As the Vatican gets ready for Christmas, Pope Francis is urging Christians to hold onto hope, even amid darkness. This week he again raised eyebrows, this time with some comments he made in an interview with a Belgian Catholic publication. Francis strongly criticized media outlets that spread scandal, disinformation, and fake news. He likened the focus on those things to an unnatural fixation.

Also this week, the Vatican released a new document that reiterates the Church’s long held position that gay men should not become priests. It says the church can’t overlook what it calls “the negative consequences that can derive from the ordination of persons with deep-seated homosexual tendencies.” LGBT advocates expressed disappointment, saying they had hoped that, under Francis, the church would be more open.