As artificial intelligence reshapes the job market and the classroom, Catholic educators say their mission to form whole persons is more essential than ever.

Will Claeys, a junior at Thomas Aquinas College’s East Coast campus, isn’t overly concerned about whether his philosophy studies will be a liability in a job market that is becoming increasingly saturated with artificial intelligence (AI). If anything, they may be an asset.

“Right now, the AI job market is really valuing philosophy majors more than anyone else,” said Claeys in an interview with the Register. “They’re looking for people who can think conceptually and think in concepts.”

Amid concerns about the ripple effects of AI’s spread through the economy and culture, Claeys’ perspective is optimistic. Nonetheless, many Catholic higher-learning institutions are facing new questions about how potential upheavals in the job market may affect the relevance of a traditional liberal arts degree.

The issue of AI as it relates to liberal arts graduates “has come up multiple times, and the response is complex,” said Gregory Beabout, a philosophy professor and organizer of the “Pope Leo Series on AI and the Social Teaching of the Church” at Saint Louis University (SLU).

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‘The government has no case. All they’ve proven is that my father is a good man, a man who loves God, a man who loves freedom, who loves truth, and loves his family.’​

Editor’s Note: EWTN News President and COO Montse Alvarado conducted this interview with Claire Lai, the daughter of Jimmy Lai, a leading free-speech voice and Catholic who is currently imprisoned in Hong Kong on national security charges. The interview aired on EWTN News Nightly on Dec. 8. The transcript, in which Claire highlights the suffering and strong faith of Jimmy, as well as her brief visit with Pope Leo XIV, is below. Watch the interview via the link at the end of the transcript.



Claire, this is the first time that you're coming forward to talk about your father's imprisonment, to talk about his case. Why did you choose this moment? Why now?

Well, we are coming to the end of his trial. While we're still waiting for a verdict, five years after he was charged, he is turning 78. We have waited a very, very long time for his cases to be resolved. And we do not believe that they will be through the domestic system. And our only hope is outside. And so that's why I'm here now.

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Notre Dame’s Paolo Carozza argues that Big Tech’s influence is reshaping how we understand the human person — and says the Church must help recover a deeper vision of human dignity.

WASHINGTON — Paolo Carozza, a Notre Dame law professor and leading international human-rights expert, has long grappled with the threat to human dignity — earning him the notice of Pope Francis, who tapped him for a lifetime appointment to the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

Today, as co-chair of Meta’s Oversight Board — created by CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2018 to help restore public trust amid accusations of disinformation and censorship — Carozza has turned his attention to the challenges of the digital age, both in his role as a watchdog for the tech giant and in his academic work.

This isn’t a career shift. According to Carozza, Meta — the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads — recruited him to serve on its oversight board because of his extensive background in international human rights.

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A White House message marking the Immaculate Conception repeated a common misunderstanding about when the Incarnation began — a truth central to the Church’s pro-life witness.

The White House marked the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception — the first of two major Marian feasts this week with a direct connection to the sanctity of unborn human life — with a presidential messagecelebrating the occasion.

For the most part, President Trump’s message was extremely welcome. It’s reflective of the priority this administration has assigned to recognizing America’s Christian foundation, and the contributions made to American public life by individual Catholics and the Catholic faith in general.

But the Dec. 8 message also included an unfortunate error with respect to the moment the Son of God took on our humanity and commenced his earthly life as Jesus Christ.

According to the presidential message celebrating the Virgin Mary’s own conception without any stain of original sin, “God became man when Mary gave birth to a son, Jesus, who would go on to offer his life on the Cross for the redemption of sins and the salvation of the world” [emphasis added].

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In the previous chapter (chapter 15) we read the words of Jesus to his disciples letting them know that if they follow him with their lives that they will be hated by the world as Jesus was hated. But who were Jesus’ fiercest opponents? They were not the people out in the world, but they were the rulers and the teachers and the scholars and the people of influence within the gatherings of the people of God, in the temple of God. And today this would be the people of power and influence within the church gatherings.

So, let’s look at what this looks like today within the gatherings of at least what are being referred to as “churches.” If we are at all like Jesus when he walked this earth, and if we are doing the kinds of things he did, speaking the words that he spoke to the people, in the correct biblical context, then we should be experiencing some of the same types of situations as he faced when he lived on the earth, and by many of the same types of people, i.e. the people of power, rule, and authority within the church gatherings.

We should literally be being treated as outcasts within the gatherings of the church (or what is falsely being referred to as “church”). Why? Because so much of what are being referred to as “churches” today, at least here in the USA, are conglomerates of human origin, businesses of human making being marketed to the people of the world. Thus, many of them are altering the meaning of the church and the truth of the gospel of Christ in order to draw in large crowds of people from the world into their gatherings.

