Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, one of the two pro-prefects of the Dicastery for Evangelization, recently concluded a visit to the United Arab Emirates, where he celebrated Mass for 30,000 in Dubai (the nation’s largest city) and 18,000 in Abu Dhabi (the nation’s capital).

Islam is the official religion of the Middle Eastern nation of 10 million (map); because of a large migrant population, only 75% of its residents are Muslim, while 13% are Christian (12% Catholic), 6% are Hindu, and 3% are Buddhist. Pope Francis made an apostolic journey there in 2019.

Over 20 million pilgrims have visited the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major during the 2025 jubilee year.

The basilica’s archpriest will close the basilica’s holy door for the jubilee year on December 25. The basilica is also the site of the tomb of Pope Francis, who died on April 21 and was interred there on April 26.

In a front-page op-ed in the Vatican newspaper, a prominent Holy Land Franciscan decried Israeli treatment of Palestinian civilians.

Writing in the December 20 edition of L’Osservatore Romano, Father Ibrahim Faltas, OFM, said that “around Gaza and the State of Palestine in the West Bank, physical and visible walls have been built that prevent access to the ‘unauthorized’: humanitarian aid and relatives, volunteers, journalists, and international observers.”

He added:

What or who prevents us from helping desperate human beings who live in an inhumane way? ... Who recognizes as enemies men and women exhausted by the pain of not being able to help those to whom they gave life, children and the elderly, easy targets of violence, human beings without strength and sick? What interest prohibits feeding, healing, and warming with what is available in abundance just a few steps away? Why not give the possibility of life to those who cannot live without the medicines that await them just beyond a crossing or a checkpoint?

Until earlier this year, Father Faltas was the second-ranking official of the Custody of the Holy Land, the Franciscan province there; he is now director of Terra Santa Schools.

The Vatican has announced the dates of the closing of the holy doors that were opened at the beginning of the 2025 jubilee year. The closing dates differ from the dates established by Pope Francis in Spes Non Confundit, his bull of indiction for the jubilee year.

The holy doors in Santa Maria Maggiore, the Lateran Basilica, and the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls were all originally scheduled to be closed on December 28. Under the new schedule, the archpriests of the three basilicas will close the respective holy doors on December 25, December 27, and December 28. Pope Leo XIV will close the holy door in St. Peter’s Basilica on January 6, as originally scheduled.

In addition, Cardinal Baldassare Reina closed the holy door in Rebibbia Prison on December 21. In his bull of indiction, Pope Francis expressed the hope of opening a holy door in a prison, but without establishing opening and closing dates; he opened the holy door in that prison last December 26.

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