A firefighter places a wreath on a tall Marian statue overlooking the Spanish Steps in Rome Dec. 8, 2022, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Pope Francis prayed at the statue later in the day, continuing the papal tradition of visiting the Spanish Steps on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)A floating Nativity scene designed by Francesco Orazio brings Christmas to Venice’s lagoon, near Burano island, Venice, Italy, Dec. 8, 2022. (CNS photo/Manuel Silvestri, Reuters)Andriy Sadovy, the mayor of Lviv, Ukraine, touches a piece of shrapnel removed from a child injured in the war, as he speaks with journalists after attending Pope Francis’ general audience at the Vatican Dec. 7, 2022. The mayor and doctors from the city asked Pope Francis’ blessing for “Unbroken,” a project to build a medical and psychiatric rehabilitation facility for victims of the war. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)Pope Francis looks at a hot air balloon with his name on it at the Vatican Dec. 7, 2022. The balloon was offered by the Italian island of Ventotene. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)Protesters and police clash in Lima, Peru, Dec. 7, 2022, after Congress voted to oust Peruvian President Pedro Castillo. Peru’s bishops are calling for national unity and urging citizens to stand up for democracy and the rule of law after Castillo announced he was closing Congress and was subsequently impeached and arrested. (CNS photo/Gerardo Marin, Reuters)This is an image of the 2022 U.S. Postal Service’s ‘Virgin and Child’ Christmas stamp, inspired by an Italian Renaissance painting. (CNS photo/courtesy U.S. Postal Service)Pope Francis meets with Italian actor Roberto Benigni during a private audience at the Vatican, Dec. 7, 2022. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)Local resident Lyudmila, 70, shows her apartment inside a house heavily damaged in recent shelling in the course of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, Dec. 6, 2022. (CNS photo/Alexander Ermochenko, Reuters)Polish counter-terrorism police officers hang outside windows to deliver presents to patients on St. Nicholas Day, as they rappel down from the roof of a children’s hospital in Rzeszow, Poland, Dec. 6, 2022. (CNS photo/Podkarpacka Policja/handout via Reuters)Brian Long looks on as fellow Boy Scout leader Chris Dono lights a lantern using a flame transferred from the Peace Light during a welcoming ceremony for the Peace Light at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Jamaica, N.Y., following its arrival from Vienna Dec. 4, 2022. Boy Scout and Girl Scout leaders, along with other volunteers, form a network of drivers who transfer the flame, which originated in the grotto of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, West Bank, to houses of worship, homes and other venues across North America. The annual U.S. welcoming ceremony is sponsored by the Catholic Committee on Scouting of the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)A young woman in Kinshasa, Congo, carries a cross during a march to protest escalating violence in the the country, Dec. 4, 2022. (CNS photo/Justin Makangara, Reuters)Bishop Kenneth Nowakowski, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Diocese of the Holy Family in London, Britain’s King Charles, and Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, view icons during the opening of London’s Ukrainian Welcome Center. The center is in the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family Nov. 30, 2022. (CNS photo/Marcin Mazur, Catholic Church England Wales)
Author: Catholic News Service
Catholic News Service is the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ news and information service.
