Pointing toward the Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto at the Saint Benedict Monastery cemetery in St.Joseph, Minnesota, 61-year-old Patrick Norton recounts the day 13 years ago when he was painting light posts in front of a statue of the Blessed Mother and encountered who he believes was Sister Annella Zervas, OSB.
Zervas, a Benedictine sister, died in 1926 at the age of 26 of a debilitating skin disease.
Norton, who was plucked from the streets of Bombay as a child by Mother Teresa and later adopted by an American family, had been hired by the College of Saint Benedict on Oct. 27, 2010, to do some painting. He told that while finishing up the last light post in front of the grotto he thought to himself, “I wonder if the Blessed Mother thinks I am doing a good job?” When he looked down, there was a nun in full Benedictine habit.
“‘You are doing a good job,’ she told me. We talked a little, but I don’t remember what it was about. Then I watched as she disappeared,” he told.
The encounter was so astonishing that Norton kept it to himself for a year. But in a chance conversation, he was told “there is a holy nun buried in that cemetery” and he came to learn it was Zervas. Eventually, he saw a picture of her and was certain that she was the one who had appeared to him.
Patrick Norton stands beside the lamp post he was painting near the Marian grotto when he saw a woman in full Benedict habit who he believes was Sister Annella Zervas.
An elderly religious sister at Saint Benedict Monastery – who also happened to be named Sister Annella – shared with Norton pictures of Zervas and a booklet about the young sister’s life called “Apostles of Suffering in Our Day” by Benedictine priest Joseph Kreuter, published in 1929.

Pope Francis on December 11 received the prefects of the Italian Republic in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace and expressed his concern about the low birth rate in the country, lamenting that many times “dogs take the place of children.”
The pope reminded that the task of these government authorities is to act as intermediaries “between the state and the territory, constantly linking the whole with the parts, the centre with the peripheries, the common good with care for people.”
The pontiff highlighted three challenges that the prefects face: public order, critical environmental issues, and taking care of the migrants flowing in.
Regarding public order, the pontiff stressed that it’s a priority, where “respect for the law with care for humanity” must be combined. He stressed that “the protection of victims with the fair treatment of criminals” must be reconciled.
“Added to this is the great responsibility you have to face the risks that members of the police forces face daily, whose care is also your concern,” he continued.
Pope Francis also noted that “public order cannot be administered without personal and interior order. But when this exists, the responsibility of public order feels like a call to create that cli-mate of harmonious coexistence through which difficulties can be addressed and resolved.”
“I would say that yours is a kind of institutional fatherhood: exercised with conscience and dedication, it spares no sacrifices nor sleepless nights and deserves our gratitude,” he said.

The Supreme Court on December 11 rejected over the objections of three conservative justices a Christian therapist’s free speech challenge to a Washington state ban on so-called conversion therapy aimed at changing a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Favored by some conservatives, the widely criticized practice is aimed at encouraging gay or lesbian minors to change their sexual orientations and trans-gender children to identify as the gender identities assigned to them at birth. Washington is one of 26 states that have barred or restri-cted such therapy for minors, the state’s lawyers say.
The court’s decision not to take up the case means the law remains intact.
“This is a victory for LGBT-Q+ civil rights. The research is clear – conversion therapy does not work, and can be particularly harmful to minors,” Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a statement.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh all said they would have heard the appeal.
Thomas wrote that there is “a fierce public debate over how best to help minors with gender dysphoria” and that the state had “silenced one side of this debate.”
In a separate brief opinion, Alito said the case “presents a question of national importance” that clearly implicates free speech issues. Brian Tingley, a licensed marriage and family counselor, said the law violates his free speech rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment be-cause the government is seeking to dictate what he says.