So, if we do not align ourselves with their marketing schemes and with their modern ways of “doing church,” as the saying goes, but if we are what they call “dinosaurs” who hold fast to the teachings of the Scriptures in their appropriate true biblical context, who will not compromise truth and righteousness in order to be liked by the world, then we are likely to literally be treated as outcasts. And some of us may even be pushed out or invited to leave and to go someplace else where we will be “a better fit.”

And this is not necessarily about anyone causing a ruckus or a huge disturbance of any kind, or speaking out of order without permission to speak. But it can be solely based in our beliefs and practices and in the words spoken in the correct order, as called upon to speak, or in words spoken in personal communications with others, or in words taught in small group gatherings when given permission to speak or to teach. And because we hold to the truths of what the Scriptures teach, we are now outcasts.

For we do not compromise our faith in order to attract the world and to appease the world with niceties intended to tickle itching ears and to make people feel good about themselves, even if they are engrossed in deliberate and habitual sin against God while professing faith in Jesus Christ. But we speak the truth of the Scriptures, spoken in love, because we care about people and their relationships with God and whether or not they will spend eternity in heaven with God, and even if they hate and reject us, in return.

In the USA, they may not yet put us to death because of our beliefs, but that time will come. But they have other ways of “killing” us by making us into outcasts and by vilifying those of us who still hold to the truths of the Scriptures in their correct biblical context. And they will accuse us falsely of teaching “works” salvation, even though we teach what Jesus and his New Testament apostles taught, in the correct biblical context. And so they will convince many people to not listen to us, and to reject our words.

But in all of this we are to remain true to the Scriptures and what they teach us in the correct and appropriate biblical context. We are to test whatever we hear spoken from others who teach the Scriptures so that we know the truth and we don’t end up believing the lies. For so many people today are willfully teaching the Scriptures out of context, and they are twisting the words to make them say what they do not say if taught in context, and in order to appease human flesh and to not call people to true repentance.

So, study the Scriptures for yourselves, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and read them in their full and appropriate context so that you get their true meaning. And then believe what they teach, and put what they teach us into daily practice in your daily lives. And do not worry about how other people will receive you, or whether or not they will reject you. But be who God intends for you to be, doing the will of God for your lives, obeying his commands, and sharing the truth of the gospel with the world.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

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They Will Make You Outcasts
An Original Work / December 10, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Three months after a deadly shooting in Minneapolis that left two students dead and injured 18 others as well as three adults, Archbishop Bernard Hebda, along with Auxiliary Bishops Kevin Kenney and Michael Izen, said a special Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church on Dec. 6 that included a rite of reparation to restore the church for worship.

On Aug. 27, Robin Westman — who was born “Robert” and identified as a woman –shot through the stained glass windowsof the church during a morning Mass filled with Annunciation school students in first through eighth grade, killing Fletcher Merkel, eight, and Harper Moyski, 10.

Westman, who had posted anti-Christian and explicit messages on social media before the attack, then killed himself at the scene.

"Our Blessed Mother lived this faith and cooperated with God's plan for her life, despite the difficulties it would occasion,” Hebda prayed outside the building just before the Dec. 6 Mass. “We profess that our souls now will rejoin hers in proclaiming the greatness of the Lord in this church, dedicated in her honor, and now reclaimed for the glory of God."

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Pope Leo XIV said President Donald Trump’s plan to end Russia’s war against Ukraine threatens to break apart the alliance between Europe and the United States.

Asked by reporters Dec. 9 to comment on the initiative's fairness, the pope said, “I would rather not comment on that. I haven’t read the whole thing. Unfortunately, some parts I have seen make a huge change in what was for many years a true alliance between the EU and U.S.”

The pope commented to reporters after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Castel Gandolfo.

Pope Leo said, “The remarks [by Trump] that were made about Europe recently are, I think, trying to break apart what I think is an important alliance today and in the future. It’s a program that President Trump and his advisers put together, and he’s the president of the U.S. And he has a right to do that.”

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday ordered diplomats to return to using Times New Roman font in official communications, calling his predecessor Antony Blinken’s decision to adopt Calibri a “wasteful” diversity move, according to an internal department cable seen by Reuters.

The department under Blinken in early January 2023 had switched to Calibri, a modern sans-serif font, saying this was a more accessible font for people with disabilities because it did not have the decorative angular features and was the default in Microsoft products.

