night for family or people who don’t have any family, who would not have a meal with somebody on Christmas. So we spent our Christmastime with these folks having a Christmas meal between our Masses in the evening. Last year I was actually in Rome, and I got to serve at Mass for the Holy Father, which was really great.

Favorite Christmas tradition: Something from home that we also continue here at the NAC is decorating. So actually our hallways [at the college] are decorated already for Christmas. But I think decorating, even when I did that as a kid, I knew something was coming. And even though I didn’t have a good understanding of what we were preparing for, the idea of putting up Christmas lights, the tree, having an Advent wreath and putting out little dolls and the Nativity scene and a little Christmas village, there was something really enjoyable about that, and I knew something important was coming.

Favorite Christmas song: “In the Bleak Midwinter” has always been a favorite. It’s talking about Christ’s humility in coming to Earth and this kind of quiet way that he enters into life as a man. And I think there’s something really kind of austere and reserved about that hymn that allows me to enter into the mystery that is God becoming a man and dwelling among us.

Pandoro vs. panettone: Pandoro is nice, but panettone is great! And as soon as the 25th goes by, it’s really inexpensive to buy. So we just stock it up and you have that for weeks on end. It’s amazing. It also comes in so many flavors. I mean, you can get it covered in pistachio and other things.

Deacon Bryce Baumann, Diocese of Dallas (fourth year at NAC)

Christmas this year: I’m going back to the United States like the other deacons. My sister just had her first baby, so I’m going to go back and baptize my niece. 

Christmases past: The year before that, my whole family came to Rome: parents, sister, and brother-in-law. We were going to go to the Christmas Eve Mass with Pope Francis, which was great, but as soon as my parents arrived, they realized my dad’s luggage didn’t come, so then they had to fill out a ticket to be able to get that worked out. And it was getting so late, we didn’t think we’d be able to make the Mass, which would have been so sad. As we told our taxi driver, “just drive to the Vatican.” We all met at St. Peter’s Basilica. We said, OK, we’ll try to get in — it was only a half hour before Mass and it’s a very packed Mass — so we were one of the last ones to be let in. It was the first time for my family in Europe, so that was really special.

Favorite Christmas tradition: My favorite tradition at home is my family going to midnight Mass. That’s what we always went to. And I would always serve at it. I would hold the thurible, with the incense. And my dad would often be a lector, and then my sister would be an usher. So it was kind of a family affair to help out with midnight Mass.

Favorite Christmas song: I’ll say “Angels We Have Heard on High.” I like to think about the choirs of angels adoring Our Lord as an example for us to also adore him. It’s beautiful.

Pandoro vs. panettone: So panettone is as good as fruitcake, which is bad, in my opinion. I think pandoro is absolutely superior.

Deacon Nicholas (Nico) Stellpflug, Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin (fourth year at NAC)

Christmas this year: I will be going back home to see my family and be in the Diocese of Green Bay for two weeks. I’m looking forward to being a deacon in the diocese, something that you don’t get the opportunity to do unless just a little bit before ordination, and to see my family, especially my niece and nephew, who are 4 and 2. I’ll be at my home parish for all three of the Christmas Masses that we have. And then I’ll be at other parishes in the diocese.

Christmases past: My first year I stayed [in Rome] and I went to the Holy Father’s Mass on Christmas Eve, and then a friend of mine from seminary back in the States visited. Then the other two years, I’ve been to a couple different places. Probably my favorite was being in Paris, which was beautiful because it was Paris, but also because my godparents lived there for seven years and my cousins were there, their sons were born there. My younger cousin is a twin, but his twin sister died before childbirth and she’s buried there, so I was able to go and visit her grave for the first time on Christmas Day two years ago.

Favorite Christmas tradition: My favorite Christmas tradition from back home is making Christmas candies with my sister and my mom, something we always do together. It was fun to make the sweets and eat them, but also just to spend time together was something that we look forward to every year.

Favorite Christmas song: The thing that comes to mind is Mannheim Steamroller’s “Christmas Celebration” album. I just remember very clearly listening to that album with my family around Christmastime, and especially driving back from my grandma and grandpa’s house on Christmas Eve, we would always listen to that.

