Photos of the Week: Marian feast days; Syrian leadership changes

By Kit Doyle · December 13, 2024

(RNS) — Each week RNS presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo gallery includes several Marian feast days, Syrian leadership changes and more.

People pray at The Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Bernard prior to a Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe procession to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, early Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (RNS photo/Fiona Murphy)

People process with a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe from St. Bernard to St. Patrick's Cathedral during the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe festivities in New York City, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (RNS photo/Fiona Murphy)

Costumed participants perform in the “traditional Mañanitas" event on the eve of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (RNS photo/Fiona Murphy)

People process with a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe from St. Bernard to St. Patrick's Cathedral during the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe festivities in New York City, early Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (RNS photo/Fiona Murphy)

Pilgrims gather in the plaza of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Basilica, in one of the world's largest religious pilgrimages marking the feast day of the patroness of Latin America, in Mexico City, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Faithful throw rose petals on a statue of the Virgin Mary at the end of the commemoration of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary at the Sanctuary of Lo Vasquez in Valparaiso, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

A pilgrim crawls to the Sanctuary of Lo Vasquez to mark the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, in Valparaiso, Chile, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Volunteers of Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, a major branch of the Swaminarayan sect, a Hindu denomination, perform during a golden anniversary celebration of volunteer service at Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad, India, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Guests watch clergy members leaving the inaugural Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral, hosting its first Mass since the catastrophic fire in 2019, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, Pool)

Pope Francis prays in front of a nativity scene crafted in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, as he arrives for a meeting with the donors of the fir tree set up in St. Peter's Square as a Christmas tree and those who have crafted the life-size nativity scene at the tree's feet, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Christians, some wearing Santa Claus suits, participate in a Christmas celebration rally in Karachi, Pakistan, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Mohammad al-Bashir, left, head of the interim government in Syria, delivers a sermon to worshippers during Friday prayers inside the 7th century Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)

Syrians gather during a celebratory demonstration following the first Friday prayers since Bashar al-Assad's ouster, in Damascus' central square, Syria, Friday, Dec. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Archival Photos

Consul General Richard H. Morefield, extreme right, and another unidentified American hostage, listen beside a small Christmas tree as Bishop Youhannan Semaan Issayi, of Iran’s Chaldean Catholics, reads the Bible during a Christmas service on Dec. 25, 1980, in Tehran, Iran. During the holiday’s, Iranian authorities released film and still photographs of U.S. captives. (RNS archive photo. Photo courteys of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)

Artisans put the finishing touches on a reproduction of the 13th Century Gothic St. Jan’s Cathedral Basilica in Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. The cathedral replica was displayed in KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Christmas display on New York’s Fifth Avenue in Dec. 1975. The 18-foot-long model, the largest of its kind in the world at the time, was built on a scale of 1 to 25 by a team of 12 master craftsman who worked from the original architectural drawings of one of Europe’s great cathedrals. The replica, which took two and a half years to complete, was later installed in The Hague’s Madurodam miniature village, one of Holland’s most popular tourist attractions. (RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)

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