null / Credit: Guillaume Paumier via Flickr, filter added (CC BY 2.0)

EWTN News, Dec 9, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

Conservative factions across Europe have responded with concern to a recent ruling by the European Union’s Court of Justice requiring Poland to recognize “same-sex marriages” performed in other EU member states, despite such unions having no legal status under Polish law.

The situation arose when two Polish citizens who had “married” in Germany in 2018 returned to Poland and requested that officials register their union in the country’s civil records. Polish authorities declined, explaining that national law did not provide legal recognition for “same-sex couples.”

Following this legal challenge, a Polish court referred the matter to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in Luxembourg for clarification on how EU law should be interpreted. It is a standard procedure available to national courts before issuing their own rulings.

In its November ruling, the CJEU determined that refusing to recognize a “marriage” between two EU citizens lawfully concluded in another member state violates EU law by infringing on freedom of movement and the right to respect for private and family life. The court stated that member states must recognize marital status lawfully acquired in another EU country for the purpose of exercising rights conferred by EU law.

Concerns over sovereignty

The ruling has sparked immediate and strong criticism from Polish leaders and advocacy organizations, who view it as a significant overreach into matters of national competence.

Olivier Bault, communications director for Ordo Iuris, an international institute focused on life, family, and national sovereignty issues, responded to the ruling as “yet another overreach by the Court of Justice of the European Union.”

Bault said that family matters are reserved for member states under EU treaties, stressing that all 27 nations had ratified through their democratic institutions the principle that “each of them has a right of veto over any decision regulating marriage or family matters at the EU level.” He contended the court invoked broadly interpreted rights like freedom of movement and private life to regulate areas meant to fall under national rather than EU law.

Addressing concerns about the precedent this decision may set, Bault noted that in theory the ruling should have no impact in Poland, where the constitution defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. He pointed out that Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal has previously affirmed the supremacy of the Polish Constitution over EU law and CJEU interpretations.

Going further, Bault added that similar constitutional supremacy positions have been taken by the highest courts in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, the Czech Republic, and Romania, particularly regarding CJEU rulings that imply sovereignty transfers not previously approved through democratic procedures.

Political reactions

These sovereignty concerns have been forcefully echoed by senior Polish political figures across the spectrum. Former prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki criticized the CJEU ruling as a deep interference in member state affairs with significant implications for Polish families.

He drew a pointed analogy to drug legalization, arguing that the court’s logic would be equivalent to requiring Poland to accept drug imports simply because countries like the Netherlands have legalized them. Morawiecki said that Poland cannot consent to such impositions and that national sovereignty remains fundamental to member state functioning.

The criticism has extended to Poland’s representatives in Brussels. Polish members of the European Parliament also voiced strong opposition to the decision. Among them, Tobiasz Bocheński characterized the decision as “an example of the attack on the rule of law,” arguing that it deprives Polish citizens and others of the right to determine their own future and therefore fails to respect democracy or freedom.

Adding to the chorus of opposition, former Polish presidential candidate Krzysztof Bosak publicly reaffirmed the importance of the natural family in Polish society, stating that only a man and a woman can marry and start a family. Bosak stressed that opposing the legalization of “same-sex marriage” does not mean people living with same-sex attraction should be treated with disrespect or any type of aggression.

Regional implications

The ruling has prompted wider regional discussions across Eastern and Central Europe, where “same-sex marriage” remains either unrecognized or unregulated in most countries.

In neighboring Lithuania, which shares both a border and significant cultural ties with Poland, Justice Minister Rita Tamašunienė addressed the decision by clarifying that “this obligation does not mean that national law must provide for same-sex marriage.” Tamašunienė belongs to the Lithuanian Polish Electoral Action-Union of Christian Families, a faction within the current ruling coalition that has explicitly carved out certain issues it will not support, including the legalization of partnerships and “same-sex marriage,” as part of the coalition agreement. The coalition receives strong support from Lithuania’s Polish minority.