Pandoro vs. panettone: I think I would say a good panettone. I like “Tre Maria,” that’s a good one.

Andrew Chase, Archdiocese of Baltimore (third year at NAC)

Christmas this year: This year I am going up to northeast Italy to explore the area around Trieste, which I have heard a great deal about from Italians that I have met in Rome who have highly recommended it. One of the plans is to go to the ancient Christian basilica of Aquileia, which has a number of tremendous mosaics that show what perhaps the ancient Church imagined as they were contemplating the faith. Later on, I am planning on heading further east to Hungary. One of my hopes is to make it to the Greek Catholic Marian shrine of Mariapocs in the Northeast of the country.

Christmases past: In my first year, I went to Slovakia for a little over a week, going across the country trying to find any records about my great-grandmother. Not much in my family was known about her except that she came from Slovakia, and so since I couldn’t be in person with my family for Christmas, I figured it might be nice if I could see if I could find something about this missing piece of my family history to share with my grandpa, mom, and aunts and uncles. I ended up meeting many incredible Slovaks during that journey, including a number of priests and religious who, while helping me look at the baptismal registries, gave me a great deal of encouragement, not only in finding her record but in life in general. By the end of the trip, I believe that I ended up finding her record of baptism in the town of Humenné, where the registry would seem to indicate her original last name before it was anglicized.

Favorite Christmas tradition: My grandma’s birthday is the 23rd, so we always do my grandma’s birthday party on Dec. 23, and then we have Christmas Eve with everyone on my dad’s side with Christmas Eve Mass, and we gather at my grandma’s house. Then on Christmas Day, we always wake up, and we would oftentimes go to Christmas Day Mass all together and then we just hang out as my grandfather on my mom’s side and my mom’s family would come over. It was just this whole set of three days that’s just a very intense time to hang out with family.

Favorite Christmas song: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” It’s more of an Advent song, but that’s my favorite song by far, because I always find it exhilarating waiting for Christmas and for Christ to come.

Pandoro vs. panettone: I’ve come to really like panettone, with raisins, or when they add in a lot of chocolate or other candied fruits. 

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article misspelled Deacon Bryce Baumann’s name and misidentified Nathan Ledoux as a deacon. It has been corrected.

The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, lights a candle in the Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrius in Gaza during his visit there on Dec. 22, 2024. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem

Jerusalem, Dec 23, 2024 / 17:15 pm (CNA).

The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, met with journalists for his Christmas press conference immediately following a visit to Gaza on Dec. 22, where he celebrated Mass and encouraged the Christians there to be a light in the darkness of war.

Approximately 400 Christians have taken refuge since the beginning of the war in Holy Family Parish, the only Catholic church in Gaza, according to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.

At the press conference, the cardinal said he wanted to announce again that Jesus was born “for you.” He came “not to impose obligations, like the rulers of the earth, like Caesar Augustus,” but “to seek all those who, like him, have no place in history, like the shepherds.” 

The press conference was not only a chance for the Latin patriarch to share an annual Christmas message but also an opportunity to share about his visit to the Catholic community in Gaza after Pope Francis noted over the weekend that the cardinal was unable to enter Gaza on Dec. 20 and referred to “machine-gunned children” and ongoing “cruelty” there.

“I finally entered; this is a fact. It is important to stick to the facts,” Pizzaballa said. “Entering Gaza is never easy — it is complicated with many issues, such as protocol and security, among others. However, there were also people who helped overcome the obstacles. This is what matters.”

He spoke with the pope on Sunday evening during his daily phone call to the parishioners of Gaza. 

“We greeted each other, but it lasted no more than 10 or 15 seconds; there was no time to argue,” he joked, and continued: “The pope has always been very clear. Perhaps we are not used to a pope who does not use many nuances… He called for the end of this war, he has asked many times for the release of the hostages, while also clearly condemning the disproportionate response and the consequences of the war on the civilian population.”

“This war, like all wars, is very cruel, and it has a very strong impact on everyone, on the entire population,” the patriarch added. 

A connoisseur of the Jewish world since his time of studies, Pizzaballa has established high-level relationships with religious leaders.

