The Church of St. Luke

A child holds a phone with the Replika app open and an image of an AI companion. Apps that promise to help recreate digital versions of deceased family members using AI pose a “spiritual danger” to Catholics and others who may use the technology in place of healthy grief, experts say. / Credit: Generated by an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system on Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Dec 27, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Apps that promise to help re-create digital versions of deceased family members using AI pose a “spiritual danger” to Catholics and others who may use the technology in place of healthy grief, experts say.

The AI company 2wai ignited a controversy on social media in November after it revealed its eponymous app, which will allow users to fabricate digital versions of their loved ones using video and audio footage.

App co-founder Calum Worthy said in a viral X post that the tech could permit “loved ones we’ve lost [to] be part of our future.” The accompanying video shows a family continuously interacting with the digital projection of a deceased mother and grandmother even years after she died.

The reveal of the app brought praise from some tech commentators, though there was also considerable negative reaction. Many critics denounced it as “vile,” “demonic,” and “terrifying,” with others predicting that the app would be used to ghoulish ends such as using dead relatives to promote internet advertisements. 

Tech ‘could disrupt the grieving process’

2wai did not respond to requests for comment on the controversy, though company CEO Mason Geyser told the Independent that the ad was deliberately meant to be “controversial” in order to “spark this kind of online debate.” 

Geyser himself said he views the app as a tool to be used with his children to help preserve the memories of earlier generations rather than as a means to having a relationship with an AI avatar. “I see it … as a way to just kind of pass on some of those really good memories that I had with my grandparents,” he said. 

Whether or not such an app is compatible with the Catholic understanding of death — and of more diffuse, esoteric topics like grief — is unclear. Father Michael Baggot, LC, an associate professor of bioethics at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, acknowledged that AI avatars “could potentially remind us of certain aspects of our loved ones and help us learn from their examples.”

But such digital replicas “cannot capture the full richness of the embodied human being,” he said, and they risk “distorting the dead’s legacy” by fabricating conversations and interactions beyond the dead’s control. 

Catholic leaders have regularly remarked on both the heavy burden of grief and its redemptive power. Pope Francis in 2020 acknowledged that grief is ”a bitter path,” but it can “serve to open our eyes to life and the sacred and irreplaceable value of each person,” while helping one realize “how short time is.”

In October, meanwhile, Pope Leo XIV told a grieving father that those mourning the death of a loved one must “remain connected to the Lord, going through the greatest pain with the help of his grace.” 

The Resurrection, he said, “knows no discouragement or pain that imprisons us in the extreme difficulty of not finding meaning in our existence.”

Brett Robinson, the associate director of the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, warned that there is “spiritual danger” in technology that outwardly appears to bring loved ones back from the dead. 

Technology is not a neutral product, he said, but one that “has a profound ability to shape our perception of reality, regardless of the content being displayed.”

“In the case of re-presenting dead loved ones we meet one such case where prior conceptions about identity, vitality, and presence are being reshaped along technological lines,” he said.  

“If someone who no longer exists in human form, body and soul, can be ‘resurrected’ from an archive of the digital traces of their life, who or what are we actually engaging with?” he said. 

Robinson argued that present modes of technology have echoes of earlier centuries “when the cosmos was filled with presence — the presence of God, of angels, of demons, and of magic.” 

The problem at hand, he said, is that the “new magic” of modern technology “is divorced from the hierarchical, ordered cosmos of creation and the spiritual realm.”

Donna MacLeod has worked in grief ministry for decades. She first became involved in Catholic grief counseling after the death of her youngest daughter in 1988. The funeral ministry evolved into Seasons of Hope, a grief support program for Catholics that “focuses on the spiritual side of grieving the death of a loved one.”

MacLeod said the program is one of “hospitality and spirituality” that arises in an intensive community of individuals suffering from grief. 

“It builds parish communities,” she said. “People discover they’re not alone. That’s a big deal to grieving people — a lot of people feel very alone in their loss.” 

“And society expects everybody to move on,” she continued. “But grief has its own timetable. Those who are grieving start to understand that the Lord is with them and that he really cares about them. There’s hope and healing at the end of it.” 

“It’s doing what Christ asks us to do — walking with each other in hard times,” she said. 