The Catholic Church affirms that marriage is the exclusive union of one man and one woman, as the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, reiterated Nov. 25 during the presentation in Rome of the document titled “Una Caro (One Flesh): In Praise of Monogamy.”

The EU court’s decision highlights growing tensions between EU institutions and member states over issues touching on national identity and values. As similar cases may arise in other Central and Eastern European nations with traditional marriage laws, the ruling could become a flashpoint in ongoing debates about the limits of EU authority and the preservation of national sovereignty in matters of family law.

null / Credit: Guillaume Paumier via Flickr, filter added (CC BY 2.0)

EWTN News, Dec 9, 2025 / 09:00 am (CNA).

The situation arose when two Polish citizens who had “married” in Germany in 2018 returned to Poland and requested that officials register their union.

When Meg Cady, a 32-year-old math teacher at St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, prayed the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises with a group of teachers from her school, one thing impressed her most: a pregnant colleague’s reflections on Mary’s difficult third-trimester journey to Bethlehem. “That was the first time I had considered the nativity story as […]

The post The Catholic women teaching priests how to preach appeared first on U.S. Catholic.

Bishop John Keenan speaks at the First Saturdays Conference in Knock, Ireland, on Dec. 6, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of First Saturdays Conference

Dublin, Ireland, Dec 9, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

At Knock Shrine on Saturday, Dec. 6, hundreds came from across Ireland to mark the centenary of the First Saturdays devotion and the promises given by Our Lady to Sister Lucia at Fátima in an apparition on Dec. 10, 1925.

Bishop John Keenan of Paisley, Scotland, told participants: “We need to respond to Our Lady not with half-measures.”

Urging a wider devotion in parishes worldwide to the First Saturdays, Keenan said: “A mother’s gut reaction is very visceral, the desire to save and to protect. We need to respond to Our Lady not with ‘half-measures’; we need to respond to her wounded Immaculate Heart and practice the First Saturdays.”

The five First Saturdays devotion is an act of reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which requires devotees on five consecutive first Saturdays to go to confession, receive holy Communion, pray five decades of the rosary, and keep Mary company for 15 minutes of meditation.

Conference organizer Father Marius O’Reilly told CNA: “The First Saturdays seem to be the forgotten part of the Fátima message. Our Lady promises that there will be peace in the world and that many souls will be saved if we do what she asks. The consecration was, of course, fulfilled by St. John Paul II in 1984, but we have not responded to Our Lady’s call in relation to the First Saturdays. The effect of this is seen everywhere.”

Christine O’Hara, First Saturday Apostolate and conference chair, told CNA about the First Saturdays in her own parish. “One simple but powerful message that we hope will come out of our conference is that people will take Our Lady’s promise to heart and consider starting a group within their own parishes to observe the First Saturdays devotion,” she said. “I started a group in my own parish in 2022, and it has been a great success. Parishioners have received great graces from practicing the devotion.”

O’Hara’s parish group prays the rosary before Saturday vigil Mass, completing the 15-minute meditation afterward. “Meditation brings us into deeper communion with the Lord. I feel that I am honoring Our Lady by responding to her plea for the First Saturdays.”

The Five Saturdays devotion can be practiced privately or publicly. A priest does not need to be present for the rosary and meditation.

Robert Nugent, who runs a popular YouTube channel called “Decrevi Determined to be Catholic,” told CNA he was encouraging people to do the First Saturdays in their parish. “By starting in January you’ll finish in the month of May, which is the month of Mary. We encourage people to pray this devotion and also to come to the All Ireland Rosary Rally here in Knock.”

Keenan explained how St. John Paul II and St. Louis de Montfort emphasized “devotion to the heart of Mary is devotion to Jesus. When someone you love is hurt; that hurts you more than if you are hurt yourself.”