A landmark Vatican fraud trial involving a top Italian cardinal and a murky London property deal wrapped up Tuesday after more than two years, with a verdict expected Saturday. Cardinal Angelo Becciu, 75, a former adviser to Pope Francis, became the highest-ranking Catholic Church official to face a Vatican court when proceedings opened in July 2021.
Becciu, who has always strongly pro-claimed his innocence, was among 10 defendants facing accusations of embezzlement, fraud, abuse of power, extortion, money laundering and corruption.
Vatican prosecutor Alessandro Diddi in July called for a sentence of seven years and three months behind bars if Becciu is found guilty. Overall, Diddi requested more than 73 years in prison for all 10 defendants, in addition to fines.
The offenses relate to the Church’s loss-making purchase of a luxury property in London’s upmarket Chelsea district, funded in part by Peter’s Pence donations, money given by churchgoers for the pope’s charities.
Becciu also faced separate allegations over hundreds of thousands of euros of Church funds paid to his brother’s charity.
On Decmebr 12, the last of more than 80 hearings took place in a dedicated room within the Vatican Museums which housed the court, and where a portrait of a smiling Pope Francis hangs on the wall.
The trial “has shown that in all these in-vestments, the cardinal never took a measure not in accordance with what his office had prepared for him,” Becciu’s lawyer Fabio Viglione told the court on Tuesday, demanding his acquittal.
The verdict will be delivered on December 15, the judge said.
The trial was unprecedented in taking place before a Vatican tribunal of three lay magistrates rather than a religious court.
Francis – who has made cleaning up the Vatican’s murky finances a priority of his 10-year-old papacy – changed the law to stop cardinals and bishops enjoying legal privileges.
Had he not, Becciu would have been judged by a higher court presided by cardinals.
When the trial opened, prosecutors painted a picture of risky investments with little or no oversight, and double-dealing by outside consultants and insiders.

A Scottish artist says he was “extremely proud” when he received a medal from Pope Francis for his work. The pope was given a print of “Throwaway Peo-ple” by Michael McVeigh by members of the Church of Scotland in the Vatican Nov. 4.
McVeigh is regarded as a modern-day folk artist whose work depicts everyday life in Scotland, and ‘Throwaway People’ is an expression of the plight of those on the margins of society. The artist was born in Dundee, where he studied Drawing and Painting at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art from 1977–1982.
Rt. Rev. Sally Foster-Fulton, the moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, told the artist that ‘Throwaway Peo-ple’ is an “expression of the fragility of life and how easy it is to fall through the cra-cks, and it is a print that I have bought myself.”
“I presented it to Pope Francis and explained the story behind it to him,” she said. “He turned it over and wrote on the back in Italian and said ‘I don’t want to forget what you just said’. You have shared your gift with the pope, it really resonated with him, and in return he asked me to give you this Papal medal as a token of his appreciation,” Foster-Fulton said. ‘Throwaway People’ by Michael McVeigh. The Moderator presented a print to Pope Francis at the Vatican earlier this month.

Scotland’s leading Catholic charity got an unusual fundraiser from an orthopedic surgeon in northern England, who literally made some waves to help Ethio-pians in need.
Consultant Orthopedic Sur-geon Matthew Cartwright-Terry is a supporter of SCIAF, the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, and recently raised money by swimming the Mersey River in North West England.
“I was inspired to support SCIAF through a flier I was sent concerning the distress of the Ethiopian people. The swim was a bucket list activity, with the timing [providing] the perfect opportunity to provide some support,” he said.
Michael Hamilton, the Community Manager Office of SCIAF, said the surgeon’s fund-raising will go towards an Emer-gency Appeal for Ethiopia that was launched this summer.
“Ethiopia is experiencing its worst drought in recent history and there is no sign of the situa-tion improving. With support like Matthew’s, we are working to help alleviate people’s suffering in the south of the country,” he told.
“We can ensure families can survive by providing immediate access to critical food supplies and financial support. We work with partners in Ethiopia to deliver this support,” Hamilton said.
The Catholic charity notes that millions of people are experiencing an extreme hunger crisis after the worst drought in recent history, with rivers dried up, crops withering, and livestock dying.
It reports that in March, SCIAF received $154,000 from the Scottish Government’s Humanitarian Emergency Fund to provide food supplies and access to safe water affected by the crisis.
“We can ensure families can survive by providing immediate access to critical food supplies and financial support,” Hamilton told Crux. “We work with partners in Ethiopia to deliver this support.”
Cartwright-Terry said the September swim couldn’t have been on a better day.
“Finally, we set off trying to remain in our group, the 58 society, as per safety instructions. The six of us managed to remain together for the entire crossing with a couple of stops to admire the view from the middle of the river and even take some selfies,” the surgeon said.