Regarding the AI avatar technology, MacLeod acknowledged that those who have lost a loved one make it a “very high priority” to “seek connection” with the deceased. 

“People will say, ‘I’m not taking my loved one’s voice off of my answering machine,’” she said. “Or we have people taking out videos of family gatherings so they can see their loved ones again.”

“Everyone seeks to still be connected with their loved ones,” she said. “It’s related to our Catholic faith and the communion of saints — people feel this spiritual connection with their loved ones.”

MacLeod described herself as “on the fence” about how people could be affected by AI avatar apps. There could be “emotional and psychological risks interacting with AI versions of loved ones,” she admitted, though she said that many users “might look at it, but not get hung up on it,” unless they have underlying mental health issues. 

But “where the difficulty arises is that some people get stuck in the denial stage,” she said. Those suffering from grief can get desperate in such circumstances, she said, and sometimes resort to means such as mediums or psychics, which MacLeod pointed out the Church explicitly forbids. 

Whether or not AI avatars fall under that forbidden category is unclear. The Catechism of the Catholic Church expressly outlaws any efforts at “conjuring up the dead.” The use of mediums or clairvoyants “all conceal[s] a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings,” the Church says. 

Baggot said apps like 2wai’s “assemble data about the deceased without preserving the person.” 

He further argued that AI avatars “could also disrupt the grieving process by sending ambiguous signals about the survival of the departed person.”

Robinson, meanwhile, acknowledged that it is “good to want to connect to deceased loved ones,” which he pointed out we do “liturgically through prayer and memorials that honor those souls that are dear to us.” 

He warned, however, against “technocratic creators of complex computational machines that are becoming indistinguishable from magic.”

Such technology, he said, alters “the spiritual order” in ways “that are disordered and disembodied from the ritual forms that sustain religion and our belief that our eternal destiny rests with God in heaven and not in a database.”

Sister Carla Venditti of the Sacred Heart of Jesus helps women and girls who are victims of human trafficking. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Giulio Gargiullo

CNA Staff, Dec 27, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Sister Carla Venditti of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus lives in Avezzano, Italy, and is known as the “anti-trafficking nun.”

Vladimir Borovikovsky (1757–1825), “St. John the Evangelist,” ca. 1804-1809. / Credit: Public domain

National Catholic Register, Dec 27, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

St. John, both an apostle and an evangelist, played a very prominent role in many of the New Testament narratives. He was part of an inner-circle trio with his brother James (the Greater) and Peter, partaking in privileged incidents with Jesus: the raising of Jairus’ daughter, the Transfiguration, and the agony at Gethsemane.

John and his brother James were nicknamed “Sons of Thunder” by Jesus. Exactly why they were given this title is not explained. However, the two brothers did exhibit at least two instances of audacious behavior: wanting to bring fire from heaven down upon some Samaritans who refused to listen to the message of Christ and asking Jesus for special places of honor in heaven.

Within the Gospel of John, there are five different references to “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (13:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 21:20). Over the centuries, the vast majority of biblical scholars have deemed this beloved disciple to be John himself. These mysterious references actually point to a less thunderous personality; for example, the beloved disciple resting his head on Jesus’ chest at the Last Supper and Jesus requesting the beloved disciple to take care of his mother, Mary.

Tradition places John in Ephesus (in modern Turkey) after Pentecost, where he cared for Mary and perhaps wrote the fourth Gospel. John’s Gospel stands out from the other three, offering a unique portrayal of Christ and his message. This Gospel is symbolized with an eagle; its opening words urge the thoughts of readers to soar upward — sort of like an eagle — toward God (John 1:1).

It is probable that either John himself or a disciple of his wrote the three Epistles of John. Many claim that he also wrote the Book of Revelation, a work chock full of mystical imagery, during an exile on the island of Patmos (Greece).

John is believed to have lived to an old age and died of natural causes. A basilica in Ephesus reportedly held his remains for a time, but that church is now in ruins.

The feast of St. John the Evangelist is Dec. 27. He is the patron of many things including writers, booksellers, and friendships. 

