The square is quiet, dawn is breaking, we already have the chairs set up for tomorrow’s audience surrounding the obelisk. The area that will occupy the nativity scene is still being set up, the Roman autumn, always pleasant, is tilting towards winter. We face another day that gives us no respite, let’s try.
Audience with the participants in a course organized by the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of San Anselmo in Rome. “In the dioceses and parishes there is a need for such formation” and encouraged the creation of “biblical and liturgical courses” in places where training programs of this type are lacking. It is important that the liturgy be “an expression of a community that cares for its celebrations, prepares them and lives them fully”. “We are fully aware that liturgical formation is one of the main themes of the entire conciliar and post-conciliar journey”. He expressly said: “Among the aspects linked to your service as directors, I would like to mention the promotion of the Liturgy of the Hours, the care of popular piety and attention to the festive dimension in the construction of new churches and the adaptation of existing ones”.
Pope Leo XIV urged the countries gathered at COP 30 on Monday to take concrete measures to stop the climate change that threatens the planet; the divine creation is «crying out in pain under floods, droughts, storms and suffocating heat». «One in every three people lives in a state of great vulnerability due to these climate changes, for them, climate change is not a distant threat, and ignoring them is denying our common humanity». Mentioned that there was still time to fulfill the Paris Agreement, but that time was running out: “Let us be honest: it is not the Agreement that is failing, but our reaction. What is lacking is the political will of some”. The climate issue is deflating, the United States is boycotting the conference. The US president, Donald Trump, described climate change as “the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on the world” in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September. The UN climate chief, Simon Stiell, suggested that the words of Leo XIV «encourage us to continue choosing hope and action».
Pope Leo XIV sent a message on November 17 to the participants in the meeting “Building communities that protect dignity”, promoted by the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. “In every human face, even when marked by fatigue or pain, there is a reflection of the Creator’s goodness, a light that no darkness can extinguish”. “Where justice is lived with mercy, the wound is transformed into an opening for grace”. About sixty representatives of various conferences of religious men and women and institutes of consecrated, apostolic and contemplative life have gathered. The issue of abuses in Chiclayo that directly affects the Pope is still lingering, the sooner it is clarified the better for everyone, especially for Leo XIV and his freedom to govern. Preaching is easy, giving wheat costs a little more.
The Pope Leo XIV received for the first time all the diplomatic collaborators of the Pontifical Representations: «Your service is with the people of God, not separated from them». «You did not hesitate before the voice of the Master». Service in the Representations thus becomes a living presence of the universal Church «a gift and a commitment to make the entire Church present everywhere». «In the countries where you work… do not forget that the first witness you must give is that of priests in love with Christ». A heart is needed «burning for God and open to men».
The audience with the Executive Commission of the Spanish Episcopal Conference that lasted approximately one hour. The meeting, requested by the bishops a few days after the Pope’s election on May 8 and confirmed in September, represented the first official meeting between the new Pontiff and the top of the Spanish episcopate. Its president Argüello explained «the various transitions that the Spanish Church is going through»; «the strong desire to proclaim the Gospel», «the challenges of Christian initiation», «the territorial organization of the dioceses», the arrival of numerous faithful from other countries, the public presence of laity and the situation of cloistered religious and nuns, «an extraordinarily rich tradition, but today marked by a numerical decline». He referred to « the reality of the clergy », which in Spain is experiencing the arrival of new priests from Latin America and Africa, thus contributing to sustaining dioceses increasingly affected by the decline in vocations. A significant part was dedicated to the work carried out by the Spanish Church, « at the behest of the Holy See », in matters of abuse prevention, education and reparation to victims through the so-called Plan PRIVA . «The plan has led to the creation of a reparation commission that, as we see, is providing satisfactory attention to the victims». He reiterated the invitation to the Pope to visit Spain: «We leave with the hope that the visit can take place in the near future». With Parolin the meeting was useful for « focusing on the pending issues in Church-State relations in Spain », in light of the cardinal’s recent meetings with the Minister of Justice and, more recently, with President Pedro Sánchez at the COP30 in Brazil.
The jubilee of the trans poor is still lingering and it is pointed out that no transgender person sat at the meal next to Pope Leo. The seats tell us that they were assigned randomly, it is not the Holy See that chooses the participants by «category». The Washington Post published a report on the initiative that highlighted the absence of transgender people at the Pope’s table: «this year, seats at the honor tables were not assigned to transsexual women without any explanation». In 2023 and 2024, two transgender people did sit at the table with Pope Francis. Konrad Krajewski does not hide his disappointment at this unexpected controversy, given that it was an event of which he seemed particularly proud. Krajewski explained to us that «the nineteen people who shared the table with the Holy Father were chosen at random by me, at the last minute, during the Angelus».
