Catholic News Service

A Catholic member of Congress and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom welcomed the U.S. Department of State's redesignation of nine nations as "countries of particular concern" for carrying out or tolerating "systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom."

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops applied Catholic teaching to a number of bills circulating in one or both chambers, although the slowdown affected the U.S. bishops' priorities as well.

2019 Year in Review: For Pope Francis, 2019 included his sixth anniversary as pope, his 83rd birthday and his 50th anniversary as a priest, but it also was a year that saw him still confronted with the clerical sexual abuse crisis and with Vatican financial scandals.

After accepting the resignation of 92-year-old Cardinal Angelo Sodano as dean of the College of Cardinals, Pope Francis changed the norms of the office so that the dean would be elected to a five-year term renewable only once.

In his traditional pre-Christmas meeting with cardinals and top officials of Vatican offices, Francis recognized that few countries today can be described as Christian, but warned that attempts to meet the new challenges are threatened by "the temptation of assume an attitude of rigidity."

Pope Francis and the secretary-general of the United Nations said that, like millions of people around the world, during the Christmas season their thoughts turn to yearnings for peace and for the well-being of those in need.

The Supreme Court will take a deeper dive into laws governing church and state next year when it examines two Catholic school teacher firings.

Bishop Lawrence T. Persico Dec. 17 announced the opening of the canonization cause for Gertrude Barber, a renowned Erie educator and Catholic woman of faith who dedicated her life to serving children and adults with intellectual disabilities/autism and their families.

Before blessing a large resin cross constructed around a used orange life vest, Pope Francis insisted human beings have a "binding" moral obligation to save those whose lives are threatened, including the lives of migrants and refugees.

Recent media coverage that points to potential financial misdealing at the Vatican is creating misperceptions about corruption and fails to adequately explain how the fluid world of financial investing works, said the authors of an article published in a University of Notre Dame journal.

The Catholic bishops of Northern Ireland have asked the U.K. government to include a mandatory waiting period for women who request abortions under a new law.

Use of the death penalty in the United States continues to decrease, according to a report released Dec. 17 by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Putting up a Nativity scene before Christmas is a reminder to stop and remember what Christmas is really about and to prepare one's heart like a manger for the coming of Christ, Pope Francis said.

The Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2019, passed by the House Dec. 11 with a 260-165 bipartisan vote, aims "to make a better system for both the farmer and the farmworkers and to create a more effective and humane agriculture industry," said the chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

Days before the scheduled Democratic presidential debate Dec. 19 at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, there was no debate about what the seven qualifying candidates would do if the labor dispute between a food service company and school employees was not resolved by Dec. 18.

Four-year-old Celine Khater, encouraged by her father, proudly offered the scouts a heavy grocery bag containing rice, pasta and cookies. It was a teachable moment for children to help the needy, replicated outside grocery stores around the world, but in Lebanon, the situation is especially dire.

If experience can't prove it, data scraping will: Catholic sermons are shorter than their Protestant counterparts.

If experience can't prove it, data scraping will: Catholic sermons are shorter than their Protestant counterparts. According to an analysis of 50,000 sermons — Catholics commonly refer to theirs as homilies — the Pew Research Center determined that the median Catholic sermon is 14 minutes long.

The Diocese of Lincoln announced Dec. 13 that Bishop James D. Conley will take a medical leave of absence, effective immediately.

Pope Francis blessed hundreds of figurines of the baby Jesus – ranging from tiny plastic figures to life-sized statues – and encouraged children to make sure they have Nativity scenes at home. 

As Pope Francis inaugurated the new headquarters of the Scholas Occurrentes foundation Dec. 13 in Rome, an archbishop, an auxiliary bishop, a mayor and Catholic high school students gathered in Los Angeles for the launch of the foundation's U.S. headquarters.