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

Cardinal Rolandas Makrickas closes the Holy Door at St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome on Dec. 25, 2025. | Credit: Vatican Media

, Dec 26, 2025 / 16:20 pm (CNA).

The Holy Door of St. Mary Major Basilica, one of five in Rome for the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope, was the first to close.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. / Credit: Rachel Malehorn/wikimedia CC BY SA 3.0

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 26, 2025 / 15:00 pm (CNA).

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett says her Catholic faith “grounds her” and gives her “perspective.”

During an interview with Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Barrett tackled a number of topics including free speech, the reversal of Roe v. Wade, and her law career. The U.S. Supreme Court justice also opened up about her Catholic faith, including how she prays and her relationship with the saints.

A ‘love for the saints’

When asked which spiritual figures have influenced her, Barrett shared about her relationships with the saints, specifically her love for St. Catherine of Siena and St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

“My favorite was Thérèse of Lisieux. We have a daughter named Thérèse,” Barrett said. “I was captivated when I was young by how young she was when she just completely gave her life over to the Lord.”

“Her Little Way is so accessible to so many,” she said. “I minored in French and I studied in France. It was actually Lisieux, where I was … that’s where I decided to go that summer. So I spent a lot of time in the gardens of the Martin home. I think those examples of faith were important to me.”

“One thing that we’ve tried to do with our children is really cultivate in them a love for the saints, because I do think they are great examples that can inspire our love of the faith.”

Barrett said she has “prayed in different ways at different phases” of her life. As a law professor, she often prayed a “lectio divina.” Now as a judge, she said she tends “to do more reading reflections” and will “read the daily ‘Magnificat.’”

A “personal struggle in these last couple of years has been an ability to quiet my mind so that I can pray in a very deep and focused way,” she said. Listening to reflections “helps me, if my mind is wandering, to be able to focus on reading something and the task at hand.”

The Constitution and the common good

Despite her faith, Barrett also discussed how it is not what can influence her decisions as a judge. “The Constitution distributes authority in a particular way,” she said. “The authority that I have is circumscribed.”

“I believe in natural law, and I certainly believe in the common good,” Barrett said. “I think legislators have the duty to pursue the common good within the confines of the Constitution and respect for religious freedom.”

“You have to imagine, ‘What if I didn’t like the composition of the court I was in front of, the court that was making these decisions, and they view the common good quite differently than I do?’ That’s the reason why we have a document like the Constitution, because it’s a point of consensus and common ground.”

“And if we start veering away from that and reading into it our own individual ideas of the common good, it’s going to go nowhere good fast.”

Roe v. Wade

Barrett said both people who agreed with the Dobbs decision and those who did not “may well assume” she cast her vote based on her “faith” and “personal views about abortion.”

“But especially given the framework with which I view the Constitution, there are plenty of people who support abortion rights but who recognize that Roe was ill-reasoned and inconsistent with the Constitution itself,” she said. 

Barrett further discussed “the trouble with Roe.” 

“There’s nothing in the Constitution … that speaks to abortion, that speaks to medical procedures,” she said. “The best defense of Roe, the commonly thought defense of Roe, was that it was grounded in the word ‘liberty’ and the due process clause, that we protect life, liberty, and property and it can’t be taken away without due process of law.”

The “word ‘liberty’ can’t be an open vessel or an empty vessel in which judges can just read into it whatever rights they want, because otherwise, we lose the democracy in our democratic society,” Barrett said. 

The problem with Roe “is that it was a free-floating, free-wheeling decision that read into the Constitution.”

The reason why it’s difficult to amend the Constitution is because “it reflects a super-majority consensus,” she said. “The rights that are protected in the Constitution, as well as the structural guarantees that are made in that Constitution, are not of my making. They are ones that Americans have agreed to.”

“Roe told Americans what they should agree to rather than what they have already agreed to in the Constitution.”

Free speech and freedom of religion 

“I think the First Amendment protects, guarantees, forces us to respect one another and to respect disagreement,” Barrett said. “There’s a tolerance of different faiths, a tolerance of different ideas … we can see what would happen if you didn’t have the guarantee to hold that in place.”

“Think about what’s happening with respect to free speech rights in the U.K.,” Barrett said. “Contrary opinions or opinions that are not in the mainstream are not being tolerated, and they’re even being criminalized. Because of the First Amendment, that can’t happen here.”

