México – Vatican Approves “Mayan Mass”
The Vatican has approved the Mayan rite of the Mass which will involve ritual dancing, women taking the place of the priest in incensing the altar, and lay leadership of certain prayers in the liturgy.
The announcement came via Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel, who is bishop emeritus of the San Cristobal de Las Casas diocese in Mexico and one of the leading promoters of this new rite.
Writing in his weekly column November 13, Arizmendi joyfully revealed that the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has “with the authority of the Pope, on November 8 of this year, granted the long-awaited recognitio of some liturgical adaptations for the celebration of the Holy Mass in the Tseltal, Tsotsil, Ch’ol, Tojolabal, and Zoque ethnic groups of the diocese of San Cristóbal de Las Casas.”
Echoing Pope Francis on the topic, Arizmendi opined that such rites “are a form of incarnation of faith in expressions that are very specific to these cultures. We did not invent them, but we adopted what they live and which is in accordance with the Roman rite.”
“If there are deviations in some indigenous customs, we can help them to reach their fullness in Christ and in his Church,” he said. (LifeSiteNews)
Ecumenism – Francis Proposes Joint Catholic-Orthodox 1700th Anniversary Celebration of Nicea
Pope Francis has proposed celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea together with Orthodox leaders, in a personal letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.
The letter, published by the Vatican November 30, was delivered by Cardinal Kurt Koch — who heads the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity — during a visit to Istanbul for the patronal feast of the Orthodox Church.
“The now imminent 1,700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea will be another opportunity to bear witness to the growing communion that already exists among all who are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” Francis wrote in his message.
Reflecting on six decades of Catholic-Orthodox dialogue while looking ahead to future possibilities for unity, the Pope acknowledged the progress made since Vatican II’s Unitatis Redintegratio decree marked the Catholic Church’s official entry into the ecumenical movement 60 years ago.
In a pointed observation about contemporary global tensions, the pontiff connected ecumenical efforts to peace-building.
“The fraternity lived and the witness given by Christians will also be a message for our world plagued by war and violence,” he wrote, specifically mentioning Ukraine, Palestine, Israel and Lebanon.
The Pope also highlighted the recent participation of Orthodox representatives in October’s Synod on Synodality. (Catholic World Report)
Vatican – New Preacher of Papal Household Says Bible May Approve Homosexuality
Vatican News reported November 9 that “The Holy Father has appointed as Preacher of the Papal Household the Reverend Father Roberto Pasolini, OFM Cap., Professor of Biblical Exegesis at the Theological Faculty of Northern Italy in Milan.”
The new Preacher replaces Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa, also a Capuchin Friar Minor who had been appointed June 23, 1980 by Pope Saint John Paul II.
The appointment raised red flags in some circles of the Church when it was noted that earlier in 2024, Fr. Passolini had addressed a conference on “Homosexuality and Christian Life,” in which he opined that the Bible might contain some “form of approval of homosexual relationships.”
In the talk, he went on to say, “The great story that is often invoked as a story of homosexual love is the one between Jonathan and David… Surely there were stories of homosexual love at the time, this is evident, so nothing prevents us from being able to think it, from being able to imagine it.”
“Another reference,” he continued, “this one perhaps more known to all, is the famous Roman centurion: do you remember the one who goes to Jesus?…Well, this story begins like this: ‘A centurion had his sick servant, and that servant was very dear to him…’ But why was he so dear to him? Did he work well? Maybe he worked more than the others? We could also think so, or, as some say, maybe there was a relationship between the two of them.” (ITV staff)
China – New Bishop Pushes the “Gospel of Xi”
On July 15, the Holy See announced Pope Francis had appointed Joseph Shen Bin as Bishop of Shanghai, China, transferring him from Haimen. Notably, Shen Bin had already been installed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over three months earlier. The Vatican stated it had “rectified a canonical irregularity” for “the greater good of the diocese.”
Bishop Shen Bin then went to Rome in May 2024, to give a speech at a conference also attended by Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, proclaiming that religious liberty reigns in China.
As for his Shanghai Diocese, expectations were focused on the seminar organized from November 4 to 6, 2024, about “Sinicization of Religion in Shanghai,” immediately after the Vatican Synod of October.
Catholics who attended the seminar told Bitter Winter (an online magazine on religious liberty and human rights in China) that the Bishop did not discuss at all the Vatican Synod nor Pope Francis and his recent documents. On the contrary, he focused on “Sinicization,” which, as it is now clear, does not mean adapting religion to Chinese customs but to the CCP’s ideology.
The conference encouraged the clergy of Shanghai to study and spread through lay gatherings and sermons the documents of “the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CCP Central Committee” and “General Secretary Xi Jinping’s thought on Sinicization of religion” (again, no mention of the Vatican’s documents or the Pope’s encyclicals).
The Bishop also emphasized the need for stricter cooperation with the United Front Work Department, which is in charge of controlling and supervising “official” religion in China.
The recently-installed Bishop Shen Bin is promising to bring the good news of the Gospel to Catholics in Shanghai. But it is the Gospel of Xi Jinping. (BitterWinter.org)
France – Vatican Ban of Latin Mass at Annual Chartres Pilgrimage?
The Vatican could consider “banning certain celebrations” of the Latin Mass at the 2025 Chartres pilgrimage, an annual event on Pentecost weekend for those dedicated to the Tridentine Mass, the newspaper of France’s bishops reports.
“According to consistent information in Paris and Rome, the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments believes that this annual gathering raises questions of compliance with the rules in force on the Mass in the ancient rite,” La Croix reports. “And would indeed consider banning certain celebrations.”
The newspaper said that the 2025 event, which the Notre-Dame de Chrétienté association will hold June 7 to 9, should again attract thousands of pilgrims to Chartres Cathedral. The outlet also reported that British Cardinal Arthur Roche, the Dicastery’s prefect, “believes that the organizers of the event are not respecting the norms.”
In 2024, the 60-mile Chartres pilgrimage garnered record numbers of attendees, with between 18,000-20,000 pilgrims, according to the Catholic Herald UK. The pilgrimage also has a notably young demographic: the average age of the pilgrims is 23.
“But the question remains: when the spirit of the age is so set against everything this pilgrimage stands for, why is it so popular?” Paul Sapper wrote for the Catholic Herald. “As a 26-year-old Catholic man, I attended the pilgrimage precisely for this reason — it offers everything the world is lacking and badly needs.” (CatholicVote.org)
Vatican’s uncertain announcement of LGBTQ pilgrimage for Jubilee
“Everyone is welcome. They are on the calendar like many others,” said the Vatican, through Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the organizer of the Holy Year, confirming the historic step of a LGBTQ 2025 Jubilee pilgrimage. For the first time, a specific event will be dedicated to Catholic homosexuals. The initiative was launched by the Tent of Jonathan, founded in 2018, which says that its purpose is to “help society and the Churches to open up to the understanding and reception of homosexual people.”
The September 6, 2025 event has been blessed not only by the Pope but also by the president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, according to reports. But as of December 10, the LGBTQ pilgrimage was quietly removed from the official schedule after much attention in the media.
A week later, the Vatican said the removal was only due to lack of needed information, and was temporary. (ITV staff/Il Messagero)
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