Happy Friday friends,
It’s the Friday before Christmas so this is, God willing, the last you’ll be hearing from me for a week or so.
By custom, we close The Pillar for the holidays between Dec. 25 and the New Year. We take it in turns to serve as nightwatchman, just in case something unignorable happens in the news, and we do our best to store up some good news stories to post over the break.
But we make a point of living important feasts like Christmas and Holy Week as Catholics first, not as journalists. Given the nature of our work, we’ve found this is important. It matters that we keep the feasts of the Church as celebrations, not as content.
Without getting too much into “feelings talk,” it matters that we nurture and prioritize our relationship with the faith and with the Church as mother first, object of professional interest a distant second.
Christmas is a time for joyful expectation, for waiting for the Lord, and for recalling with gratitude all the blessings of Providence of the year past.
To that end, I have much to be thankful for. Most recently for the graces of the Pillar pilgrimage we just returned from last week, and most especially for the continued privilege of continuing to be able to do this work for a living.
It’s been a bit of a wild ride this year, especially, following the death of Pope Francis, the conclave, and the election of Pope Leo. For The Pillar, this has meant the superficially contradictory trends of lots — but lots — more readers, but a notable dip in paying subscribers since the pope was elected.
That means JD and I will have to think a little harder, and a little more out of the box, as we look ahead to next year, from a business perspective.
But from a personal perspective, the year has only underlined for me how deeply fortunate we are to have the subscribers we do.
It’s them — you subscribers — who keep The Pillar open every day. If I could buy each of you a drink to say thank you, I would. Meanwhile, thank you. Sincerely.
Here’s the news.
The News
The new Archbishop of Westminster was announced this morning, with the Vatican confirming that Pope Leo had chosen Bishop Richard Moth to replace Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who turned 80 years old earlier this year.
Moth, 67, until today the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, was a relatively late candidate in the process to select the new archbishop in London (whose archdiocese isn’t actually called “London,” for good historical reasons) — a job historically on par with, say, New York, for global prominence, with a slew of candidates having fallen under consideration in recent months and even years.
So, who is he, and what’s he all about?
—
The Bishop of Charlotte announced Wednesday that altar rails, kneelers, and prie-dieus will not be permitted for reception of the Eucharist in the diocese, beginning next month.
Bishop Martin’s pastoral letter emphasized standing to receive the Eucharist as the normative posture in the United States, while also acknowledging that Catholics have a right to receive kneeling if they wish to do so, and cannot be denied the Eucharist based solely on their desire to kneel.
Further, the bishop seemingly prohibited the use of intinction, even while acknowledging its permissibility in universal law — a situation that could eventually bring the policy under Roman review.
Meanwhile, “the faithful who feel compelled to kneel to receive the Eucharist as is their individual right, should also prayerfully consider the blessing of communal witness that is realized when we share a common posture,” he said.
I know, I know. Right?
—
Bishop Ronald Hicks of Joliet was, as planned, announced as the new Archbishop of New York Thursday.
Hicks will succeed Cardinal Timothy Dolan, 75, who has served in New York since 2009. The bishop’s appointment brings merciful end to months of speculation about Dolan’s successor, with several candidates having been discussed for the position.
—
Peace activists in Nigeria are divided over allegations of genocide against Christians in the country, and especially statements on the subject from the Trump administration.
Speaking to several different people from the country with first-hand experience trying to bridge the tribal and religious conflicts in the country, including clerics and religious, Filipe D’Avillez reports this week that there is no consensus position.
What there are are justifiably strong feelings and concerns about the fate of Christians there.
—
One of the most pressing issues that Pope Leo XIV will face in 2026 is whether to approve a new national body for the Catholic Church in Germany.
The first meeting of the new body, known as the “synodal conference,” is already pencilled in for Nov. 6-7, 2026, in Stuttgart. There are even dates for a second meeting, on April 16-17, 2027, in Würzburg. But the new national synodal body currently exists only on paper and can’t be established without Vatican approval.
—
The percentage of Catholics attending Sunday Mass in Poland rose in 2024.
Poland’s Institute for Catholic Church Statistics announced Dec. 16 that the proportion of Sunday Massgoers increased to 29.6% in 2024, a 0.57% gain compared to the previous year.
The year-on-year rise indicates Mass attendance and reception of Holy Communion are stabilizing following the COVID-19 pandemic, when Masses were tightly restricted, but remain well below the pre-pandemic figures.
—
“When the topic of AI comes up in conversation, I tell people that we should kill it before it kills us. I am only half joking. Some days it’s less than half.”
So writes Pillar columnist Dan Lipinski this week, and I could not agree more.
But rather than simply kick off on the obvious risks and ills of the emerging AI phenomena, Dan instead considers how the issue has made him reconsider his own humanity, and reassess the relevance of the ancient heresy of Gnosticism.
—
An Iowa priest has pleaded guilty to stealing money from a Catholic parish and placing it in a scam investment without consulting or informing the parish finance council.
But the case of Father Thomas Thakadipuram isn’t noteworthy because of the theft or the plea. It’s noteworthy because of the reaction of a local bishop who went to court to reinforce the gravity of the priest’s crime, rather than petitioning for a lighter sentence.
The new podcast Descent Into Light shares stories often left untold. Sr. Theresa and Sr. Danielle of The Sisters of the Little Way recount their experiences of spiritual abuse, first reported in The Pillar, and speak with experts to show how adult abuse unfolds in spiritual settings. Listen on any podcast app or visit sistersofthelittleway.com.
Reading the room
The announcement of Bishop Ronald Hicks, erstwhile of Joliet, as the new Archbishop of New York went off without a hitch yesterday.
The bishop, soon to be archbishop and presumably, in time, cardinal, presented himself to the assembled media Thursday morning and, keenly aware of the interest in “who he is,” pronounced himself to be someone who “love[s] Jesus with my mind, heart and soul, and I strive to love my neighbor as myself.”
It’s what you want to hear from a bishop, really. And no less than you would expect from a self-described die-hard Cubs fan.
Of course, Hicks was in unusual need of defining himself. With advance news of his appointment, the tweeting classes had been in a sweat to frame him for us all, even before the pope officially announced the appointment. Hicks is, after all, arguably the most prominent global episcopal appointment thus far of the Leonine pontificate; he was sent to certainly the most visible American see there is.
There is an understandable desire to have some sense of who the new man is stepping into a big chair. And sometimes major episcopal appointments are pregnant with obvious significance. Cardinal Robert McElroy’s move to Washington in January comes to mind.
But in many cases, when it’s a bishop from a rather less prominent see and without a baked-in national profile — at least outside of the professional Catholic bubble — the urge to spin him far outpaces the appetite to, you know, go back and read his own substantial, publicly available, catalogue of writing.
Hicks has been subjected to some especially lazy, witless, and nakedly political bids to color perceptions of himself — mostly, from what I can see, by people who have never sat through a minute of an actual bishops’ conference meeting nor could tell you the name of anyone who works a desk at the relevant dicastery in Rome.
Well, guess what?
