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U.S.
U.S. bishops announce Prayer Vigil for Life to take place Jan. 23-24
WASHINGTON — The annual Prayer Vigil for Life will take place Jan. 23-24, 2025, the U.S. bishops’ conference announced Nov. 22. The event is hosted each January by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Pro-Life Secretariat, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington and The Catholic University of America’s Office of Campus Ministry. It takes place on the eve of the March for Life, an annual protest of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which was overturned in 2022. The 52nd National March for Life will take place Jan. 24, 2025. Since the high court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in 2022 overturned nearly a half-century of its own precedent that held abortion to be a constitutional right, individual states have moved to either restrict abortion or expand access to it. The event will be broadcast on Catholic networks and livestreamed on the basilica’s website at www.nationalshrine.org/mass. More information about the schedule can be found on the USCCB’s website, www.usccb.org, and more information about on-site attendance at the basilica is at its website. (OSV News)
Pope appoints U.S. cardinal to manage Vatican’s pension fund
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has appointed Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, as the sole administrator for the Vatican’s pension fund, which is currently unable to guarantee future obligations in the medium term. “We are all fully aware now that urgent structural measures, which can no longer be postponed, are needed to achieve sustainability of the pension fund,” the pope wrote in a letter addressed to the College of Cardinals and the heads of the Roman Curia and other institutions connected to the Holy See. (CNS)
WORLD
St. Peter’s Basilica launches magazine, installs new webcams
VATICAN CITY — To help people who cannot travel to Rome but want to pray at the tomb of St. Peter and cross the threshold of the Holy Door, St. Peter’s Basilica is installing new webcams. Franciscan Father Enzo Fortunato, communications director for the basilica, told reporters Nov. 25 that Pope Francis will inaugurate the new webcams at the tomb of St. Peter and on the Holy Door Dec. 2. Meeting reporters, Father Fortunato also presented the first edition of Piazza San Pietro, a new magazine he is directing on behalf of the basilica. (CNS)
Pope declares Spanish mystic ‘blessed,’ advances other causes
VATICAN CITY — Using what the Vatican called an “equipollent” or equivalent beatification, Pope Francis recognized as “blessed” a 15th-century Spanish abbess, mystic and preacher. The pope signed decrees in four sainthood causes as well as the beatification declaration Nov. 25 for Blessed Juana de la Cruz, who was born Juana Vázquez Gutiérrez in what is today Numancia La Sagra, Spain, in 1481 and died in 1534. With panels of historians and theologians verifying her virtues and writings, as well as the fact that since her death there has been an uninterrupted remembrance and veneration of her, the cardinals and bishops who are members of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints voted Nov. 5 to petition Pope Francis to declare her blessed. (CNS)
