The Second Vatican Council, which after three years of dialogue and document drafting closed on Dec. 8, 1965, changed the face of the church, and opened it to the modern world.

One year after the reopening of Notre Dame de Paris, Marseille’s Basilica of Notre Dame de la Garde is preparing to celebrate, on Dec. 7, the completion of restoration work on the iconic gilded copper statue of the Virgin Mary that crowns it.

A newly released Vatican commission report on the issue of women deacons ultimately shows the profound theological mystery of Christ’s relationship to the church, as well as the rediscovery of the long-dormant diaconate itself, experts told OSV News.

Saying it is possible both to uphold justice and to exercise mercy, Florida’s Catholic bishops have urged Gov. Ron DeSantis to stay executions scheduled for Dec. 9 and Dec. 18.

While the statement from Bishop Daniel E. Garcia of Austin, Texas, did not name President Donald Trump, it came after Trump took aim at Somali immigrants during comments at a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Dec. 2, calling them “garbage.”

As Pope Leo XIV was wrapping up his first apostolic trip to Turkey and Lebanon recently, the world was moved by the sight of a young Lebanese woman crying and hugging the pontiff as he was meeting with victims of the deadly 2020 Beirut port explosion.

Pope Leo XIV asked Canadian singer Michael Bublé and other artists to do their very best when performing a Christmas concert for the poor.

Speaking in a room adjacent to the exhibit, which will remain open until Feb. 8, the panelists invited American Catholics to see the human dignity of Christians suffering in Iraq and Nigeria. They asked Catholics to pray and remember the persecution that their brothers and sisters face worldwide.

The Holy See’s diplomatic mission to the United Nations called for an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine “not at some undefined moment in the future, but right now.”

The head of the U.S. military archdiocese on Dec. 3 urged respect for the human person and the rule of law amid new questions about the legality of a deadly U.S. military attack Sept. 2 on a boat in the Caribbean.