After the election of Joe Biden as the second Catholic president of the United States, U.S. bishops planned a document broadly seen as an attempt to deny Communion to the pro-choice politician. The resulting document "endeavors to explain the centrality of the Eucharist in the life of the church."
Nearly 180,000 Indonesian police officers will guard churches and public places across the country during Christmas celebrations this year to prevent terrorist attacks.
Bishop Mark J. Seitz wanted to get "a pulse," he said, of what people are experiencing days after the Biden administration restarted a Trump-era program that keeps migrants on the other side of the border as they wait for their asylum claims to be heard.
The pope said that only through humility can one truly understand God and oneself because it "opens us up to the experience of truth, of authentic joy, of knowing what matters."
Despite the continuing difficulties, Christmas in Gaza this year is filled with faith, hope and resilience, a Latin Patriarchate official said following a three-day pastoral visit.
Bishops in the island nation have declared Christmas Day and Dec. 26 as national days of prayer and mourning for typhoon victims and urged Catholics to redirect holday spending toward the recovery.
Six months after the Vatican announced criminal charges in connection with a London property deal that cost millions, the Vatican City State court is still dealing with preliminary, procedural arguments.
"As we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ, think of how different this Christmas will be for those who have lost so much," said Bishop John E. Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky, in the eastern part of the state.
Cardinal Peter Turkson said he offered Pope Francis his resignation because he was at the end of his five-year appointment as prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
The ongoing pandemic serves as a reminder that the world cannot move forward without cooperation and solidarity, Pope Francis told a group of ambassadors.