Damien Philpott of the First Saturday Apostolate told CNA: “I think it is a very important event simply because Our Lady told Sister Lucia 100 years ago at Pontevedra that peace in our world depends on the First Saturdays devotion. We want to establish it in parishes all around Ireland. Sometimes people feel alone and isolated in starting up the First Saturdays. At this event you can meet people who are involved in the First Saturdays.”

Antonia Moffat, formerly with the Walsingham Shrine, spoke about the urgency of this message to bring peace to the world and how the plight of the 300 children abducted from St. Mary’s School in Nigeria would greatly wound the tender and compassionate heart of Mary.

She said: “Heaven’s peace plan is the daily rosary and the First Saturdays each month.”

Representatives from many apostolates and First Saturday groups were at Knock to share their experiences and learn. Karen Clancy of Totus Tuus magazine told CNA: “I’m here to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the First Saturdays; it’s such a great movement and so important in the times we are living in with all the disruptions in our world these days with wars in various places. Our Lady has told Sister Lucia that it’s a matter of war or peace if the First Saturdays are completed or not. I would encourage more people to come to events like this, to learn more about the First Saturdays and promote it more in our parishes and get more people involved.”

Karen Brady of Human Life International explained to CNA that she was there to learn more about First Saturdays. “I already follow them but I would like to have a greater in-depth understanding. It is something that is so important for us to know about as Catholics.”

In his address, Father Philip Kemmy made a powerful connection between Jesus’ words to his friends the night before he died, “keep watch with me,” and Our Lady’s request to “keep me company for 15 minutes while meditating on the mysteries of the rosary.”

Kemmy said: “This is such a beautiful connection to make between son and mother. The 15-minute meditation can be a neglected aspect of Our Lady’s request but it is a very powerful part. Meditating on the mysteries of Jesus’ life brings us into deeper communion with him.”

Bishop John Keenan speaks at the First Saturdays Conference in Knock, Ireland, on Dec. 6, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of First Saturdays Conference

Dublin, Ireland, Dec 9, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Bishop urges “no half-measures” at First Saturdays’ centenary as hundreds mark 100 years of First Saturdays devotion at Knock Shrine.

Pilgrims gather for Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Montligeon in Normandy, France, on Nov. 16, 2025, during the annual “Heaven’s Pilgrimage,” dedicated to prayer for the souls in purgatory. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Shrine of Our Lady of Montligeon

EWTN News, Dec 9, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

At the Shrine of Our Lady of Montligeon in rural Normandy, workers restore its century-old slate roof and windows. Inside the neo-Gothic basilica, pilgrims arrive and light candles, enroll loved ones in Masses, and pray for the souls of the dead — and, increasingly, to seek hope for themselves.

Known internationally for its mission of prayer for the deceased and its archconfraternity for the souls in purgatory, Montligeon welcomes pilgrims year-round and hosts “Heaven’s Pilgrimages” each November. Shrine staff say interest is steadily growing, especially among young people and those approaching or returning to the Catholic Church.

“Yes, indeed, the shrine seems to have gained notoriety in the past 20 years,” said Father Paul Denizot, rector of the shrine, in a statement shared by Marie Houdebert, who works in its international office. 

“I believe it stems from a growing interest in topics like death, the afterlife, and praying for the dead. Among the increasing number of young people rediscovering the Catholic Church and asking to get baptized, many are wondering about hope in the face of death. They are deeply touched by the message of Montligeon.”

Denizot said those coming to Montligeon are diverse — practicing Catholics, the non-baptized, “lapsed” believers, tourists, and organized pilgrimages — many of whom carry grief. 

“I think there are two main reasons for today’s youths’ return to the Catholic Church,” he said. “First, a need for identity, for roots in an ever-changing world where family isn’t always a safe space to grow. Second is a need for hope. A lot of people go back to Church following the death of a loved one.”

“Believing that there is a way for them to help their deceased through prayer brings them hope in a seemingly hopeless world.”

