A year after “Fiducia Supplicans” whipped up a firestorm of controversy in the days before Christmas, the Vatican declaration remains a point of division in the U.S. church and worldwide. Meanwhile, it is unclear whether it has freshly prompted many Catholics in “irregular situations” to seek the kind of blessings it permits.

Pope Francis, who celebrated his 88th birthday Dec. 17, mostly uses a wheelchair instead of walking and presides over rather than concelebrates most public liturgies. Still, he had a 2024 full of important engagements, the longest trip of his papacy and major preparations for the Holy Year 2025, which he is set to open Dec. 24.

Wearing red vestments for the feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, Pope Francis knocked on the door of the church in Rome’s Rebibbia prison complex and walked over its threshold.

God wants to save each and every person, and Christians are called to give witness to that fact by praying even for people who have harmed them, Pope Francis said.

As millions of pilgrims prepare to cross through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis called on individuals, nations and the global community to take a transformative step toward peace and reconciliation by walking through the “door of salvation” that is Jesus Christ.

Celebrating Christmas Mass after opening the Holy Year 2025, Pope Francis said the birth of Jesus fills Christians with hope and the courage to work for peace and justice.

In the quiet of Christmas Eve, Pope Francis opened the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, launching what he called a “Jubilee of Hope.”

A key part of a jubilee in the Bible was releasing prisoners, and Catholics today can join a global campaign to press for the release of thousands of people imprisoned in poverty because of their nations’ foreign debt, said an official of Caritas Internationalis.

Pope Francis sharply criticized the global “hypocrisy” of nations advocating for peace while profiting from war, calling for renewed efforts toward dialogue and reconciliation.

Leading the recitation of the Angelus prayer from inside the chapel of his residence because of a cold, Pope Francis nevertheless blessed the baby Jesus figurines children and adults will put in their Nativity scenes — and he brought one of his own as well.