Catholic News Service

Like everyone else, Pope Francis' 2020 was dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year, as tens of thousands of people nationwide protested racial injustices, Catholics similarly took to the streets and also joined in prayer services and discussions.

"We must stop the execution of Lisa Montgomery. Lisa was psychotic — unable to act rationally — when she committed a terrible crime. She desperately needed psychiatric care and instead she got a death sentence," said Sr. Helen Prejean in a Nov. 12 Facebook post.

The gratitude that comes from encountering Christ's love and mercy is enough to bring joy and hope to a troubled world, Pope Francis said.

Democrat Joe Biden became the second Catholic elected president Nov. 3, outpolling Donald Trump by calling for national unity and determination to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic.

Christians and others practicing their faith experienced serious challenges to religious freedom around the world this year, heightened by dangers posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Pope Francis has chosen Bishop Dermot Farrell of Ossory as Archbishop Diarmuid Martin's successor in Dublin.

In a wide-ranging interview, the head of the German bishops' conference called for far-reaching changes to the Catholic Church and criticized the Vatican's treatment of the church in his country.

The final rule "will bar from asylum and withholding of removal certain applicants who may have come in contact with COVID-19," said the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC) in a statement voicing opposition. The decision is "punishing vulnerable people for a public health crisis," the organization said.

A new Vatican document highlights the "critical role of vaccines to defeat the pandemic, not just for individual personal health but to protect the health of all." 

Extreme global temperatures, wildfires and hurricanes continued to plague the planet during 2020, prompting U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to urge an end to global "war on nature."

The signals were clear at the start of the pandemic. No Masses, no offertory income. No offertory income, nothing to assess by the diocese. 

The Catholic Church in Germany was rattled by the impact of the sexual abuse scandal to the debates surrounding the Synodal Path that reverberated beyond Germany's borders.

As the fifth anniversary of his apostolic exhortation "Amoris Laetitia" approaches, Pope Francis announced the Church will dedicate more than a year to focusing on marriage and family.

iscalced Carmelite Fr. Reginald Foster — a world-renowned teacher of Latin, former longtime Vatican Latinist and colorful character — died in Milwaukee Dec. 25 at the age of 81.

How far and how quickly the religious liberties landscape will change in the coming four years under the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration remains to be seen. But religious liberty watchers say they are worried.

The busy year for the Supreme Court had the attention of the Catholic Church from major decisions it announced this past summer to oral arguments this fall around key issues impacting church belief and practice.

Pope Francis appealed to world leaders in his Christmas Day message that new coronavirus vaccines be made available "to all the regions of the planet."

The birth of Christ is a gift from God that brings people hope and courage in troubled times, Pope Francis said at Christmas Eve Mass at the Vatican.

Christmas must not be confused with "ephemeral things" that reduce the celebration of Christ's birth "to a merely sentimental or consumerist festival," the pope said Dec. 23 during his weekly general audience.