In the pope’s home nation of Argentina, encompassing both Jewish and Muslim populations which are among the largest in South America, the strains of the war between Israel and Hamas are increasingly taking a toll.
A meeting between the Catholic Church and the leading Muslim organization in Argentina on Nov. 14 signaled that interfaith dialogue may still be possible, but also highlighted the challenges.
In Argentina a large Jewish community estimated at 300,000 people coexists with one of the greatest Muslim populations in Latin America, thought to encompass at least 700,000 people.
According to some Muslim leaders in the country, since the Hamas attacks on October 7, the Argentine media has been covering the issue with considerable doses of Islamophobia. They complain that most TV shows fail to invite Muslims to debates, and that the views expressed in most of them tend to be pro-Israel and anti-Islam.
The effects of that alleged biased coverage, they say, are being felt by people in their daily lives. Human rights organizations and Muslim entities have been reporting an increasing number of incidents in which individuals perceived as Muslims, especially women wearing headscarves, have been verbally or physically attacked on the street or other public locations.

A leading bishop in the Republic of the Congo has warned that an exponential rise in Christian Pentecostalism in the country is posing a stiff challenge to the Catholic Church, drawing people away amid what he described as “guerilla warfare” in the spiritual realm.
“They disrupt the faith of Catholics by offering quick and easy solutions to their problems,” said Archbishop Bienvenu Manamika Bafouakouahou of Brazzaville, in a wide-ranging interview with the Fides news agency.
According to the CIA World Factbook, Catholics constituted 33.3 % of the population of Congo-Brazzaville in 2019, closely followed by the Awakening/Revival churches with 22.3 percent and other Protestants making up 19.9 % .
Manamika said the promise of quick fixes from the revival churches seems to be hemorrhaging the Catholic Church.
“There are so-called “revival churches” or Pentecostal communities that wage a kind of “guerrilla warfare” on spiritual terrain, in the sense that they bitterly fight the Catholic Church,” he said.
He said the Pentecostals have been effective in exploiting the poverty of the people to promise miraculous solutions to their “pressing problems,” and often, people find comfort in such promises.

Pope Francis has expressed deep reservations about the direction of the Catholic Church in Germany, warning that concrete steps currently being taken “threaten” to undermine unity with the universal Church.
In a striking personal intervention, the pope wrote a letter to four German Catholic laywomen that was published in the German newspaper Welt on Nov. 21.
“I, too, share concerns about the numerous concrete steps that large parts of this local church are now taking that threaten to move further and further away from the common path of the universal Church,” the pope wrote in his letter, which was written in German and signed “Francis.”
Chief among the pope’s concerns is a push to establish a permanent “Synodal Council,” a mixed body of laity and bishops that would govern the Catholic Church in Germany. The pope underscored that this kind of “advisory and decision-making body … cannot be reconciled with the sacramental structure of the Catholic Church,” and referenced a previous prohibition the Vatican had issued on the topic.
Leadership of the controversial German Synodal Way recently met in Essen on November 10. They aim to establish a Synodal Council in Germany no later than 2026.

Christmas display in Bethlehem is cancelled by Palestinian authorities ‘in honour of Hamas martyrs’ as Israel continues to battle terrorists in Gaza
The annual Christmas dis-play in Bethlehem has been cancelled by Palestinian authorities ‘in honour of Hamas martyrs’ amid the ongoing conflict with Israel.
Bethlehem Municipality announced the plans to do away with the traditional Christmas tree and festive decorations in Manger Square, which has seen Christmas decorations ever since modern celebrations of the season began.
It’s the first time festive decorations will not be seen in the spot which is said to have been where Jesus Christ was born.
The West Bank town’s authorities told The Telegraph normal plans had been scrapped ‘in honour of the martyrs and in solidarity with our people in Gaza.’
The traditional Christmas mass and prayers will still be observed, without the usual Christmas tree or festive lights ‘in-stalled in any part of the city’, which sits just six miles south of Jerusalem, a spokesperson told the newspaper.
Further plans for the festive period in the area are expected to be announced in the coming days.
‘The reason is the general situation in Palestine; people are not really into any celebration, they are sad, angry and upset’, they said.
‘Our people in Gaza are being massacred and killed in cold blood. Therefore, it is not appropriate at all to have such festivities while there is a massacre happening in Gaza and attacks in the West Bank’.
‘This year the situation in Bethlehem is unprecedented and the mood and vibes are extremely sad, and that is exactly what the world should see, and realise that these are not normal circumstances,’ they added.