“To restore decorum and professionalism to the Department’s written work products and abolish yet another wasteful DEIA program, the Department is returning to Times New Roman as its standard typeface,” the cable said.

The Vatican’s Dicastery for Clergy has declared that several parishes in the Diocese of Buffalo, New York can remain open after Bishop Michael Fisher ordered their closure amid a diocesan-wide renewal plan.

Save Our Buffalo Churches, which has advocated against church closure proposals in the diocese’s “Road to Renewal” plan, said in a Dec. 8 Facebook post that the Vatican has revoked the closures of three parishes since November, with a fourth parish receiving a temporary reprieve from the diocese itself.

The closures and mergers of Our Lady of Peace Parish and Holy Apostles Parish have been revoked by the dicastery, the group said.

As well, the Vatican said it will also examine the “asset appropriation” levied by the diocese against those parishes. The group confirmed to CNA on Dec. 9 that those appropriations, if collected, are meant to help fund the diocese’s ongoing bankruptcy settlement for clergy abuse victims.

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What do Galileo, Mozart, Descartes, Cervantes, and St. Thérèse of Lisieux have in common? They all traveled hundreds of miles to step inside the Virgin Mary’s house, which is preserved inside a basilica in the small Italian town of Loreto.

Catholic pilgrims have flocked to the Holy House of Loreto since the 14th century to stand inside the walls where tradition holds the Virgin Mary was born, raised, and greeted by the angel Gabriel.

In other words, if it is actually the house of Nazareth, it is where the “Word became flesh” at the Annunciation, a point on which the history of humanity turned.

There is an often-repeated story that angels carried the Holy House from Palestine to Italy and while modern listeners may doubt the legend’s veracity, historic documents have vindicated the beliefs of pious pilgrims over the centuries — with an ironic twist.

Tradition holds that the Holy House arrived in Loreto on Dec. 10, 1294, after a miraculous rescue from the Holy Land as the Crusaders were driven out of Palestine at the end of the 13th century.

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Several disability and patient advocacy groups filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Delaware on Dec. 8 alleging that Delaware’s new physician-assisted suicide law discriminates against people with disabilities.

In May 2025, Delaware passed a bill legalizing physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill adults with a prognosis of six months or less to live. The law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2026, allows patients to self-administer lethal medication.

The 74-page complaint alleges that the new law is unconstitutional under both Delaware and federal law and violates the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, among other challenges.

Plaintiffs include the Institute for Patients’ Rights; The Freedom Center for Independent Living, Inc., in Middletown; the Delaware chapter of ADAPT; Not Dead Yet; United Spinal Association, the National Council on Independent Living; and disability advocate Sean Curran.

The lawsuit, which names Gov. Matthew Meyer and the Delaware Department of Health and Human Services as two of several defendants, said that “people with life-threatening disabilities” are at “imminent risk” because of Delaware's new law.

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Christians in Nigeria continue to demonstrate resilience and vitality amid violent assaults by extremist groups such as Boko Haram, a priest from the West African country has said.

In a recent interview with Christian Peschken of EWTN Germany, CNA’s news partner, Father Maurice Emelu, now a U.S. citizen and founder of Gratia Vobis Ministries, describes the extraordinary ability of faith in Nigeria to blossom “in harsh soil.”

“In Nigeria, faith grows in the very places where life tries to break it. Our people are not romanticizing pain; they are discovering Christ in it,” Emelu said. “The Church thrives not because our challenges are small but because grace is stubborn. Grace has a way of blooming in harsh soil.”

In an attempt to describe the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, he said, “Suffering here has a face… Violence and killings happen with such astonishing frequency that one feels it isn’t real. People tell me many killings never even reach the media. The pain is simply unbearable.”

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The number of American adults who identify with Christianity, with another religion, or with no religion have all remained steady, a new Pew Research Center report finds.

Surveys conducted since 2020 have generally found that about 70% of U.S. adults identify with a religion. The numbers have slightly fluctuated, but there has been no clear rise or fall in religious affiliation over the five-year period.

A Pew Research Center study, Religion Holds Steady in America, summarizes the latest trends in American religion and examines religion among young adults. The report is based on Pew’s National Public Opinion Reference Survey(NPORS), which has annually surveyed a random sample of U.S. adults since 2020. It also draws from the U.S. Religious Landscape Study (RLS), which surveyed 36,908 adults from July 17, 2023 to March 4, 2024.

The report also uses data from the General Social Survey and the American Time Use Survey.

The research revealed that after Pew found a decline in Christianity in the country from 2007 to 2020, the decline has halted and there is a stable presence of Christianty and religion in the nation.

