Pope Francis greets asylum-seekers transferred from Cyprus to Italy with his help, during a meeting at the Vatican Dec. 17, 2021. The migrants are being assisted by the Vatican and the Community of Sant’Egidio. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)Philippine Coast Guard personnel rescue residents stranded by floods caused by Typhoon Rai in Cagayan De Oro, Philippines, Dec. 16, 2021. Search and rescue operations were underway in the Philippines after the typhoon, known locally as Odette, wreaked havoc across the archipelago, leaving at least two people dead. (CNS photo/Philippine Coast Guard handout via Reuters — NA)A Palestinian tourism police officer walks through an empty Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, West Bank, Dec. 15, 2021. Few tourists are visiting Bethlehem this Christmas season; as the omicron COVID-19 variant began to spread late in November, Israel closed its borders to foreign travelers. (CNS photo/Debbie Hill)Bishop J. Mark Spalding of Nashville, Tenn., is seen during a ceremony to repair the steeple at the Church of the Assumption Dec. 15, 2021. He placed a first-class relic of St. Roch in the cross that will be raised to the top of the new steeple. Much of the church was damaged when a tornado swept across middle Tennessee March 3, 2020. (CNS photo/Rick Musacchio, Tennessee Register)Jeffrey Bowlin of Mayfield, Ky., keeps warm next to a wood fire in his front yard Dec. 14, 2021, as his neighborhood remained without power after a devastating outbreak of tornadoes days earlier. (CNS photo/Adrees Latif, Reuters)Bishop Brendan J. Cahill of Victoria, Texas, episcopal promoter for Stella Maris in the United States, sits next to gifts he helped load into a car Dec. 14, 2021, for seafarers who dock in Point Comfort, Texas. Transporting them is Rhonda Cummins, the maritime associate at the Point Comfort Seafarer’s Center, who coordinates ship visits and Christmas at Sea at the small port. Hundreds of gifts for seafarers were collected at the chancery. CNS photo/Handout via The Catholic Lighthouse)A Nativity scene created by workers from the National Geographic Institute with rocks expelled from the Cumbre Vieja volcano is displayed at a church in La Palma, Spain, Dec. 14, 2021. Catholic priests pledged to celebrate Christmas “with open arms,” despite the volcano’s destruction of homes and places of worship. (CNS photo/Borja Suarez, Reuters)Boy Scout leader Chris Dono, a parishioner at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Brooklyn, N.Y., lights a lantern held by his son Thomas, 14, using a flame transferred from the International Peace Light during a welcoming ceremony following the Peace Light’s arrival at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Jamaica, N.Y., from Vienna Dec. 11, 2021. Boy and Girl Scout leaders, along with other volunteers, form a network to drive 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. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)A woman places candles at a memorial during a ceremony to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the El Mozote massacre in El Salvador Dec. 11, 2021. More than 1,000 civilians were killed by U.S.-trained soldiers who entered the area looking for guerrillas but who killed civilians instead, officials say. (CNS photo/Jose Cabezas, Reuters)
Author: Catholic News Service
Catholic News Service is the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ news and information service.