While pilgrims seek consolation within, the basilica’s exterior is undergoing major restoration. The project — expected to take another three years — includes replacing the roof and repairing the stained-glass windows in the choir at an estimated cost of 3.6 million euros (about $4.2 million), much of it funded by the shrine itself.

“I was pleasantly surprised that so many people, rich or poor, came together to support this project,” Denizot said.

“People feel responsible for the basilica because they feel at home there. We’ve had support from many different countries.”

Montligeon’s local experience echoes a broader development in France: a notable rise in adult baptisms. 

At Easter 2025, more than 10,384 adults were baptized across the country — a 45% increase over the previous year and the highest figure in decades. Many catechumens are in their late teens or 20s, often discovering the faith through personal exploration and contact with vibrant Catholic communities.

Every November, the month the Church dedicates to prayer for the dead, Montligeon hosts its annual pilgrimages to commend the departed to God’s mercy. Denizot encourages the faithful to see this intercession as both a duty of charity and a source of hope.

For many burdened by loss, the shrine dedicated to the dead has become a place where the living encounter renewed faith.

Pilgrims gather for Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Montligeon in Normandy, France, on Nov. 16, 2025, during the annual “Heaven’s Pilgrimage,” dedicated to prayer for the souls in purgatory. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Shrine of Our Lady of Montligeon

EWTN News, Dec 9, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

As a Normandy basilica is restored, the Shrine of Our Lady of Montligeon sees more pilgrims seeking hope — especially young adults and new Catholics in secular France.

Claire Lai, daughter of imprisoned Hong Kong activist and Catholic Jimmy Lai, speaks with EWTN News President Montse Alvarado on “EWTN News Nightly” on Dec. 8, 2025. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”/Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 9, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Daughter of imprisoned Catholic activist Jimmy Lai spoke out for the first time ahead of her father’s 78th birthday. 

“As a daughter, every day I wake up and I hope that today is the day we get my dad home ... the day we get to go to Mass together, or to eat dinner around the table, things that years ago I almost took for granted,” Claire Lai said in an interview with EWTN News.

Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy entrepreneur and human rights activist, was arrested in 2020 in Hong Kong. He underwent a trial that lasted nearly two years for allegations of colluding with foreign forces under a national security law put in effect by the communist-controlled Chinese government.

The trial ended in August, and Lai continues to wait for the verdict in prison where he faces inhumane living conditions, deteriorating health, and is denied the Eucharist, his daughter said. 

In an interview with Montse Alvarado, president and COO of EWTN News, Lai’s daughter Claire said: “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. We do not believe that they will be through the domestic system. Our only hope is outside, and that’s why I’m here now.”

Dec. 8 was Jimmy Lai’s 78th birthday, which falls on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. His daughter highlighted Lai’s deep devotion to the Blessed Mother. 

She said her family has tried to send him a rosary in prison, but “each attempt failed.” She said he fell down once in the shower, and “because of his waist pain he wasn’t able to get up.”

“Even some of the guards came over and tried to help him … but he couldn’t get up. So he pretended as though he had a rosary in his hand and prayed to the Blessed Mother. Then he was able to get up without pain,” Claire Lai said.

“When you’re a daughter … and you hear stories like that, you wish you could yourself physically pull him up when he is in pain like that. But you find such great comfort in the fact that Our Lady is protecting him,” she said.

Conversion to the faith

Lai said her father’s conversion to Catholicism has been a stable presence during his time in prison. 

“My father had quite an unconventional childhood. He came to Hong Kong when he was 12. He had nothing to his name, nothing in his pockets. But he was full of optimism and he had a yearning for freedom,” she said.

“It was only later on that he understood that there was something, a higher force, guiding him all along, which was why he was able to go from child laborer to a successful entrepreneur and do so almost without fear. It was later on that he understood that to be God,” she said.

