Catholic News Service

Didn't get everything you wanted for Christmas? Neither did several Catholic organizations, despite the last-minute flurry of legislation typical of a lame-duck Congress.

A bishop from Argentina who had been working in the Vatican's real estate administration office is the object of a preliminary diocesan investigation after accusations came to light of sexual abuse.

German Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich and Freising called for change in long-standing church tradition as the German bishops' conference prepares for a workshop debate to "review" the issue of celibacy for priests.

A former head of the Philippines' Catholic bishops' conference has called on people to ignore President Rodrigo Duterte's repeated rants against the church.

Jesuit Fr. Samuel Rayan, a pioneer of theology with an Asian perspective that colleagues and church leaders considered a "radical interpretation of the Bible," died at age 98.

The Field Hospital: The Camp Fire devastated Paradise, California, destroying the homes of over half of the parishioners of St. Thomas More Church. Nearby parishes have rallied to help the survivors. 

Christians know that God is their father and they are called "to reflect a ray of his goodness in this world thirsting for goodness, waiting for good news," Pope Francis said.

A new year is a chance for a new start, a time to remember that all people are brothers and sisters and a time to nurture amazement that God became human to save all people, Pope Francis said.

The surprising news in November that the Vatican had asked U.S. bishops not to vote on several proposals for responding to the sexual abuse crisis was motivated by a lack of time given the Vatican to study the proposals and potential conflicts with church law.

Pope Francis' 2019 calendar includes meetings to address the clerical sexual abuse crisis, as well as foreign trips, a special Synod of Bishops and a special month devoted to the church's missionary activity.

Retired Bishop Robert Mulvee of Providence died Dec. 28 at the St. Antoine Residence in North Smithfield, following a brief illness. He was 88.

The end of one year and beginning of next naturally leads people to think about the passing of time and about love, which gives time — and everything else — real meaning, Pope Francis said.

Celebrating the feast of the Holy Family Dec. 30, the pope led a round of applause for all the families that were among an estimated 50,000 people gathered in St. Peter's Square.

James Grein, a Virginia man who said Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington, sexually abused him for years beginning when he was 11, gave his testimony about what occurred Dec. 27 before a judicial vicar for the New York Archdiocese.

Year in review: The Supreme Court's past year will probably be remembered more for the shakeup at the bench than for specific rulings.

Year in review: Hurricane, fire, flood and even earthquake, Catholic Charities agencies did their best to help thousands of their fellow residents through some of the worst natural disasters they had ever encountered.

Catholics working in border communities such as El Paso, Texas, have been impacted by Washington's squabbles, and expressed anger about experiencing more than just daily inconveniences.

Year in review: The most dramatic immigration development of 2018 took place around summer when then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new policy that resulted in separating children from parents or other family members traveling with them and then placing the minors in detention centers.

A priest who once served in the Diocese of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to prison for sexually molesting a boy in the 1990s.

The Vatican City State court sentenced an Italian contractor, who had done work for several Vatican offices, to 2 1/2 years in jail for using a Vatican bank account for money laundering.