NATION/WORLD

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Advent call for "vigilance" does not mean staying awake and watchful out of fear, but rather out of a longing for the coming of the Lord, Pope Francis wrote. Sometimes people think of vigilance "as an attitude motivated by fear of impending doom, as if a meteorite were about to plunge from the sky," he said in the text of his commentary on the Gospel reading for Dec. 3, the first Sunday of Advent.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Millions of pilgrims flock to Rome every 25 years to mark a Holy Year, or jubilee, the Catholic Church's more modern celebration of an ancient Jewish practice of forgiveness. And through partnerships with prisons and incarcerated persons, the Vatican hopes to show those visitors that the spirit of forgiveness remains front and center of the church's long tradition of celebrating Holy Years.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican Museums has launched an initiative to give visitors -- online and in person -- a "backstage" peek into the secrets, curiosities and insights discovered by their art restorers. When cleaning, repairing and analyzing major works of art up close or with X-rays or infrared radiation, experts often find unexpected and hidden details. The new yearlong initiative lets visitors learn more about some of the discoveries and view details concealed or hard to see in some 36 masterpieces.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis advanced eight sainthood causes Dec. 14, including the cause of St. Gianna Beretta Molla's brother, Capuchin Father Alberto Beretta, who died three years before St. John Paul II canonized his sister. Father Beretta, who died in 2001, was a physician like both St. Gianna and their only surviving sibling, Canossian Sister Virginia Beretta. He was a missionary in Brazil for 20 years until partial paralysis from a stroke led the Capuchins to bring him back to Italy.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- When St. Francis of Assisi staged the first Nativity scene 800 years ago, he did so to remind people of the powerful, awe-inspiring truth that God became human in Jesus, Pope Francis said. Nativity scenes are not simply works of art or folk art, the pope told hundreds of people involved in staging a live Nativity scene at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome Dec. 16.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Exchanging Christmas gifts and organizing holiday parties are all well and good, but Christians should contemplate the scene of Jesus' birth to recover what is truly important during the Christmas season, Pope Francis said. At his weekly general audience Dec. 20, just five days before Christmas, the pope told people that "the risk of losing what matters in life is great, and paradoxically increases at Christmas."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The first step toward keeping Christ in Christmas is for Christians to make room for him in their hearts, the preacher of the papal household told Pope Francis and top Vatican officials. "We must do everything we can to keep him obstinately present. Not in order to hide behind him and remain silent about our failures, but because he is 'the light of the nations,' the 'name that is above every other name,' 'the cornerstone' of the world and of history," Cardinal Cantalamessa said Dec. 22, offering his final Advent meditation of 2023.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- On New Year's Eve, believers and non-believers alike give thanks for all they have received in the last 12 months and express their hopes for the coming year, but Christians are called to cultivate their gratitude and hope following the example of Mary, Pope Francis said. "Faith enables us to live this hour in a way different than that of a worldly mindset," the pope said during an evening prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica Dec. 31. "Faith in Jesus Christ, the incarnated God, born of the Virgin Mary, gives a new way of feeling time and life."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Song and music are gifts capable of touching the hearts of young people, drawing them out of spirals of anxiety and bringing them closer to God, Pope Francis said. Greeted with song Dec. 30 by young people from the International Foundation of Pueri Cantores -- an organization that promotes sacred music and the formation of children in choirs for liturgical singing -- the pope praised the young vocalists for helping others pray and open their hearts to God, which is "fundamental for the life of the church."

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A person does not have to travel far from home to find people living on the margins of society and in need hearing the message of the Gospel, Pope Francis said. "Do not be afraid to leave your securities to be able to share the everyday life of your brothers and sisters," the pope told the France-based Missionary Fraternity of the Cities during an audience at the Vatican Jan. 4. "Many have open hearts and are waiting, without knowing it, for the good news" of the Gospel, he said.