As the celebration of Christ’s birth draws near, the traditional Christmas tree lighting in various places, including Bethlehem and the Vatican, is meant as a sign of joyful expectation for the coming of salvation.

Catholic bishops in Illinois offered their support to a lawsuit from pro-life pregnancy centers that say a Prairie State law requiring those centers to refer women for abortions violates their First Amendment rights.

Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Ramón Bejarano, currently auxiliary bishop of San Diego and titular bishop of Carpi, as Bishop of Monterey, Calif.

At the end of his one day off each week, Pope Leo XIV went to the local school in Castel Gandolfo and joined hundreds of excited parents in watching the children’s Christmas concert.

President Donald Trump, the State Department, and members of Congress expressed concern after Hong Kong’s prominent Catholic media tycoon and pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai was convicted of national security offenses under the city’s controversial national security law.

Fifty French Catholics killed under German Nazism were beatified Dec. 13, 2025, during a Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris — an event that recognized their witness of faith during World War II.

Chile’s bishops’ congratulated José Antonio Kast for claiming the South American country’s election, but called for the president-elect to “promote an environment of dialogue, encounter, and respect, essential for rebuilding social trust” amid deep divisions and rising concerns over crime and migration.

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, expressed the Catholic Church’s solidarity with the Jewish community in the wake of a Dec. 14 terror attack by two gunmen that targeted Jewish beachgoers at an event celebrating the first day of Hanukkah at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

The Little Sisters of the Poor appealed an August ruling from a federal district court that struck down a religious conscience rule, their legal representatives said Dec. 15.

Several parishes and schools across Western Washington have shut down operations due to historic flooding in the state.