Jimmy Lai converted the year of the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China when “people were filled with doubt and with a certain amount of fear,” his daughter said. “As Our Lady has taught us, there is nothing that conquers doubt and fear except for the love of God. And that was a time when he was ready to receive it.”

“My father converted one year after I was born. Really, the only memories I have are of growing up in a very loving Catholic family,” she said.

Legal saga

Claire Lai studied law and has been involved with her father’s case and lengthy trial. “There’s an equal amount of outrage, but also it’s a privilege to be able to be there and witness it as closely as I have,” she said. 

“As someone who grew up admiring the Hong Kong legal system … it has been heartbreaking to see the rule of law break down, but even more so to see my father and his case is at the helm of it.”

The bench was “not neutral in any sense of the word,” she said. “They just grilled him repeatedly. There were gag orders that were imposed when the evidence just did not suit the narrative ... it was just so deeply unfair.”

The trial had unexplained delays that were “clearly meant so that people would forget about my father and so that it would crush his spirit,” she said. But “with the good Lord as his guide, his spirit remained just as strong.”

Prison conditions 

Lai has been in prison for five years, but “his incarceration has just deepened his faith,” his daughter said. 

“I think there isn’t anything quite as much as suffering that opens your heart to God’s love. We are so grateful that Our Lord has accompanied my father. He wakes up around midnight every night to pray,” she said.

“Before the crack of dawn, he would read the Gospel,” Lai said. “At first, he would ask the guards if they could turn on the light so that he could read … For about the first six months, they said ‘yes.’ Afterwards, they always said ‘no.’”

“The conditions he’s kept in have just gotten worse over time. They aren’t a natural byproduct of prison. In the prison cell, there is a window that leads outside that should give access to sunlight. His is deliberately blocked so that he doesn’t have access,” she said.

“He’s been denied holy Communion for over two years and got it only very, very intermittently this year,” she said. “It’s something that costs them nothing … for him to get. It costs them nothing for him to get the rosary, and it costs them nothing to turn on the light so that he can read the Gospel.”

Kept in solitary confinement, he faces extreme heat conditions in his small cell. “In summer, the heat can get up to … 111 degrees Fahrenheit,” she said. “To say that it’s sweltering is a massive understatement.”

“He gets heat rushes all over his body, and they last until the middle of autumn. It is outrageous, and it is torturous,” she said.

“We have typhoon seasons in Hong Kong … and the cells get wet. Almost everything in there gets wet. Once that happened, the first thing he checked was his Bible, and it was the one thing that remained dry. We’re very grateful that Our Lord and Our Lady continue to watch over him,” she said.

Lai’s health has declined rapidly while behind bars. 

“In less than a year, he lost 10 kilos … after already having lost a significant amount of weight the last few years. His nails are rotting … He has infections that last for months in spite of antibiotics. And his limbs get swollen, very red, and they’re agonizingly painful,” she said.

“My dad is not someone who complains. He doesn’t even make faces. You know that when he does, it’s very painful,” she said. “There are times when even from a distance, you can tell that he’s pale and he’s shivering.”

“Then there’s the less visible signs,” she said. “He’s diabetic, and he’s had heart issues. He had a perfectly healthy heart before he went to prison.” He has said “that every few days he would have heart palpitations and they would be disabling,” his daughter said.

Call for international involvement 

Jimmy Lai is a British citizen and his daughter said that any communication between Britain and the Chinese government should include discussion of her father. 

“He is in prison for basically standing in defense for the freedoms he first came to know as a child in Hong Kong when it was still a British embassy and for hoping that they would keep the promise made during the sign of the British Joint Declaration,” she said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to do “everything” possible to “save” Lai. A White House official told EWTN News in October that Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about his imprisonment. 

“We are so extremely grateful to President Trump and his administration,” Claire Lai said. “They have a long, proven record of freeing the unjustly detained, and we hope that my father will follow soon.”

“We are also very, very grateful for members of the public. My father is sustained by your prayers,” she said.

