CNA explains: How does 'Mass dispensation' work, and when is it used?

null / Credit: FotoDax/ShutterstockCNA 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 under...

Pope Leo XIV: Christians have no enemies, only brothers and sisters

Pope Leo XIV addresses pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican for the recitation of the Angelus on December 26, 2025. / Vatican MediaVatican City, Dec 26, 2025 / 07:17 am (CNA).Pope Leo XIV on Friday urged Christians to resist the temptation to treat others as enemies, saying the mystery of Christmas calls believers to recognize the God-given dignity of every person, even in their adversaries."Christians, however, have no enemies, but brothers and sisters, who remain so even when they do not understand each other," the pope said Dec. 26 during his Angelus address from the Apostolic Palace on the feast of St. Stephen, the Church's first martyr.Leo acknowledged that "those who believe in peace and have chosen the unarmed path of Jesus and the martyrs are often ridiculed, excluded from public discourse," and sometimes even "accused of favoring adversaries and enemies." Yet, he said Christian joy is sustained by "the tenacity of those who already live in frater...

BREAKING: In effort to stem violence against Christians, U.S. conducts airstrikes on ISIS in Nigeria 

Breaking News / CNACNA 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," said President Trump 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 counter-terrorism effort. Upon announcing the action, President Trump emphasized that "under my leadership, our country will not allow radical Islamic terror...

The 8 days of Christmas? A look at the Christmas octave

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/ShutterstockDenver, 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 Inno...

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem: 'God does not wait for history to improve before entering into it'

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa is the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem / Credit: Courtesy of the Latin Patriarchate of JerusalemACI Prensa Staff, Dec 25, 2025 / 16:07 pm (CNA).At the Christmas Eve Mass celebrated in Bethlehem, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, affirmed that "one of the great messages of Christmas" is that God "does not wait for history to improve before entering into it," but rather embraces human reality.During his homily, the Cardinal explained that the birth of Jesus does not occur outside of time or apart from political events, but within concrete history. "God does not create a parallel history. He does not enter the world when everything is finally ordered and peaceful," but rather "enters into real, concrete, sometimes harsh history."Commenting on the beginning of the Gospel of Saint Luke, which places the birth of Christ in the context of a decree by Emperor Augustus, the Patriarch indicated that this detail has profound...

Full text: Pope Leo XIV's Christmas night homily

Pope Leo XIV venerates a statue of the Child Jesus during the celebration of Christmas Mass during the Night in St. Peter's Basilica on Dec. 24, 2025. / Credit: Daniel Ibanez/CNA.Vatican City, Dec 24, 2025 / 17:31 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV celebrated Christmas Mass during the Night in St. Peter's Basilica on Wednesday. The Mass was attended by an estimated 6,000 people inside the basilica, while around 5,000 people gathered outside in St. Peter's Square, according to the Vatican.Below is the full text of the pope's Christmas night homily:Dear brothers and sisters,For millennia, across the earth, peoples have gazed up at the sky, giving names to the silent stars, and seeing images therein. In their imaginative yearning, they tried to read the future in the heavens, seeking on high for a truth that was absent below amidst their homes. Yet, as if grasping in the dark, they remained lost, confounded by their own oracles. On this night, however, "the people who walked in darkness h...

Religious sisters offer abortion clinic workers Christmas cards with resources and prayers

null / Credit: Rawpixel.com/ShutterstockWashington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 24, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).Abortion clinic workers across the country are once again receiving Christmas cards from religious sisters offering prayers, compassion, and an invitation to seek a career outside the abortion industry.And Then There Were None (ATTWN), a pro-life organization dedicated to assisting abortion clinic workers leave their jobs and find life-affirming careers, carries out this ministry each Christmas season with help from convents around the country. The Christmas card project is a part of a larger mission of handwritten cards sent throughout the year.This year, Dominican, Maronite, Benedictine, Carmelite, Capuchin, and Franciscan sisters, as well as Apostolic Sisters of St. John and Trinitarians of Mary, sent at least 1,030 handwritten Christmas cards to abortion clinic workers with loving messages and an image of the Holy Family. Reaching 'quitters'ATTWN has sent nearly 23,000 hand...

Syria celebrates Christmas with hope amid lingering security fears

Olive Scout Troop Christmas Carnival in Old Damascus, 2025. / Credit: ACI MENAACI MENA, Dec 24, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).In a scene reflecting Syrians' deep longing for life and joy after long years of suffering, Christmas celebrations continue across various regions of Syria, carrying messages of hope that transcend divisions and wounds. These festive atmospheres coincided with the official repeal of the Caesar Act, U.S.-imposed sanctions on Syria, which propels the country into a time of rebuilding its economy and securing the basic requirements for a dignified life for its citizens.Among the most prominent Christmas events this week was the organization of a Christmas carnival by the Roman Melkite Olive Scout Troop in Old Damascus. A majestic procession toured the ancient streets with the participation of hundreds of people accompanied by handcrafted Christmas figures, decorated vehicles, brass band performances, and the display of both church and national flags. Arch...

Vice President Vance presents a Christian vision of politics

U.S. Vice President JD Vance. / Credit: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsCNA Staff, Dec 23, 2025 / 14:27 pm (CNA).U.S. Vice President JD Vance, America's second Catholic vice president, laid out a distinctly Christian vision for American politics in a speech this week, declaring that "the only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been and, by the grace of God, we always will be a Christian nation."Speaking to more than 30,000 young conservatives at Turning Point USA's AmFest 2025 some three months after the death of TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, Vance called for a politics rooted in a Christian faith that honors the family, protects the weak, and rejects what he described as a decades-long "war" on Christianity in public life.The Christian faith has provided a "shared moral language" since the nation's founding, the Yale-trained lawyer argued, which led to "our understanding of natural law and rights, our sense ...

UPDATED: Pope asked Illinois governor to veto assisted suicide bill

Pope Leo meets with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in November 2025. / Credit: Courtesy of the Office of Gov. JB PritzkerCastel Gandolfo, Italy, Dec 23, 2025 / 14:55 pm (CNA).Pope Leo XIV appealed to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to veto a bill legalizing assisted suicide during a Vatican meeting last month, the pope told reporters Tuesday.The pope, responding to a question from Rudolf Gehrig of EWTN News, said he made his opposition to the bill clear in the November conversation with the governor. Leo told Pritzker it was important to defend the value of life and that every life is sacred, the pope told reporters outside the papal villa of Castel Gandolfo before his return to Rome.The Vatican had not earlier provided details of the meeting.Pritzker signed the assisted suicide measure, ardently opposed by Catholic leaders, into law Dec. 12."I spoke very explicitly with Gov. Pritzker about that," the pope said, and he said Cardinal Blase Cupich also expressed his views. "But we were...