Pillar paid subscriber can listen to Ed read this Pillar Post here: The Pillar TL;DR
Happy Friday friends,
And a very happy Feast of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary to you all.
The Biblical tradition of presentation in the temple is something which has always appealed to me — aesthetically and spiritually, though we tend to think of it most in the context of its fulfillment in the presentation of Christ by his earthly parents, prompting Simeon’s famous prayer.
Though, in a sense, the presentations of Mary and Christ, while complementary parts of the history of salvation, are rather distinct.
I connect somewhat viscerally to the image of Mary and Joseph arriving in the temple with their infant son, at once understanding the miraculous significance of his birth and incapable of comprehending its full meaning — or of what, exactly, is expected of them in response.
The deeper metaphor of recognizing God’s authorship of all the great events of one’s life and offering them back to Him in gratitude and dedication is clear enough. But, as the middle aged father of a child I had given up hope of ever receiving, the presentation of Christ is strongest for me at a superficial level.
I remember well holding my daughter in the hospital that first night she was born and wondering, not for the first time but now with an overpowering immediacy, how and why God had decided to visit the full force of His creative, literally vivifying love into my petty existence. I remember, too, the bone-deep, almost animal instinct to want to hand her back to God — in the best sense — in gratitude to Him and love for her, and in acknowledgement that I had no idea whatsoever about what I was meant to do next.
Of course, according to venerable tradition, Eastern and Western, of this feast, Our Lady presented herself as a child, being imbued with the Holy Spirit from the moment of her own conception.
That, to me, is the less instinctively sympathetic and probably therefore more instructive example.
Of course, I don’t have the special graces of nature granted to Herself, nor is any fiat of mine destined to be the fulcrum of salvation. But one has to imagine, and I suppose we can only imagine, that Mary felt completely her calling by God without understanding what He intended. There’s more than an echo of that in my, in each of our baptisms.
Too often when I find myself before the Lord in the sacraments I present myself, at best, with an embarrassed sense of purposelessness and a desire to be noticed. But, as Benedict XVI wrote, “each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed. Each of us is loved. Each of us is necessary.”
Mary knew, at some level, that she was willed and loved and necessary. The feast is a reminder to me to present myself with the same certainty.
Here’s the news.
The News
As this newsletter goes out, Pope Leo XIV has just finished a live video link appearance at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis.
The 45-minute digital experience billed as “Pope Leo LIVE!” — yes, that’s what they went with — aimed to provide for an “authentic dialogue” between young people and Pope Leo XIV.
You can read all about the event and how it was conceived right here.
Over the course of the session, five of the teenage attendees were selected to ask the pope questions, and we’ll have more coverage of the whole event later today so stay tuned.
In the meantime, our own Jack Figge went around the conference to find out what the rest of the NCYC attendees packing out LucasOil Stadium would ask Leo, if they got the chance.
—
Dozens of American dioceses are facing a pension fund crisis which could leave longtime lay Catholic employees facing serious financial hardship in their retirement.
Bishops across the country have been told that diocesan pension plans administered by Christian Brothers Services are dramatically underfunded, with other institutions like Catholic schools likely affected.
Bishops in affected dioeceses told The Pillar that they were given no notice or indication that the funds had suffered catastrophic losses to their investments and had been dangerously underfunded for years.
One bishop called the situation “a really grave injustice” against the dioceses, and the retired employees who had contributed for decades to provide for their retirement.
—
Belarus released two jailed Catholic priests Thursday, in a diplomatic breakthrough for the Vatican.
The country’s bishops’ conference expressed its gratitude Nov. 20 to all parties involved in securing the freedom of Fr. Henryk Okołotowicz and Fr. Andrzej Juchniewicz, O.M.I., who were imprisoned for alleged offenses “against the state.”
The release follows a flurry of high-level diplomatic overtures and meetings with the government of the Eastern European autocracy, led by Alexander Lukashenko.
A total of 1,255 political prisoners remain jailed in Belarus, including 29 priests and other religious believers.
—
Pope Leo XIV made headlines Tuesday calling for the “humane” treatment of detained migrants in the United States.
