Photos of the Week: Immaculate Conception, Christmas preparations
By Kit Doyle · December 10, 2025
(RNS) — Each week RNS presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo gallery includes commemorations of the Immaculate Conception, Christmas preparations and more.
A pilgrim crawls to the Sanctuary of Lo Vasquez during an annual celebration marking the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, in Valparaiso, Chile, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Faithful throw flower petals at a statue of the Virgin Mary during an annual event celebrating her Immaculate Conception, at the Sanctuary of Lo Vasquez in Valparaiso, Chile, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Pope Leo XIV arrives in his popemobile to pray in front of the statue of the Virgin Mary next to the Spanish Steps in Rome, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, on the Catholic Feast of the Immaculate Conception. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Ranjit Maharaj, a Hindu holy man, performs rituals during a religious program of a mass reading of the holy book, Geeta, in Kolkata, India, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)
Yusuf Abdulle, executive director and imam of Islamic Association of North America, leads a prayer of Muslim men as protesters gather at a rally for immigrants outside Signature Aviation near the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport, Wednesday, Dec 3, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Tom Baker)
Christmas carolers perform in Trafalgar Square, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, in London. (RNS photo/Yonat Shimron)
Indian laborers carry iron plates to construct a temporary road over a pontoon bridge across the Ganges river in preparation for the upcoming month-long Magha Mela festival, in Prayagraj, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Palestinians take part in a Christmas tree-lighting event in Manger Square, next to the Church of the Nativity, traditionally regarded as the birthplace of Jesus Christ ahead of Christmas in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
A Muslim pilgrim carries his daughter as he circumambulates the Kaaba, the cubic building at the Grand Mosque, during the minor pilgrimage, known as Umrah, in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Buddhist monks participate in a religious procession in Lucknow, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)
Archival Photos
Clergymen bless a large shipment of surplus government food for Christmas distribution overseas at a ceremony in the Port of Philadelphia in 1954. The shipment comprised of 170,000 family cartons of 14 pounds each, and was the first lot of a scheduled 4,000,000 such cartons were to be distributed by religious groups in Europe and the near East. Clergymen giving the blessing were the Rev. John Craig Roak of Gloria del Episcopal church, from left, representing Church World Services, National Council of Churches; Rabbi David H. Wice, president of the local board of rabbis, representing the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee; and Msgr. Charles B. McGinley, rector of Holy Child church, on behalf of War Relief Services-National Catholic Welfare Conference. (RNS archive photo by George Riley. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)
Demonstrators from the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry protest against the death sentence imposed on Mikhail Leviev, a 56-year-old Soviet Jew who formerly managed a large government store in Moscow, for alleged economic crimes. The protestors erected a gallows in front of the New York office of Aeroflot, the Soviet airline, on April 25, 1975. (RNS archive photo by John C. Lei. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)
