The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that all member-states must recognize marriages—including same-sex unions—that are legally contracted in other EU member-states.

The court ruling does not require EU nations to accept same-sex marriage, but to recognize as married those couples who have formed a union in another EU state. The ruling was made in a case involving a Polish homosexual couple who entered into a legal marriage in Germany; the court ruled that Poland must recognize their union.

Along with Poland, several other EU states do not recognize same-sex marriage: Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia.

The Vatican’s structural budget deficit fell from 83.5 million euros in 2023 ($97.2M) to less than 44.5 million euros ($51.8M) in 2024, according to recently released financial statements.

The Holy See’s budget as a whole had a surplus of 1.6 million euros ($1.9M) because of donations and investments.

An organization of Vatican employees has questioned the accuracy of budget figures released by the Secretariat for the Economy.

The Association of Vatican Lay Employees reacted to the financial report “with skepticism and even greater uncertainty about their fate.” The group argued that a surge in donations and the sale of real assets had produced artificial gains over the past year, camouflaging long-term budgetary shortfalls. “The structural problem remains unresolved,” the group insisted, expressing particular concern about an underfunded pension program.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, one of the two pro-prefects of the Dicastery for Evangelization, told Asian cardinals, bishops, and lay leaders that “we need more wise people, pilgrims who seek, listen, learn, and worship. We need less Herod, trapped in fear, power, and despair.”

Cardinal Tagle was the keynote speaker at the Great Pilgrimage of Hope, a gathering held in Penang, Malaysia, and organized by the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences. Ten cardinals, 104 bishops, and some 900 lay leaders took part in the gathering.

Father Gabriel Romanelli, the pastor of Gaza’s sole Catholic parish, pleaded for prayers and material support for Gaza as Christmas approaches.

The priest told Aid to the Church in Need that “the world should know that there are over two million people here who have nothing and need everything.” The parish continues to house 450 people.

The retired Bishop of Eichstatt has joined several other German prelates in criticizing a document on sexual identity that has been promulgated by the German bishops’ conference.

Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke said that he had reviewed a draft of the document “very critically.” The final product, he said, conveys the impression “that we no longer truly believe what we should proclaim about humanity as God’s creation and image.”

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne has also expressed dissatisfaction with the document, as have Bishops Stefan Oster of Passau and Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg.

The chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace wrote a letter of solidarity to the bishop of Kontagora, Nigeria, following the kidnapping of 315 students and teachers from a Catholic school there.

“This Advent, we offer our prayers for our Nigerian brothers and sisters, in Niger state and elsewhere, who have been violently separated from their loved ones, and who await their return,” Bishop A. Elias Zaidan wrote in his letter to Bishop Bulus Dauwa Yohanna. “Together, we pray for peace, security, and solidarity among all Nigerians, and for the particular care and protection of the nation’s young people.”

A Vatican diplomat welcomed positive aspects of a new UN document on human trafficking, but expressed reservations about its “problematic language.”

Msgr. Marco Formica, counselor at the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, expressed reservations about the document’s references to surrogacy, “sexual and reproductive health-care services,” and gender. The document, the 2025 Political Declaration on the Implementation of the United Nations Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, was adopted by the UN General Assembly on November 24.

The Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe recently hosted a three-day meeting on “Nostra Aetate, 60 Years On: Perspectives on Catholic-Muslim Dialogue.”

Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald, M Afr, delivered the keynote address. Themes of the meeting included “Christian-Muslim Relations in Germany” and “Interreligious Dialogue and Youth.”

Nostra Aetate, issued in 1965, is the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions.

Italian Catholic and Orthodox prelates gathered in Venice yesterday to mark the 60th anniversary of the joint declaration of Pope St. Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople. The declarations lifted the mutual excommunications pronounced by their predecessors at the beginning of the East-West Schism (1054).

Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi (president of the Italian Episcopal Conference), Patriarch Francesco Moraglia of Venice, and Metropolitan Polykarpos (the Greek Orthodox primate of Italy) took part in the commemoration.