New Cardinals Are Called to Build Church Unity, Pope Says VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Becoming a cardinal is an insistent call to put Jesus at the center of one’s life, to love the poor as He did, and to strengthen the bonds of unity within the Catholic Church, Pope Francis said as he created 21 new cardinals from 17 nations on Saturday, December 7. “To walk in the path of Jesus means, in the end, to be builders of communion and unity,” the pope told the new cardinals during an afternoon consistory in St. Peter’s Basilica. None of the new cardinals were from the United States. Pope Francis presided over the prayer service with a large bruise on the lower part of his right cheek and chin. He had fallen early Friday, December 6, and photos from his audiences that morning showed him wearing a small bandage on his chin. Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, said the pope had hit his chin on his bedside table. Court Hears Challenge to Gender Transition Ban for Minors WASHINGTON, D.C. (OSV News) – The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Wednesday, December 4, in a case concerning a challenge to a Tennessee state law banning certain types of medical or surgical gender reassignment procedures for minors who identify as transgender, the high court’s first major step toward weighing in on the controversial issue. The question at issue in the case – United States v. Skrmetti, the Biden administration’s challenge to a law in Tennessee restricting gender transition treatments including puberty blockers for minors – is whether Tennessee’s law, Senate Bill 1, violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Arguments took place for about two and a half hours and were at times tense. Supporters and critics of the law protested outside the court. The court considered, in part, whether being transgender is an “immutable” condition, an important legal term meaning whether an aspect of a person’s identity is fundamental and unchangeable, and therefore protected under the equal protection clause. In guidance on health care policy and practices released in March of 2023, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine outlined the Church’s opposition to interventions that “involve the use of surgical or chemical techniques that aim to exchange the sex characteristics of a patient’s body for those of the opposite sex or for simulations thereof.” U.S. Bishops Join Pope in Urging Biden to Commute 40 Death Sentences WASHINGTON, D.C. (OSV News) – The U.S. bishops’ conference was among the groups that urged President Joe Biden on Monday, December 9, to commute existing federal death sentences before President-elect Donald Trump, who has sought to expand the use of capital punishment, returns to the White House. Opponents of capital punishment have argued that Biden, a Catholic and the first U.S. president to have campaigned on an openly anti-death penalty platform, should follow through with concrete action in the post-election lame-duck period. Pope Francis also indicated support for that effort, writing in a December 8 post on X, formerly Twitter, “Let us #PrayTogether for those on death row in the United States. Let us pray that their sentences may be commuted, changed. Let us think of these brothers and sisters of ours and ask the Lord for the grace to save them from death.” In an action alert, officials with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said, “President Biden has an extraordinary opportunity to advance the cause of human dignity by commuting all federal death sentences to terms of imprisonment and sparing the lives of the 40 men currently on federal death row.” In a separate message, officials with a bipartisan coalition including Catholic Mobilizing Network, former prison officials, family members of homicide victims, civil rights advocates, and pro-life advocates circulated a joint effort urging Biden to commute existing death sentences. With Assad’s Fall, Syria’s Nuncio Prays for New Prosperity DAMASCUS, Syria (OSV News) – Cardinal Mario Zenari, apostolic nuncio to Syria, told Vatican News he hopes the war-torn nation will “move toward reconciliation” and at least “some prosperity” under democratic rule, just hours after former Syrian President Bashar Assad fled Damascus for Russia. A lightning offensive by rebel groups ended the 50-year authoritarian rule of the Assad family on Sunday, December 8, while leaving the conflict-torn nation, mired in 13 years of civil war, at a crossroads. Among the concerns are the fate of Christians in the Muslim-majority nation. Cardinal Zenari told Vatican News that Aleppo’s bishops had met with rebels, who have expressed a desire to “respect the various religious denominations and Christians.” Michel Constantin, regional director for the Catholic Near East Welfare Association-Pontifical Mission in Lebanon and Syria, told OSV News in a December 8 email, “As for the situation of the Christians all over Syria, we have been in contact with many of our partners, and all information received says that the rebels have sent many messages to all minorities to reassure to them that the goal is to turn over the Assad regime and not to (seek) revenge from anyone.” Cardinal Zenari told Vatican News that “beyond reconciliation, we hope Syria can also find some prosperity because people have reached their limit.” He also expressed hope the international community would help build “a new Syria based on democratic principles.” Judge Approves New York Diocese’s $323 Million Bankruptcy Settlement ROCKVILLE CENTRE, New York (OSV News) – A Catholic diocese on New York’s Long Island has seen its long-running bankruptcy filing finally concluded, enabling hundreds of sexual abuse claims to be settled. “We are grateful to God that on December 4, the court confirmed the plan that resolves and ends the bankruptcy case for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, all our parishes, and related ministries,” officials with the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, said in a statement. Chief Judge Martin Glenn of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York signed off on the settlement, preliminarily announced in September and said by the diocese to total more than $323 million. In a first for U.S. Catholic diocesan bankruptcies, all of the Diocese of Rockville Centre’s parishes completed an “abbreviated Chapter 11” to ensure liability protection from claims covered by the settlement. The Long Island diocese initially filed for Chapter 11 in October 2020, ultimately facing some 500 claims under two New York State lookback laws. In its December 4 statement, the diocese expressed its hope that the plan would bring “some measure of healing to survivors” while allowing “the Church to carry on the saving mission of Jesus Christ.” Official Says Archbishop Sheen’s Beatification ‘Inevitable’ PEORIA, Illinois (OSV News) – Despite a few high-profile delays in recent years, the beatification of Venerable Fulton J. Sheen – the popular, scholarly archbishop and 20th-century pioneer of Catholic broadcasting – is “inevitable,” said the head of the Archbishop Fulton John Sheen Foundation, which supports his cause. “The desire to see Sheen beatified is increasing, and there is a growing devotion to him,” Monsignor Jason Gray, the foundation’s executive director, said. In an article for the foundation’s 2024 year-end newsletter, Monsignor Gray pointed to several indicators of Archbishop Sheen’s expanding reputation for holiness. “He didn’t just know about Jesus Christ,” Monsignor Gray told OSV News. “He knew Jesus Christ personally.” The late archbishop’s ability to combine sanctity, scholarship, and communications savvy as a powerful witness to the Gospel, said Monsignor Gray, who added that Sheen “brought his knowledge of the faith and his knowledge of Jesus Christ into the personal trials that we face in the world today.” After a firefighter placed a large wreath on the outstretched arm of a Marian statue near the Spanish Steps in Rome Dec. 8, 2024, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, other firefighters place flowers at the feet of the statue. (CNS photo/Pablo Esparza) The post News Briefs: December 15, 2024 appeared first on Today's Catholic.