If the United States were to have “an established religion, then it would be very difficult to simultaneously guarantee freedom of religion because there would be one voice with which the government was speaking,” Barrett explained. 

An established religion would “sacrifice the religious liberty,” she said. “But by the same token, the religious liberty, it would become self-defeating if the logical end to it was to force everyone to see things your way.”

Discernment 

At the end of the conversation, Barron asked Barrett what advice she would give young Catholics who want to be involved in public life, law, or the government. 

“Discern first,” Barrett said. Ask: “What are you called to do?” 

“If you do feel like this is a vocation and something you’re called to do, I think it can never be the most important thing,” Barrett said. “I think being grounded in your faith and who you are and being right in the Lord, so that you’re not tossed like a ship everywhere because there are enormous pressures.”

Faith “grounds me as a person,” Barrett said. “Not because my faith informs the substance of the decisions that I make, it emphatically does not, but I think it grounds me as a person. It’s who I am as a person.”

“So it’s what enables me to keep my job in public life in perspective and remain the person who I am and continue to try to be the person I hope to be despite the pressures of public life,” she said.

null / Credit: FotoDax/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Dec 26, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Amid heavy immigration enforcement by the Trump administration, several bishops in the U.S. have recently issued broad dispensations to Catholics in their dioceses, allowing them to refrain from attending Mass on Sundays if they fear arrest or deportation from federal officials.

Bishops in North Carolina, California, and elsewhere have issued such dispensations, stating that those with legitimate concerns of being detained by immigration agents are free from the usual Sunday obligation.

The Church’s canon law dictates that Sunday is considered the “primordial holy day of obligation,” one on which all Catholics are “obliged to participate in the Mass.” Several other holy days of obligation exist throughout the liturgical year, though Sunday (or the Saturday evening prior) is always considered obligatory for Mass attendance.

The numerous dispensations issued recently in dioceses around the country have underscored, however, that bishops have some discretion in allowing Catholics to stay home from Mass for legitimate reasons.

Dispensation must be ‘just,’ ‘reasonable’

David Long, an assistant professor in the school of canon law at The Catholic University of America as well as the director of the school’s Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies, told CNA that bishops have the authority to dispense the faithful in their diocese with, as the Code of Canon Law puts it, a “just and reasonable cause.”

“This generally applies when a holy day of obligation falls on a Saturday or Monday, during severe weather events (snowstorms, hurricanes, floods, etc.), when there is no reasonable access to Mass, or during public emergencies such as pandemics or plagues,” he said. Once such circumstances end, he noted, the dispensation itself would cease.

By virtue of their office, diocesan administrators, vicars general, and episcopal vicars also have the power to issue dispensations, Long said.

Priests, however, normally do not have that authority “unless expressly granted by a higher authority, such as their diocesan bishop,” he said.

Canon law, he said, dictates that a dispensation can only be granted when a bishop “judges that it contributes to [the] spiritual good” of his flock, for a just cause, and “after taking into account the circumstances of the case and the gravity of the law from which dispensation is given.”

The lay faithful themselves can determine, in some cases, when they can refrain from going to Mass, though Long stressed that such instances do not constitute “dispensation,” as the laity “does not have the power to dispense at any time” that authority being tied to “executive power in the Church” via ordination.

Canon law dictates, however, that Catholics are not bound to attend Mass when “participation in the Eucharistic celebration becomes impossible.”

Long said such scenarios include “when [the faithful] are sick, contagious, or housebound, when they are the primary caregiver for someone else and cannot arrange coverage for that person, when traveling to Mass is dangerous, when there is no realistic access to Mass, or for some other grave cause.”

“This is not a dispensation,” he said, “but instead is a legal recognition of moral and physical impossibility at times.”

The recent immigration-related controversy isn’t the only large-scale dispensation in recent memory. Virtually every Catholic in the world was dispensed from Mass in the earliest days of the COVID-19 crisis, when government authorities sharply limited public gatherings, including religious gatherings, all over the world.

In 2024, on the other hand, the Vatican said that Catholics in the United States must still attend Mass on holy days of obligation even when they are transferred to Mondays or Saturdays, correcting a long-standing practice in the U.S. Church and ending a dispensation with which many Catholics were familiar.