The Synod published the provisional report on Monday, in which it announced that the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), headed by Tucho, what a mess we have, is preparing the final report on “ the participation of women in the life and leadership of the Church ”. “A special mention must be reserved for the issue of women’s access to the diaconate”. The Synod has presented so far a proposal for the female diaconate, as well as calls for women to preach in parishes and to play an active role in the governance of the Church. Although official recommendations on the female diaconate have not yet been formulated, Synod officials have expressed their support for this practice, which contradicts the perennial teaching and tradition of the Church. Grech: “the female diaconate and a different space for women in the Church are a natural deepening of the Lord’s will”. Müller has stated that the impossibility of women receiving the Sacrament of Holy Orders in each of the three degrees, including the diaconate, is a “dogma” of the Catholic faith. The Synod and the doctrine of the faith have not announced a clear deadline for the publication of the Synod’s final report, but have only indicated that it will be published in “the coming months”.
General Assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference in Assisi. The central theme of the meeting will be the guidelines y decisions that will be taken at the end of the Synodal Process of the Churches in Italy and will conclude on Thursday, November 20, with the presence of Pope Leo XIV, who will meet with the bishops in the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli behind closed doors. The bishops are now called to debate the priorities, resolutions and notes drawn up from the voted text. Zuppi focused on the ecclesial phase that Italy is going through , on the teachings of Pope Leo XIV and on the historical transition: «In affirming that “Christianity has ended”, it is meant that our society, by nature, is no longer Christian. But this should not scare us! (…) The end of Christianity does not at all imply the disappearance of faith, but the passage to an era in which faith is no longer taken for granted in the social context, but becomes a personal and conscious adherence to the Gospel». «This is the moment when the proclamation of the Gospel must shine more brightly, like the lamp that burns in the night. (…) From this perspective, the end of Christianity is not a defeat, but a kairós: the opportunity to return to the essential, to the freedom of the beginning, to that “yes” pronounced out of love, without fear or guarantees. The Gospel does not need a world that protects it, but hearts that embody it». Zuppi anticipated the need for concrete resolutions to not “lose more time” and also proposed a reflection on the possible revision of the CEI Statute , in coordination with the working group established by Leo XIV on the statute of ecclesial assemblies and particular councils.
The goat pulls towards its own and José Tolentino de Mendonca , prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See, is enthusiastic about Rosalía, the Spanish pop star also very well known in Latin America, and has praised her latest album, «Lux», released on November 7, which includes duets in several songs with other international pop stars like the Icelandic Björk and the American Yves Tumor. At the center of each song is the figure of a woman, a Catholic saint or a prominent female figure from other religious confessions. The cover of the album Lux shows the singer dressed as a nun in an unconventional way. Rosalía has repeatedly been a symbol of struggles, often against the Church and Catholic movements. Like the fight for abortion rights, which she claimed from the stage during a concert in Mexico, or the fight for LGBTQ+ rights.
There are people for everything and the married priests applaud the decision of Father Luca Favarin, who has found love and dreams of having a child: «I have fallen in love and I am with a woman I love very much. It’s still early, but I would also like to have a child». Luca Favarin, a priest from Padua who left the Church three years ago, describing this new stage of his life, away from the priestly habit and in a romantic relationship. For married Italian priests, «love and the altar are compatible. The bond with God remains, although the relationship with the ecclesiastical institution is hindered by canon law that keeps them away from priestly ministry». «The Church and Vatican leaders should welcome back into the Church marriages and their families as soon as possible. They are a great value».
Bishop Robert Barron and Cardinal Müller together, a danger when two intelligent people start talking. The high level as is proper, started «Why do you think American teenagers are interested in Nietzsche?» Müller offered a precise and concise deconstruction of how Nietzsche represented one of the main threats to the Christian faith. He introduced Nietzsche with a brief analysis of deception. We all know self-deception. We all suffer from our own delusions; some arise from the pressure of an unbridled appetite and others from the confusion of spiritual struggle. Müller synthesized cultural delusions by choosing three key figures that laid the foundations for the damage Nietzsche would inflict: Copernicus, Freud and Darwin . Müller’s idea is that the fact that our scientific passage from Ptolemy to Copernicus had a powerful effect on our spiritual and philosophical perception. Then he lashed out at Freud and condensed his influence on the idea that, partly due to his emphasis on the power of the unconscious, we were not masters of our feelings, but victims . And then he added Darwin and suggested that the consequence of Darwinian biology was that we were actually just evolved animals, and this brought us a triple blow: animals subject to our feelings, victims living in a place where God could not see us or care about us , and thus the seeds of existential despair were sown. «We must counter this Nietzscheanism with the discovery that to exist is a joy, a great fortune. Nothing is better than your existence. You have an eternal meaning. You emerge from nothingness by the will of God. All education should be directed towards the experience of discovering that you are absolutely accepted, because you are accepted by God; you are a creature of God; and God Himself saves you with the blood of His Son, who became incarnate».
