The village of Dolton, Illinois, has designated Pope Leo XIV’s childhood home as a historic landmark.

An official of the town of 21,000, located just south of Chicago, said that the designation opens “the door for federal and state funding opportunities tied to historic preservation, tourism development, and community revitalization.”

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has lent its support to the Trump administration’s proposal to replace the word “gender” with the word “sex” in forms published by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Citing the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s 2024 document Dignitas Infinita, as well as the 2019 Vatican document Male and Female He Created Them, attorneys for the USCCB said that “the proposal reflects a true anthropology that is grounded in the biological sexual identity that is either male or female, an anthropology that promotes human flourishing.”

Robert Sullivan—until recently the vicar general, or second-ranking official, of the Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama—has been dispensed from the obligations of the clerical state at his own request.

Sullivan began a leave of absence last summer following the publication of a report that he carried on a sexual relationship with a young woman beginning when she was 17.

The woman “detailed years of sexual encounters, travel, financial support and a nondisclosure agreement for $273,000,” according to a local media report. Bishop Steven Raica said that “a diocesan financial review, initiated at my request due to the significant payments alleged to have been made by then-Father Sullivan, was recently completed and found no link between the allegations and any diocesan, parish, or school funds.”

The chapel in Rome’s Termini railway station—Italy’s busiest—has been closed after a man who appeared intoxicated desecrated the altar.

“The closure deprived commuters, workers and vulnerable individuals of a modest spiritual refuge,” noted the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe.

The vicar apostolic of Istanbul said in an interview that Pope Leo XIV’s recent apostolic journey there has awakened Turkish Catholics from their slumber.

Bishop Massimiliano Palinuro told AsiaNews that Pope Leo’s “powerful words, his message of peace, and his testimony of faith have rekindled hope in our communities. It was wonderful to see people’s enthusiasm, both in the preparation of the events and in their execution.”

“All of this creates a desire to start over and has awakened and reawakened our community from a certain torpor into which it had fallen, also generating considerable interest in the Christian message outside of the ecclesial context,” Bishop Palinuro said. In a nation that is 98% Muslim, “we could say that this visit has certainly had a positive impact on evangelization, on bearing witness to the Gospel message.”

A Nigerian archbishop dismissed claims that Christians are persecuted there.

Addressing a gathering of the Knights of St. Mulumba, Archbishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto asked:

If you are a Christian in Nigeria and you say you are persecuted, my question is: how? At least 80% of educated Nigerians are Christians, and up to 85% of the Nigerian economy is controlled by Christians. With such figures, how can anyone say Christians are being persecuted?

Referring to reports on the scope of Christian persecution, he added, “They are saying that 1,200 churches are burnt in Nigeria every year, and I ask myself, in which Nigeria? Interestingly, nobody approached the Catholic Church to get accurate data.”

The Holy See renewed its call for an end to the war in Ukraine, “not at some undefined moment in the future, but right now.”

Speaking yesterday at a special session of the UN General Assembly, Msgr. Robert D. Murphy, chargé d’affaires of the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, said that “the Holy See renews its appeal for an immediate ceasefire, which will pave the way for sincere and courageous dialogue.”

He added, “The Holy See calls upon all nations gathered here to reject passivity and provide tangible support for any initiative that could lead to genuine negotiations and lasting peace.”

Stating that the Russo-Ukrainian war has entered a “particularly dangerous” phase, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church called on members of his church to pray the Rosary daily at 8:00 PM and to engage in fervent prayer and fasting for peace.

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk’s call to prayer and fasting followed a decision of the church’s Synod of Bishops. Each of the church’s eparchies in Ukraine has a different designated day of prayer and fasting.

Major Archbishop Shevchuk said, “We see how various events of this full-scale war are unfolding before our eyes, and we ask ourselves: what should our response be? Let our response, as Christians who are ready for spiritual struggle, be prayer and fasting. Make this sacrifice for Ukraine.”

Caritas Internationalis, the Church’s confederation of relief and development agencies, issued a statement on the agreement reached by participants in COP30, the recent UN Climate Change Conference in Brazil.

“COP30 closed in Belém on 22 November with a fragile compromise that disappointed many climate-vulnerable nations,” Caritas said in a statement issued yesterday. “The summit ended ‘with a whimper’: progress on adaptation and just transition offered thin silver linings, while the failure to agree [to] a fossil fuel phase-out roadmap left a glaring hole at the heart of the deal.”

The Church celebrates the Optional Memorial of St. John Damascene (676-749), who was a learned theologian who carefully gathered together and transmitted to us the teaching of the Greek Fathers, and is thus one of the most trustworthy witnesses to oriental tradition. He also wrote many liturgical hymns still in use today. St. John Damascene died in 749. Leo XIII proclaimed him a Doctor of the Universal Church.