‘The most incredible privilege we could possibly imagine’

Though the obligation to attend Mass is a major aspect of Church canon law, Father Daniel Brandenburg, LC, cautioned against interpreting it uncharitably.

“This ‘obligation’ is sort of like the obligation of eating,” he said. “If you don’t eat, you’ll die. Similarly, the Church simply recognizes that if we don’t nourish our soul, it withers away and dies. The bare minimum to survive is Mass once a week on Sundays.”

“Most people find the ‘obligation’ of eating to be quite pleasurable,” he continued, “and I think anyone with a modicum of spiritual awareness finds deep joy in attending Mass and receiving the Creator of the universe into their soul. At least I do.”

Like Long, Brandenburg stressed that the lay faithful lack the authority to “dispense” themselves from Mass. Instead, they are directed to follow their consciences when determining if they are incapable of attending Mass, particularly by applying the principle of moral theology “ad impossibilia, nemo tenetur” “(no one is obliged to do what is impossible”).

Being too sick, facing dangerous inclement weather, or lacking the ability to transport themselves are among the reasons the faithful might determine they are unable to attend Mass, he said.

“Here, beware the lax conscience which gives easy excuses,” Brandenburg warned, “and remember that the saints became holy not through excuses, but through heroic love.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- For the world's 1.4 billion Catholics and for millions of other people as well, the Catholic Church's 2025 was primarily about the death of Pope Francis and the election of Pope Leo XIV.

In fact, the Wikimedia Foundation announced Dec. 2 that "Deaths in 2025" -- an entry that includes Pope Francis -- was their second most-read entry during the year, and Pope Leo's biography was the fifth most-read article of the 7.1 million entries Wikipedia has in English.

"As people rushed online to learn about Leo, traffic to all Wikimedia projects peaked at around 800,000 hits per second -- more than 6x over normal traffic levels, and a new all-time record for us," said the foundation. 

"Plenty of people came to learn more about Francis' life too," they added. "His English Wikipedia article was the 11th most-read (page) of the year."

Pope Francis had begun the year celebrating the Jan. 1 Mass for the feast of Mary, Mother of God, with a weak voice and a puffy face that, looking back, already indicated his doctors were struggling to control his chronic lung conditions -- bronchiectasis and asthmatic bronchitis -- which were exacerbated anytime he had a cold.

He ended up being hospitalized Feb. 14 with a fever and respiratory tract infection, which later developed into double pneumonia.

While he was hospitalized, cardinals and other Vatican officials -- including U.S. Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, the future Pope Leo -- started taking turns leading thousands of people in praying the rosary for Pope Francis each night in St. Peter's Square. The nightly prayers continued until the pope was released from Rome's Gemelli hospital March 23.

Pope Francis had opened the Jubilee Year Dec. 24, 2024, just after his 88th birthday. But he ended up delegating cardinals to preside over many of the Jubilee Masses. 

On Easter, after giving his blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world) -- but barely able to raise his hands -- he took his final ride in the popemobile, spending about 15 minutes among the crowd.

Pope Francis died at 7:35 a.m. the next morning, April 21.

In addition to the mourning and the prayers, his death marked the beginning of meetings of the College of Cardinals to discuss the state of the church, its needs and the needs of the world and the qualities the next pope should have.

The conclave to elect the pope solemnly began May 7 with 133 cardinals entering the Sistine Chapel. Cardinal Prevost was elected the next day, on the fourth ballot, and took the name Pope Leo XIV.

"Peace be with you," were Pope Leo's first words to the crowd. The same words are often the first he says to any group he meets.

With a warm but measured demeanor, the first U.S.-born pope eased into his new ministry, highlighting the same themes his predecessors had: the primary Christian mission of sharing the Gospel, working for peace, promoting unity within the church and within the human family and bringing all of that together by serving the poor and denouncing injustice. 

He explained the threads of that inter-connected message in his first major document, "Dilexi Te" ("I Have Loved You"), an apostolic exhortation "to all Christians on love for the poor." 

