A new analysis from the Pew Research Centre shows that many Catholic priests are holding to Pope Francis’ advice to keep their homilies on the shorter side, especially compared to Protestant denominations.

An analysis of nearly 50,000 sermons, given across a variety of Christian denominations during the months of April and May this year, found that the median length of a sermon was 37 minutes, but for Catholic priests, the average length was just 14 minutes. Pew found that historically black Protestant sermons had the longest median length of 54 minutes, while mainline Protestant sermons were an average of 25 minutes long, with evangelical churches falling in between at 39 minute per sermon.

The analysis was published on Dec. 16, and was titled “The Digital Pulpit: A Nationwide Analysis of Online Sermons.”

While the terms “homily” and “sermon” are often used interchangeably, they are actually different in nature. A “homily” refers to an explanation or further commentary of scripture during a Mass. A sermon is usually defined as a talk on a religious or moral subject, especially one given by a religious leader during a liturgy.

For the purposes of this study, Catholic homilies were counted as “sermons.”

Pew took data from 6,431 different church websites to create the analysis. The churches all posted all or part of their religious services online. For this research, “online sermon” was defined as “a portion of a religious service posted to a church website that contains a commentary from the pulpit but sometimes may include other parts of the service as well.” The analysis found that while sermons at historically-black and evangelical churches typically contained roughly the same number of words, the sermons at the black churches were longer in length. The study’s authors suggested that this was due to the inclusion of “musical interludes, pauses between sentences or call and response with people in the pews.”

In analyzing the content of the sermons, Pew found that 98% of Catholic homilies included the terms “God” and “Jesus.” The only word that included in 100% of the Catholic sermons examined was “say.”

After accepting the resignation of 92-year-old Cardinal Angelo Sodano as dean of the College of Cardinals, Pope Francis changed the norms of the office so that the dean would be elected to a five-year term renewable only once.

Cardinal Sodano, the former Vatican secretary of state, was elected dean in April 2005 after Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dean under St. John Paul II, was elected Pope Benedict XVI.

In his apostolic letter issued “motuproprio” (on his own accord), Pope Francis said that given the size of the College of Cardinals and the workload being dean entails, he decided it was best for the office to have a defined term of service. The letter was released by the Vatican Dec. 21 after Cardinal Sodano performed his last official task as dean by offering Pope Francis Christmas greetings on behalf of the cardinals and top officials of the Roman Curia.

Pope Francis used the occasion to express “my gratitude, including in the name of the members of the College of Cardinals, for the precious and punctual service he (Cardinal Sodano) has offered as dean for many years with availability, dedication, efficiency and a great ability to organize and coordinate.”

The dean is charged with officially informing the other cardinals and heads of state that a pope has died; he establishes the date the cardinals will begin their “general congregations” to discuss the current status and needs of the church; and he presides over those meetings before the cardinals enter the conclave to elect a new pope.

If the dean is under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to enter the conclave, he issues the oath of secrecy to the cardinals and determines whether the college is ready to begin the election. He also is the one who asks the person elected if he accepts and what name he wishes to use.

Cardinal Sodano was already over 80 when Pope Benedict resigned, so he was not in the conclave that elected Pope Francis. Those duties were assumed by the sub-dean, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re.There are these damaging allegations against the cardinal who for 16 years served as Vatican secretary of state. The two most serious cases involve his dealings with Father Maciel and his blocking of an investigation into Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër, the late archbishop of Vienna, who was found guilty of sexually abusing children in 1998.

The ongoing reform of the Roman Curia is a necessary part of the Catholic Church’s fidelity to its mission to proclaim the Gospel, recognizing that very few countries today can be described as “Christian” and that new ways of evangelizing are necessary, Pope Francis said.

But attempts to meet the new challenges are threatened by “the temptation of assume an attitude of rigidity,” the pope said Dec. 21 during his traditional pre-Christmas meeting with cardinals and top officials of Vatican offices. “Rigidity, which is born of the fear of change, ends up erecting fences and obstacles on the terrain of the common good, turning it into a minefield of incomprehension and of hatred,” the pope said. “And today this temptation of rigidity has become very evident.”

“Christendom no longer exists,” he said. “Today we are not the only ones who produce culture, nor are we the first or the most listened to.”

On a nightly basis this month – and on weekend afternoons – “the word” is becoming flesh in lower Manhattan with a one-man performance of the “The Gospel of John” at the Sheen Centre for Thought and Culture.

Longtime Broadway actor Ken Jennings has memorized the entirety of his favourite Gospel – which he first began to commit to memory as a personal prayer – and at age 72, is thrilling audiences with his new dramatic staging of it. In an interview with Crux, Jennings said that it took him somewhere between two to three years to memorize the full text, which he turned to when he was going through a rough period in his personal life.

Throughout the performance, he often carries a small pocket-sized Bible around the stage with him – a Bible that dates back to when he was a part of the original Broadway cast of Sweeney Todd in the 1970s.

Kristin Marguerite Collier is an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School where she practices general Internal Medicine. She serves as an Associate Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program and is the Director of the Program’s Primary Care Track. In addition, she is the Director of the University of Michigan Medical School Program on Health, Spirituality and Religion. She spoke to Charles Camosy about Mary, Jesus, and pregnancy.