She shared that Pope Leo XIV is also praying for her father during this time. In October, Lai’s wife, Teresa Lai, and his daughter met Pope Leo after a general audience. “It was such a privilege and a blessing to have an audience with our Holy Father,” Claire Lai said. 

Hope for a release 

“The government has no case,” she said. “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.”

If she could speak with the Chinese government, Lai said she would say to “do the only just and … only honorable thing, which is to release a 78-year-old man, my father, Jimmy Lai, against whom no case has been made.”

“Don’t let him die a martyr in these conditions, in this health. It is a stain on your history that you will never be able to wipe off,” she said.

She said she does “worry” that her father could die in prison, but she is “hopeful.”

When her father “reflected on his earlier years, he said that even before he converted and before he opened his heart to the love of God, he was always guided by him — even before he knew it,” she said. “I think that’s how he wants to be remembered, as a faithful servant of Our Lord.”

Claire Lai, daughter of imprisoned Hong Kong activist and Catholic Jimmy Lai, speaks with EWTN News President Montse Alvarado on “EWTN News Nightly” on Dec. 8, 2025. / Credit: “EWTN News Nightly”/Screenshot

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 9, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Daughter of imprisoned Catholic activist Jimmy Lai spoke out for the first time ahead of her father’s 78th birthday. 

“As a daughter, every day I wake up and I hope that today is the day we get my dad home ... the day we get to go to Mass together, or to eat dinner around the table, things that years ago I almost took for granted,” Claire Lai said in an interview with EWTN News.

Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy entrepreneur and human rights activist, was arrested in 2020 in Hong Kong. He underwent a trial that lasted nearly two years for allegations of colluding with foreign forces under a national security law put in effect by the communist-controlled Chinese government.

The trial ended in August, and Lai continues to wait for the verdict in prison where he faces inhumane living conditions, deteriorating health, and is denied the Eucharist, his daughter said. 

In an interview with Montse Alvarado, president and COO of EWTN News, Lai’s daughter Claire said: “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. We do not believe that they will be through the domestic system. Our only hope is outside, and that’s why I’m here now.”

Dec. 8 was Jimmy Lai’s 78th birthday, which falls on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. His daughter highlighted Lai’s deep devotion to the Blessed Mother. 

She said her family has tried to send him a rosary in prison, but “each attempt failed.” She said he fell down once in the shower, and “because of his waist pain he wasn’t able to get up.”

“Even some of the guards came over and tried to help him … but he couldn’t get up. So he pretended as though he had a rosary in his hand and prayed to the Blessed Mother. Then he was able to get up without pain,” Claire Lai said.

“When you’re a daughter … and you hear stories like that, you wish you could yourself physically pull him up when he is in pain like that. But you find such great comfort in the fact that Our Lady is protecting him,” she said.

Conversion to the faith

Lai said her father’s conversion to Catholicism has been a stable presence during his time in prison. 

“My father had quite an unconventional childhood. He came to Hong Kong when he was 12. He had nothing to his name, nothing in his pockets. But he was full of optimism and he had a yearning for freedom,” she said.

“It was only later on that he understood that there was something, a higher force, guiding him all along, which was why he was able to go from child laborer to a successful entrepreneur and do so almost without fear. It was later on that he understood that to be God,” she said.

Jimmy Lai converted the year of the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China when “people were filled with doubt and with a certain amount of fear,” his daughter said. “As Our Lady has taught us, there is nothing that conquers doubt and fear except for the love of God. And that was a time when he was ready to receive it.”

“My father converted one year after I was born. Really, the only memories I have are of growing up in a very loving Catholic family,” she said.

Legal saga

Claire Lai studied law and has been involved with her father’s case and lengthy trial. “There’s an equal amount of outrage, but also it’s a privilege to be able to be there and witness it as closely as I have,” she said. 