Young women’s religiosity shifts​

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Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III, senior pastor of the 13,000-member Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, who counts Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, among his flock, launched a bid to fill her District 30 congressional seat Monday after she formally announced her run for the U.S. Senate on the same day.

The announcements from both Haynes and Crockett came just a day after he delivered a politically charged sermoncritical of President Donald Trump and the U.S. Supreme Court, with Crockett in the audience. He would later pray for Crockett, asking God to protect her and give her courage.

“She's Jasmine putting injustice in jeopardy. She's Jasmine. She's cool. She's calm, collected, and a Crockett,” Haynes told his church as he claimed the 44-year-old staunch liberal politician is “the nation’s congresswoman.”

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Governments in the world’s five remaining Communist countries are intensifying control over Christian churches, according to an analysis by a persecution watchdog, which says churches are facing growing legal, financial and operational restrictions under regimes in China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam.

Authorities in China require churches to register with the state and operate under a system called Sinicization, which mandates that sermons and practices incorporate Chinese cultural elements and Communist Party ideology, according to an analysis by the U.S.-based group International Christian Concern.

Churches in China must also submit to financial audits by government officials and disclose all sources and uses of funding, it adds.

A 2022 regulation known as the Measures for the Financial Management of Venues for Religious Activities empowers Chinese religious affairs departments to inspect and audit church assets, the report explains. Article 43 of the regulation states that relevant government departments may conduct inspections of religious activity sites, it points out.

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This week marks a significant turning point in the national debate over political violence, free speech and federal overreach. AFA Action — joined by more than 50 pro-life, family-policy, and religious-liberty organizations — sent a sweeping coalition letter to Speaker Mike Johnson urging immediate and full repeal of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

The FACE Act makes it a federal crime to use physical force, threat of physical force, or physical obstruction to interfere with anyone seeking an abortion, or exercising their First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.

The breadth of this coalition is itself newsworthy. It reflects a growing consensus across the conservative movement that this law is no longer a neutral safeguard but a deeply politicized weapon that undermines constitutional rights.

For decades, critics of the FACE Act have warned that its vague language and broad prosecutorial powers make it ripe for abuse. But the coalition letter represents a new level of urgency. These 50+ organizations are not merely raising concerns — they are sounding the alarm that the FACE Act has become a serious and escalating threat to peaceful citizens whose only “crime” is acting on their deeply held convictions.

The assault on Charlie Kirk underscores the urgency

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When high-profile, Western-led ministries announce goals like “reaching every person on earth” by 2033 — the 2,000-year anniversary of the resurrection and Pentecost — it sounds bold and visionary in conference halls throughout America. Eastern missionaries in places like South Korea have expressed this goal as well.

But for our Christian brothers and sisters who are already a tiny minority in their nations, and who often face tremendous persecution, these public declarations are a recipe for trouble.

Every time a slogan like this goes viral, local churches face a new wave of attacks, from negative press and harassment to police raids and even dubious anti-conversion laws. We saw it in the late 1990s with the AD 2000 & Beyond Movement and the Joshua Project. The Joshua Project database was used as “proof” in the Indian Parliament of a foreign conspiracy to convert India by the year 2000. Politicians who feel threatened by the Gospel, and even those who don’t hold a strong opinion about it, were handed ammunition on a platter.

These date-specific, target-driven campaigns come straight out of a Manhattan-style management playbook — featuring SMART goals, KPIs, dashboards, and countdown clocks. They are backed by the economic muscle of a few Christian-majority nations and networks.

Evangelical Christians in relatively safe environments need to understand that this combination feels imperial, even when the intentions are sincere.

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The Christian God has always been defined as timeless, immaterial, and who caused matter into existence. Skeptics continue to claim, however, that there isn’t enough evidence to warrant reasonable belief in the existence of God. With modern science, I believe that denying the inferences to God can only be sustained by playing skeptical games. Let me explain why.

I am reading the currently released English translation of an international bestseller, originally written in French (2021) by Michel-Yves Bollore and Olivier Bonnassies. The research is comprehensive. Their purpose is not to defend a particular religious belief. The authors unpack how in the history of science inferential indicators of God were often discouraged, but not for scientific reasons. In God, the Science, the Evidence: the Dawn of a Revolution, they explained:

“Our ability to accept a claim, scientific or otherwise, depends on more than rational evidence. . . The phenomenon is particularly acute when one broaches the subject of the existence of God, because what is at stake is not just some point of scientific data but the very meaning of our life... For many people, the desire to be free and autonomous ... takes precedence over everything else. Their inmost-self recoils from this idea of God: to defend itself, it mobilizes all its intellectual resources to oppose the search for truth and to protect its own perceived independence and freedom.” [1]

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“This phenomenon” of defending skepticism when challenged by the subject of God was also critiqued by the authors saying, “instead of stimulating thoughtful discussion, the subject often provokes reactions ranging from annoyed indifference to ridicule, contempt, and even violence.”[2] I am being convinced that a skeptic is suppressing inferential knowledge of God for personal reasons. Furthermore, it’s not difficult to discern how the rhetorical games of skepticism are necessary to keep denials going.

