A Vatican court has found Father Massimo Palombella, SDB, the former director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, guilty of embezzlement and has sentenced him to three years and two months in jail.

The court also rendered guilty verdicts against Michelangelo Nardella, the choir’s former business manager, and his wife, Simona Rossi. The former received a jail sentence of four years and eight months; the latter, a sentence of two years.

Palombella was the choir’s director from 2010 to 2019, when he resigned amid a financial investigation.

Christian leaders in Aleppo met with leaders of the newly installed Syrian government on December 9, and Chaldean Catholic Bishop Antoine Audo reported that the country’s new leaders evidently wanted to “build trust by respecting our traditions and our prayers.”

Despite concerns raised by the Islamic ideology of the new leadership, Bishop Audo said that they appeared “very interested” in his argument that Christians should not be treated as second-class citizens.

Bishop Audo said that the sudden fall of the Assad regime was the result of “an agreed international decision to secure a way out” after years of civil war. He said that Russia, which had backed Assad, was a party to this agreement: “Russia asked Assad to leave the country,” he said.

Pope Francis received leaders of Manos Unidas, the Catholic Committee of the Campaign against World Hunger, and encouraged them in their work against world hunger.

Recalling that the organization was established in 1959 by the women of Catholic Action in Spain, the Pope described the Virgin Mary as “ the quintessential Woman” and added:

With this male-dominated culture, we are used to seeing women, not as the dog or cat of the house, but as a second-class human being, and we forget that it is women who run the world and —some say —they are the ones who are in charge. But that’s fine. But the woman who runs a family, who runs the villages, who is close to the needs, that rich sensibility of women.

“Mary, with her heart rooted in God, continues to be attentive to the needs of her children, urges us to go out towards them and to bring them the Lord’s consolation,” he continued. “She is the fully realized model for our humanity, through which, with God’s grace, we can all contribute to improving our world. This is what you try to do, thanks to your characteristics and your intuition and reality as mothers, daughters, wives, and mothers-in-law.”

The Catholic bishops of Quebec have expressed concern about a proposal by Premier Francois Legault to ban prayer in public places.

Legault said that public prayer by Islamic groups was “not something we want in Quebec.” He said: “When we want to pray, we go to a church, we go to a mosque, but not in public places.” To “send a clear message” to Islamic activists, he suggested taking appropriate action to stop the practice.

Speaking for the bishops of Quebec, Bishop Martin Laliberté of Trois-Rivieres said that “praying is not dangerous.” He said that the bishops were “deeply concerned” about Legault’s statement, saying that any ban on public prayer would harm “minority religious groups that are perceived as different.”

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Giuseppe Pignatone, the president of the Vatican tribunal, who has reached the mandatory retirement age of 75.

Pignatone, who has led the criminal tribunal since 2019, presided over the controversial “trial of the century,” in which multiple defendants were convicted of financial misconduct. Appeals of those convictions are still pending before the tribunal.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone renewed his request for prayers for Nancy Pelosi, after the former Speaker revealed in an interview that she was ignoring the archbishop’s directive to abstain from Communion.

The archbishop asked for “prayers for the Speaker’s conversion on the issue of human life in the womb, that it be consistent with the respect for human dignity she displays in so many other contexts.” He added: “As a pastor of souls, my overriding concern and chief responsibility is the salvation of souls.”

The archbishop explained that he had a moral obligation to warn Pelosi about her spiritual peril, citing Ezekiel 3:21: “Since you did not warn them about their sin, they shall still die, and the just deeds that they performed will not be remembered on their behalf. I will, however, hold you responsible for their blood. If, on the other hand, you warn the just to avoid sin, and they do not sin, they will surely live because of the warning, and you in turn shall save your own life.”

Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said that she had defied the order of Archbishop Salvatore Cordeleone barring her from receiving Communion, and questioned the Vatican’s secret deal with Beijing, in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter.

Asked about her archbishop’s directive that she should not receive Communion because of her unswerving public support for unrestricted abortion, Pelosi said: “I received Communion anyway. That’s his problem, not mine.” She went on to say: “My Catholic faith is, Christ is my savior. It has nothing to do with the bishops.”

Regarding the Vatican’s relations with China, Pelosi asked: “Why should the Chinese government be having a say in the appointment of bishops?”

The Vatican has removed a Christmas creche that had been on display in the Paul VI auditorium, in which the Infant Jesus was wrapped in a keffiyeh. The display had been interpreted as a show of support for the Palestinian cause.

The creche, designed by a pair of artists from Bethlehem, and entitled: “Nativity of Bethlehem 2024,” and prompted protests from Israeli officials.

Following longstanding custom, Pope Francis left the Vatican on the afternoon of December 8 and traveled to the Piazza di Spagna in Rome, where he offered an act of veneration to the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Column of the Immaculate Conception (video).

The Pope’s prayer to Mary Immaculate included references to the 2025 jubilee year. Nearly a year after his public reprimand of Rome’s mayor over the city’s deficient functionality, the Pontiff expressed satisfaction that there are “construction sites everywhere in the city” and prayed for him:

Here, the Mayor is preparing so that everything during this commemoration, in this Holy Year will turn out well. We pray for the Mayor, who has so much work.

cna