"Love for the poor -- whatever the form their poverty may take -- is the evangelical hallmark of a Church faithful to the heart of God," the pope wrote. "I am convinced that the preferential choice for the poor is a source of extraordinary renewal both for the Church and for society, if we can only set ourselves free of our self-centeredness and open our ears to their cry."

That love, he said in the document and repeatedly elsewhere as well, extends to migrants and refugees.

"The Church has always recognized in migrants a living presence of the Lord who, on the day of judgment, will say to those on his right: 'I was a stranger, and you welcomed me,'" he wrote.

Pope Leo has been asked repeatedly about U.S. President Donald Trump's treatment of migrants and refugees and the administration's stated goal of mass deportations, and he repeatedly has affirmed church teaching that recognizes the right of a nation to control its borders while insisting that people seeking safety and a better life must be treated with dignity. 

Unlike Pope Francis, his predecessor, Pope Leo has had many of those conversations with reporters in Castel Gandolfo, home of a sprawling papal property with villas, a farm, gardens and a new center dedicated to educating people in ecology.

While Pope Francis visited only a couple of times and then turned the main papal residence at Castel Gandolfo into a museum, Pope Leo spent weeks there in the summer and returns most Monday evenings to spend 24 hours at the villa reading, relaxing, playing tennis and swimming in the indoor pool.

Being elected during a Holy Year, with special Jubilee celebrations planned most weekends, Pope Leo inherited a full calendar and made it his own, especially in late July with the Jubilee of Youth, which brought more than 1 million young people to Rome. 

He had a special and immediate connection with the crowd, in large part because he spoke directly to the young people in English and Spanish in addition to Italian, the Vatican's official working language. 

The young people roared with approval as he spoke to them in languages that most could understand without translation. He clearly tapped into their potential, their hopes and their dreams and brought them along with him to celebrate and pray.

"Aspire to great things, to holiness, wherever you are," he told them at Mass Aug. 3. "Do not settle for less. You will then see the light of the Gospel growing every day, in you and around you."

His ability to connect and his focus on mission, unity and peace were especially obvious Nov. 27-Dec. 2 as he made his first foreign trip as pope, visiting Turkey and Lebanon. 

The trip was planned around an ecumenical celebration of the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and the Creed most Christians share. But he also encouraged the minority Catholic communities that make outsized contributions to both nations and spent hours demonstrating his respect for the majority Muslim communities.

"The more we can promote authentic unity and understanding, respect and human relationships of friendship and dialogue in the world, the greater possibility there is that we will put aside the arms of war, that we will leave aside the distrust, the hatred, the animosity that has so often been built up and that we will find ways to come together and be able to promote authentic peace and justice throughout the world," he told reporters flying back to Rome with him Dec. 2.
 

Church of St. Stephen in Jerusalem, Israel, Sept. 18, 2018. / Credit: Bukvoed, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CNA Staff, Dec 26, 2025 / 04:00 am (CNA).

A chapel of one form or another memorializing Stephen’s martyrdom has existed at the site since at least the fifth century. 

null / Credit: hyotographics/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Dec 25, 2025 / 22:08 pm (CNA).

With the support of the Nigerian government, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. military has carried out strikes against elements of ISIS in Nigeria that “have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians.”

“I have previously warned these terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” Trump said of the Dec. 25 action. 

Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that “precision hits on terrorist targets” in the country’s northwestern Sokoto state were carried out in cooperation with the United States.   

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said he was “grateful for Nigerian government support and cooperation” in the counterterrorism effort. 

Upon announcing the action, Trump emphasized that “under my leadership, our country will not allow radical Islamic terrorism to prosper” and that further strikes will be carried out if the “slaughter of Christians” continues in Africa’s most populous country.

Applauding the action, Rep. Riley Moore, R-West Virginia, a Catholic who has championed the cause of persecuted Nigerian Christians in the U.S. House of Representatives, said that “tonight’s strike in coordination with the Nigerian government is just the first step to ending the slaughter of Christians and the security crisis affecting all Nigerians.”

This is a developing story.

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. 28, 2025. / Credit: Renata Sedmakova/Shutterstock

Denver, Colorado, Dec 25, 2025 / 15:00 pm (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 Thursday in the new year of 2026.

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.