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When a small, yet vocal group of critics labeled Skillet’s new Christmas single, a rock 'n’ roll version of “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” as “demonic,” frontman John Cooper didn’t react defensively. Instead, he laughed. Because, in his words, the response felt familiar and something he's been navigating for almost his entire life.

The 50-year-old Grammy-nominated artist grew up in a deeply conservative Christian home where rock music — especially Christian rock — was viewed as a spiritual danger.

“I grew up in a very fundamentalist home,” he told The Christian Post. “I went to Bill Gothard seminars as a young person because my family was so into that stuff.”

His late mother, who died from cancer when he was 15, remains one of the most important figures in shaping his spiritual foundation. She was, in his words, a “Jesus fanatic” who taught him the Bible and helped him memorize Scripture.

“I've got nothing negative to say about my mom in the world. She was amazing,” he said.

But his upbringing, the singer shared, also included a strain of legalism.

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A petition written by a group of ethnic-minority pastors within the Presbyterian Church in America went viral this week after accusing the largest conservative Presbyterian denomination in the U.S. of being spiritually abusive, sidelining women and "demonizing" gay people, among other grievances.

"We write as ethnic minority pastors and leaders within the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) with hearts full of gratitude and grief," reads the petitiontitled "A Call to Prayer & Lament," the authenticity of which a knowledgeable PCA source confirmed to The Christian Post.

'A schismatic culture'

While expressing gratitude for "the ways God has used this denomination to shape our faith, theology, and ministries," the petition laid out four scathing "laments" against the PCA: fostering "a schismatic culture," sidelining "minority and female leaders," supplanting "confessional generosity" with "theological rigidity," and allowing "denominational burden" to become "an obstacle to mission."

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The “yellow line” that divides Gaza under the ceasefire plan is now claimed as the “new border”. The IDF Chief Eyal Zamir, said Israel would hold to the current lines behind the yellow line would be held as the border of Israel and presumably defended as such. Here are the facts..

"Military chief says current division of Strip is a ‘forward defensive line for the communities and an offensive line,’ hours after PM says phase 2 of ceasefire deal is imminent
During a visit to the Gaza Strip on Sunday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said that the Yellow Line, demarcating where the Israeli military withdrew to under the terms of the ongoing ceasefire, is “a new border line.”

“We will not allow Hamas to reestablish itself. We control large parts of the Gaza Strip and stand along [strategic] lines. The Yellow Line is a new border line, a forward defensive line for the communities and an offensive line,” Zamir said during a tour of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia, in remarks provided by the IDF." ... https://www.timesofisrael.com/touri...-zamir-says-gaza-ceasefire-line-a-new-border/

... IDF chief: Gaza's Yellow Line is Israel's new border line | The Jerusalem Post

Poland cannot be fully understood without Mary. Without her, one cannot grasp what Poland truly is, nor discern its divine calling and ultimate mission. The Virgin Mary stands at the very heart of Poland’s history — a history in which, the destiny of a nation has become intertwined with the mystery of faith.

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Tolkien isn’t being cute. He is revealing the structure of reality. A door that cannot be forced is opened by friendship. By communion. Not power, but relationship. Not command, but the posture of a friend.

The moment reads us because we, too, try everything but the one thing the gate requires. The one thing that is ever before us.

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Advent is often described simply as the season leading to Christmas—a time of wreaths, candles, carols, and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity. Yet the Church teaches that Advent is far richer than a countdown to a historical event.

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From Scott Hahn on Facebook...A remarkable YouTube video detailing the recent discovery of a 6th century Byzantine Church in the newly excavated ruins of Bethsaida (el-Araj) the Galilean hometown of Sts. Peter, Andrew, and Phillip (John 1:44). The video does a good job explaining the significance of a Greek inscription uncovered on the Church’s mosaic tile floor, identifying St. Peter as “chief of the apostles” and “keeper of the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 16:19). The narrator traces Jesus’ statement to Peter back to the dynastic symbolism of “the key of the house of David “in Isaiah 22:22. Don’t miss this!

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