Pope Francis closed the
Year of Faith by calling on people to keep Christ at the center of their
lives, especially in times of trouble. "When Jesus is at the center,
light shines even the darkest moments of our lives; he gives us hope,"
he said in his homily November 24, the feast of Christ the King. The closing
Mass in St. Peter's Square also saw, for the first time, the exposition
for public veneration of bones believed to be those of St. Peter. The
apostle is believed to have been martyred on a hill overlooking St.
Peter's Square and buried a tomb now located two levels below the main
altar of St. Peter's Basilica. Eight bone fragments, each two to three
centimeters long, were nestled in an open bronze reliquary displayed to
the side of the altar. During the ceremony, the pope -- the 265th
successor of Peter -- held the closed reliquary for several minutes in
silent prayer while choirs sang the Nicene Creed in Latin. The bones,
which were discovered during excavations of the necropolis under St.
Peter's Basilica in the 1940s, are kept in the pope's private chapel but
had never been displayed in public. While no pope has ever declared the
bones to be authentic, Pope Paul VI said in 1968 that the "relics" of
St. Peter had been "identified in a way which we can hold to be
convincing." How can you not love Pope Francis? His honesty and decision to make the papacy as transparent as possible recalls the ministry of Jesus Christ while He was on earth. I am thankful that God has decided to allow Pope Francis to lead His church.
The release of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s note, Mater Populi Fidelis , on November 4, 2025, seems to have sparked some immediate and widespread confusion, driven largely by sensationalist headlines from secular sources. In response to requests, particularly surrounding a potential Fifth Marian Dogma of Spiritual Maternity , the DDF addressed the usage of titles like Co-redemptrix and Mediatrix. Unfortunately, this has led to a large contingent online and in the media claiming that the Church has "tossed out" centuries of doctrine, with some outside the Church even proclaiming a "victory" over Catholic teaching (This may be the saddest part of it all, that we as Christians, are "competing" with each other). It is essential to understand that this doctrinal note is fundamentally about titles and clarity, not doctrine and change according to the Vatican News. The true teachings regarding Mary's unique role in salvation remain inviolabl...