“As someone who grew up admiring the Hong Kong legal system … it has been heartbreaking to see the rule of law break down, but even more so to see my father and his case is at the helm of it.”

The bench was “not neutral in any sense of the word,” she said. “They just grilled him repeatedly. There were gag orders that were imposed when the evidence just did not suit the narrative ... it was just so deeply unfair.”

The trial had unexplained delays that were “clearly meant so that people would forget about my father and so that it would crush his spirit,” she said. But “with the good Lord as his guide, his spirit remained just as strong.”

Prison conditions 

Lai has been in prison for five years, but “his incarceration has just deepened his faith,” his daughter said. 

“I think there isn’t anything quite as much as suffering that opens your heart to God’s love. We are so grateful that Our Lord has accompanied my father. He wakes up around midnight every night to pray,” she said.

“Before the crack of dawn, he would read the Gospel,” Lai said. “At first, he would ask the guards if they could turn on the light so that he could read … For about the first six months, they said ‘yes.’ Afterwards, they always said ‘no.’”

“The conditions he’s kept in have just gotten worse over time. They aren’t a natural byproduct of prison. In the prison cell, there is a window that leads outside that should give access to sunlight. His is deliberately blocked so that he doesn’t have access,” she said.

“He’s been denied holy Communion for over two years and got it only very, very intermittently this year,” she said. “It’s something that costs them nothing … for him to get. It costs them nothing for him to get the rosary, and it costs them nothing to turn on the light so that he can read the Gospel.”

Kept in solitary confinement, he faces extreme heat conditions in his small cell. “In summer, the heat can get up to … 111 degrees Fahrenheit,” she said. “To say that it’s sweltering is a massive understatement.”

“He gets heat rushes all over his body, and they last until the middle of autumn. It is outrageous, and it is torturous,” she said.

“We have typhoon seasons in Hong Kong … and the cells get wet. Almost everything in there gets wet. Once that happened, the first thing he checked was his Bible, and it was the one thing that remained dry. We’re very grateful that Our Lord and Our Lady continue to watch over him,” she said.

Lai’s health has declined rapidly while behind bars. 

“In less than a year, he lost 10 kilos … after already having lost a significant amount of weight the last few years. His nails are rotting … He has infections that last for months in spite of antibiotics. And his limbs get swollen, very red, and they’re agonizingly painful,” she said.

“My dad is not someone who complains. He doesn’t even make faces. You know that when he does, it’s very painful,” she said. “There are times when even from a distance, you can tell that he’s pale and he’s shivering.”

“Then there’s the less visible signs,” she said. “He’s diabetic, and he’s had heart issues. He had a perfectly healthy heart before he went to prison.” He has said “that every few days he would have heart palpitations and they would be disabling,” his daughter said.

Call for international involvement 

Jimmy Lai is a British citizen and his daughter said that any communication between Britain and the Chinese government should include discussion of her father. 

“He is in prison for basically standing in defense for the freedoms he first came to know as a child in Hong Kong when it was still a British embassy and for hoping that they would keep the promise made during the sign of the British Joint Declaration,” she said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to do “everything” possible to “save” Lai. A White House official told EWTN News in October that Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about his imprisonment. 

“We are so extremely grateful to President Trump and his administration,” Claire Lai said. “They have a long, proven record of freeing the unjustly detained, and we hope that my father will follow soon.”

“We are also very, very grateful for members of the public. My father is sustained by your prayers,” she said.

She shared that Pope Leo XIV is also praying for her father during this time. In October, Lai’s wife, Teresa Lai, and his daughter met Pope Leo after a general audience. “It was such a privilege and a blessing to have an audience with our Holy Father,” Claire Lai said. 

Hope for a release 

“The government has no case,” she said. “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.”

If she could speak with the Chinese government, Lai said she would say to “do the only just and … only honorable thing, which is to release a 78-year-old man, my father, Jimmy Lai, against whom no case has been made.”