Offering his unqualified support for the USCCB’s statement against the “indiscriminate mass deportation of people,” Leo’s most recent intervention has been, like the USCCB statement, spun a number of different ways.
Some have called it simplistic partisan side-taking on a complicated issue. Others have hailed it for being actually rather more comprehensive and nuanced than the bishops’ text out of Baltimore last week.
In an analysis this week, I looked at all these reactions, and the dynamics at work between the Vatican, the USCCB, and the White House and asked if and how the American bishops (including that one in Rome) expect or hope to make any practical progress with the administration — or if their aims are purely rhetorical.
You can read the whole analysis right here.
—
The president of the Italian bishops’ conference said Monday that while the era of “Christendom is over,” the Church should not be afraid of assertively proclaiming the Gospel.
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi called on the Italian bishops Nov. 17 to embrace the spirit of the first Christians, saying that “Christendom is over, but not Christianity,” and that “what is waning is an order of power and culture, not the living force of the Gospel. Therefore, we must not be afraid, but renew our commitment to be joyful witnesses of the Risen One.”
Zuppi’s remarks come as Italy undergoes a rapid secularization process. Mass attendance has halved in the 21st century, going from 36% to 18% by 2022. A 2022 poll revealed that 32% of Italians claimed to have never gone to a church except for a baptism, wedding or funeral, up from 16% in 2001.
“By stating that ‘Christendom is over,’ we mean that our society is naturally no longer Christian. But this shouldn’t scare us!,” Zuppi said at a plenary session of the Italian bishops’ conference.
You can read all about the speech here.
—
More than 2,000 anti-Christian hate crimes were recorded in Europe in 2024, according to a report published this week.
The Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe said in its 2025 annual report, issued Nov. 17, that the incidents “ranged from vandalism and desecration of churches and religious symbols to threats, physical violence, and, in some cases, murder.”
What does the new report say? What’s the context? And what’s likely to happen next?
Luke Coppen breaks it all down for you right here.
—
The majority of Australian priests and deacons value their ministry, feel well supported, and believe they are adequately remunerated, a major new survey of clerical wellbeing has concluded.
The vast majority of clergy (95%) said they appreciated the value of their work. Most (73%) felt they received adequate support from others, while a slightly lower proportion (64%) believed they were appropriately provided for financially.
The results echo studies of priests recently published in France and the U.S., which also found high levels of happiness and personal flourishing.
Though it should be noted: those high levels of contentment and personal fulfillment were reported by Australian clergy before England scythed through Australia’s batting yesterday in Perth on the opening day of the Ashes.
Anyway, you can read all about why the Aussies were feeling so happy before the cricket started right here.
This Advent, gather with fellow Catholics for a Bible study unlike any other. Bible Across America is a nationwide Bible study hosted by the St. Paul Center. During this inaugural study, we’ll encounter Christ as “Teacher and Lord,” discovering what this means for our lives as modern-day disciples.
Zuppi and me
One of the things JD and I talk about a lot, on air and off, is the semiotics of episcopal speeches. The language bishops use, individually and en masse, says much about the undercurrents of the life of the Church.
At some level, the Gospel is always being proclaimed and the mission of the Church to proclaim it is constant. But how that mission is couched signifies much.
When a bishop talks about “being Church,” it tells you something about their ecclesiology, in much the same way as my uncle (correctly) observes that you can know everything about an American’s politics by how he pronounces “Nicaragua.”
So I read with real attention the address given by Cardinal Matteo Zuppi at the close of the Italian bishops’ plenary assembly this week.
Having risen under Pope Francis to be president of the conference and serve as personal papal peace envoy, by the time of the last conclave he was widely considered a solid middle-of-the-pack papabile. By no means the front runner, but arguably the strongest of the three Italians in the mix.
Yet despite his prominence, he was always something of an elusive figure, at least in my reckoning — a man who could synod with the best of them and then turn around and celebrate vespers for a TLM pilgrimage in the Vatican.
I, at least, always wondered what the real Zuppi sounded like. And perhaps, this week, we got a little closer to finding out.