Kristin Marguerite Collier M.D said in an interview, “As many of your readers may know, the placenta is the organ through which the mother and prenatal child interface. The placenta is an organ that is attached to the inside of the uterus and connects to the prenatal child through the child’s umbilical cord.

What is not as well known about this organ is that the placenta is the only organ in human biology that is made by two persons, together, in cooperation. The placenta is ‘built’ from tissue that is part from mom, and part from the growing baby. Because of this, the placenta is referred to as a ‘fetomaternal’ organ. It is the only organ made by two people, in cooperation with providence. It is the first time mom and her baby come together, albeit at the cellular level, to do some-thing in cooperation.”

“In addition to the placenta, mother and prenatal child interact at a cellular level in something known as ‘fetomaternal-microchimerism.’ In Greek Mythology, the chimera is a fire breathing monster comprised of three species in one – a lion’s head, a goat’s body and a serpent’s tail. In science, “microchimerism” is the presence of a small population of genetically distinct and separately derived cells within an individual. During pregnancy, small numbers of cells traffic across the placenta. Some of the prenatal child’s cells cross into the mother, and some cells from the mother cross into the prenatal child. The cells from the prenatal child are pluripotent and integrate into tissues in her mother’s body and start functioning like the cells around them. This integration is known as ‘fetomaternal microchimerism’.

The presence of these cells is amazing for several reasons. One is that these cells have been found in various maternal organs and tissues such as the brain, the breast, the thyroid and the skin. These are all organs which in some way are important for the health of both the baby and her mother in relationship. The post-partum phase is when there is need, for example, for lactation. The fetomaternal microchimeric cells have been shown to be important in signalling lactation.”

“I know that most women experience an immense sense of wonder and awe during their pregnancy that sometimes isn’t celebrated and discussed perhaps as much as it should be.”

“ If we consider the biological reality of fetomaternal microchimerism, we can assume that some of Jesus’ cells transferred across the placenta in Mary’s womb into the Blessed Mother. What we could take from this is that even when Jesus physically left his mother, part of him remained in her and remains in her forever. This further magnifies her position as the glorious Theotokas.

Pope Francis on December 8 appointed the 62-year-old Filipino Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle as Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. The move is more than a major curial appointment: it seems to  open the way toward preparations for the papal succession.  Not by chance, the veteran Vatican watcher Sandro Magister immediately made a list of papabili, that is, of cardinals eligible to be the next Pope.

The transfer of Cardinal Tagle to Rome has been rumoured for a long time. Pope Francis never hid the fact he likes  the archbishop of Manila. However, Cardinal Tagle garnered consideration step by step. He was created cardinal in Benedict XVI’s last consistory. It was a particular consistory: Benedict XVI created only six new Cardinals, all of them non-Italian.

Cardinal Tagle already had good press at the time. He was a scholar of the so-called “Bologna School” — a group of scholars gathered in Bologna that wrote a comprehensive history of the Second Vatican Council. The Bologna scholars interpret the Second Vatican Council through the twin lenses of discontinuity and rupture. Benedict XVI, au contraire, always read the Second Vatican Council in continuity with the tradition of the Church. However, Benedict XVI was not biased by Cardinal Tagle’s participation in the works of the Bologna School. In 2015, Cardinal Tagle was elected president of Caritas Internationalis, the Holy See umbrella organization for some 160 Catholic relief service in the world. That position strengthened Cardinal Tagle’s international appeal. Cardinal Tagle has never been too vocal or overexposed, but he has always cultivated a public presence and persona.

Pope Francis called him to be president delegate of the 2015 Synod on the Family and among the participants of the 2018 Synod on Youth. During this latter, thanks to a video where he danced with young people, Cardinal Tagle got even more popular.

Pope Francis considers that the Roman Curia is less important than the local Churches. To Pope Francis, diocesan bishops are more important than the top officials of the Roman Curia.  Cardinal Tagle’s appointment, however, is the first of a series of new appointments that will revolutionize the Curia offices. All of these appointments will come along with the finalization of the much awaited Curia reform.

Cardinal Tagle will be at the helm of what draftsmen of the curial reform law, Praedicate Evangelium, say is to be the “first dicastery.” Cardinal Tagle will replace Cardinal Fernando Filoni. The Pope appointed Cardinal Filoni as Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre. This is a prestigious but mostly honorific position, that is usually given to retired or almost retired Cardinals.

A group of around 50 women judges and prosecutors engaged in the fight against human trafficking and organized crime in Africa is meeting at the Vatican. Hosted by the Pontifical Academy for Sciences, the Dec. 12-13 meeting reprises a similar summit held in December 2018.

Pope Francis addressed the summit privately for around 10-15 minutes in the afternoon of Dec. 12. Judith Wanjala told CNA Pope Francis addressed the problem of human trafficking, “urging us to take positive steps to deal with this problem, which is affecting the entire world, so many countries.”

Wanjala, who has heard human trafficking cases as a judge in Kenya for more than 30 years, added that Pope Francis’ encouragement of the summit is for her a sign of his strong feelings against trafficking.

She said, she is participating in the gathering to share and to understand better what practices judges and prosecutors in other African countries are putting into place. One participating judge, who asked not to be identified, called human trafficking a “plague” in Africa.