Barron posed this entire dramatic perspective: “Do you agree that the Church is the most important voice fighting against nihilism in our culture?” . “The Church is a great dissenting voice and, therefore, must not retreat into anonymity. They attack us so much because we present the truth about Jesus Christ and we are destroying their profit model.”. “They are profiting from their delusions, saying: you are nothing, and you have to accept our medicine and our drugs. Modern ideologies are nothing more than drugs to help you get over that feeling that you are nothing.”. “But if you listen (to the Catholic Church), you don’t need all those drugs; you don’t need sex in the wrong sense; you are a participant in the Word of God. You are a son or daughter of God». “Those who listen to the voice of God do not need substitutes: they possess a dignity that no ideology can grant them». “People make the mistake of confusing the creature with the Creator, and they get lost trying to fill themselves with things to satisfy their longing for God». «Nietzsche did not celebrate the death of God; he announced it as a catastrophe for Western civilization. When the Christian God dies, the entire architecture of objective truth and objective morality collapses. What fills the void? The will to power. And we see it today: truth becomes what the strongest side can impose». “Today, many people—even within the Church—live as functional Nietzscheans without knowing it. When doctrine or moral teaching is considered an obstacle to ‘pastoral accompaniment’ or ‘inclusion’, and we are told that we simply must ignore it because ‘the Spirit is doing something new’, that is the will to power disguised as theological language.”
And we’re finishing up. The news that Pope Leo XIV will convene a Consistory on January 7 and 8, 2026 has not yet been officially confirmed. This Consistory will not aim at the creation of new cardinals. There are already a dozen voting cardinals more than the law strictly allows. The number of voting cardinals will not drop below the legal limit of 120 until the end of 2026. The Consistory on January 7 and 8 will be dedicated to the debate of matters of importance for the entire Church, a debate that has not taken place in recent years.
Pope Francis convened a consistory in 2014, in which Cardinal Walter Kasper delivered his speech on the family, which sparked intense debate. Another consistory took place in 2015, with several sessions on Curia reform. And, finally, in 2022, to debate the already promulgated Curia reform. Pope Francis’s last extraordinary consistory—the first in seven years—left everyone with some disappointment. The cardinals were divided into linguistic groups, there was no space for extensive interventions in the plenary session and many felt that the collegiality—or synodality—of which Pope Francis spoke was not really applied.
Benedict XVI always preceded the Consistory for the creation of new cardenals with a meeting of the entire College of Cardinals. John Paul II convened the cardinals on several occasions to debate reforms and decisions. Paul VI even used to meet with the cardinals resident in Rome immediately after each apostolic journey, upon his return, almost before even entering the Apostolic Palace. We will see what model Leo XIV will follow, but the convening of a consistory on January 7 is a significant signal on the first day after the end of the 2025 Jubilee. The end of the Jubilee will also physically mark the end of Francis’s legacy. The Pope could define his «government team»; He could present a draft of what his first encyclical should be. He could address some pressing issues: the impact of the trial period, the credibility of the Church and the necessary reforms to restructure the Curia.
From the words of Pope Leo XIV and the way he directs the Consistory, we can understand how his pontificate will develop. The Secretariat of State lacks two crucial positions, essential for its function. These dual positions correspond to the Assessor and the Undersecretary for Relations with States. The Assessor is even more important, as he assists the Substitute for General Affairs in the management of the Secretariat of State. It remains to be seen whether the Pope will decide to make an even more substantial change in the Secretariat of State, appointing new superiors for the positions of Assessor and Undersecretary. Perhaps we are approaching very slowly the beginning of the new pontificate, or at least the new papal government. The Pope seems determined to establish a solid institution and organization, without renouncing more than the minimum elements that have characterized the pontificate of the late Pope Francis. Great balance will be required for this effort to bear fruit.
«Have confidence, it is I, do not be afraid».
Good reading.