“Don’t let him die a martyr in these conditions, in this health. It is a stain on your history that you will never be able to wipe off,” she said.

She said she does “worry” that her father could die in prison, but she is “hopeful.”

When her father “reflected on his earlier years, he said that even before he converted and before he opened his heart to the love of God, he was always guided by him — even before he knew it,” she said. “I think that’s how he wants to be remembered, as a faithful servant of Our Lord.”

Traces of the first chapel where the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was first kept within the Old Parish of the Indians. / Credit: EWTN News

Puebla, Mexico, Dec 9, 2025 / 05:00 am (CNA).

The story of St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe began with the well-known apparitions of 1531. The Indigenous visionary remained for years dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of the message of the Virgin Mary at a chapel that is still preserved and forms an essential part of the Marian complex of Tepeyac.

Next to the current Guadalupe Basilica in Mexico City is the old chapel built to house the image miraculously imprinted on St. Juan Diego’s cloak. This historical site is little known to pilgrims.

The origin of the chapel

St. Juan Diego was the Indigenous man to whom the Virgin Mary appeared from Dec. 9–12, 1531, asking him to intercede with the first archbishop of Mexico, Friar Juan de Zumárraga, that a chapel be built “on the plain of Tepeyac” as a sign of her love for all nations.

It was on his tilma (cloak) that the image of the Virgin Mary was miraculously imprinted.

After the apparitions, the archbishop ordered the construction of a small chapel to house the tilma. St. Juan Diego lived next to it for 17 years, dedicated to recounting the events and caring for the sacred image until his death in 1548.

A Virgin for the ‘completely forgotten’

In an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Father José de Jesús Aguilar of the Archdiocese of Mexico explained that at that time, Tepeyac — the place where the Virgin appeared and asked for her “sacred little house” to be built — was a valley on the outskirts of the city.

He noted that this request from the Virgin had a profound meaning, since many Indigenous people lived outside the urban center and “felt completely forgotten, without rights, or anything.”

The priest pointed out that the Mother of God wanted a place there as a gesture of closeness to those who “lived on the social and geographical margins.”

St. Juan Diego: Protector and herald of the faith

Aguilar emphasized that St. Juan Diego was the first to spread devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. “He recounted what had happened in his own words, and in this way, the news spread more and more, until it finally became very well known among the people,” he noted.

Aguilar said that the visionary of the Virgin Mary received pilgrims at that chapel and therefore requested permission to build his house next to it. Although the house no longer exists, a cross marks the site where it once stood.

According to the priest, St. Juan Diego died and was buried right there, after dedicating 17 years to caring for the image of the Virgin Mary.

From the chapel to the Old Parish Church of the Indians

The original chapel made of adobe was modified over time. Due to the growing devotion, in 1649, what is now known as the Old Parish Church of the Indians was built.

Inside the church, a wall from the first chapel is preserved, the exact spot where the tilma remained on display for more than 100 years before being moved to the new basilica in April 1709. That edifice is now known as the Old Basilica since the construction of the modern basilica was completed in 1976.

A message that resonated

Aguilar explained that the choice of Juan Diego as her messenger was no coincidence. He commented that the Virgin Mary “chose an Indigenous man to speak to the Indigenous people.”

In addition to sharing the same language, St. Juan Diego could recount details of the apparitions: “whether it was hot or cold, how the little birds sang that day, exactly where she first appeared, what the Virgin’s face looked like.”

The priest added that St. Juan Diego also faithfully conveyed the message that the Virgin entrusted to him: “Do not be afraid, am I not here, I who am your mother?”

These words — recorded in the Nican Mopohua — were spoken when the visionary was worried about his uncle Juan Bernardino’s serious illness. The Virgin assured him that he had been miraculously healed.

This message, the priest noted, remains the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe for her people, “so that anyone facing death, fear, unemployment, or a difficult situation can hear these words and have the certainty that things will work out for the best. 

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.