“The Christian-Jewish dialogue has been consolidated,” he highlighted. “It is not the first time it has gone through difficult moments. We must keep in mind one aspect that I consider important both from the Jewish and Catholic side: the desire for dialogue. And this desire is there. There are difficulties, but we will overcome them because we love each other and we want to continue on this important path.”

This is the second time the cardinal — the only one among religious representatives and international leaders — has entered Gaza since the war began. Compared with the first time, in May, the situation “has gotten much worse,” he said.

The small delegation from the patriarchate had to coordinate with both sides in order to avoid confusion because there were not many cars moving. “It’s important that everyone knows who is moving, who is there, in order to avoid misunderstanding and consequences,” the patriarch said.

What he saw in Gaza, the cardinal said, were piles of rubble, open sewers, and precarious sanitary conditions. In his ears was the constant buzz of drones and the sound of explosions and in his heart, a bittersweet feeling, a mixture of sadness and consolation.

“I saw a lot of life,” he said. “They are still able to smile and enjoy the simple things.”

Pizzaballa said he has decided to focus on life — like the barefoot children playing in the muck but who “still have the strength to laugh”; the men who ask for cigarettes, one of whom has lost everything, whose hearts are “free from feelings of hatred”; parents who “before food and a home, ask for school for their children. It means that they still are determined to continue, to invest their lives there.”

CNA previously reported on the initiative of study groups with the teachers who are taking refuge in the parish compound.

Pizzaballa pounded his fists on the chair: “We are determined; it is our mission, and it is a sign. Of course, we cannot have 1 million children, but it is clear that we have to start.”

The cardinal also expressed his thoughts on the exodus of Christians from Gaza and, more generally, from the West Bank.

“The Church doesn’t encourage emigration, not from Gaza, nor from any other place,” he stated. “On the contrary, we are helping them to remain, protecting them as much as we can. In any case, the Church always respects the freedom of its people. Some will leave. Not only is it possible, I think it’s probable. I did not perceive this desire among all of them. Some will leave, but the community will not disappear.”

 The photos of Pizzaballa’s visit tell the story of the welcome at the Latin Parish of the Holy Family, where he celebrated Christmas Mass in advance and blessed the Nativity scene and the Christmass tree. 

At the Mass, three children received their first holy Communion and three received the sacrament of confirmation. 

Pizzaballa then visited families, one by one, as well as the sick and people with disabilities, including children.

“I wanted to stay for a few hours, to be with them, visit where they are living, their conditions, how they live, what they need. And I never heard a word of anger. Never. Everything is destroyed in Gaza, but they are not destroyed. They are tired, but you can perceive life.”

The cardinal walked “what remains of the streets” to visit the Christian community at the nearby Church of St. Porphyrius. There, he lit a candle.

“You are the light of the world,” he told the faithful of Gaza in his homily. 

“The world that looks at you must see to whom you belong, whether you belong to the light or to darkness. When the world looks at you, it must notice that you are different. ... We are all proud of you, not only for what you do but because you have preserved your identity as Christians belonging to Jesus.”

Reached by CNA, the parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli, shared his joy at the visit.

“The word that sums it all up is ‘thank you.’ This is the word that people come to tell us. All the people, the families, came to ask for his blessing, for advice, to share their stories. He comforted everyone. He comforted the family of Nahida and Samar, who were killed a year ago by a sniper, by blessing their grave,” Romanelli said.

“We are waiting for Jesus, and just days before Christmas, we have experienced the presence of Jesus in the person of the patriarch,” one of the parishioners said to Romanelli. 

“The last few weeks have been very tough, even for the most optimistic,” the priest added. “This visit, the words of the patriarch about the Church not abandoning its children, have given new hope.”

On Dec. 24, in the afternoon, there will still be Christmas Mass. 

“After the celebration, we will go to the various rooms where the families live, singing Christmas carols and distributing some gifts,” Romanelli said. “We’ve tried to set aside some toys, and so we will surprise the children by bringing them a gift from baby Jesus.”

Pizzaballa’s message at the press conference can be viewed in its entirety here.