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.

Just four states were responsible for three-quarters of the executions that took place in the U.S. in 2024, according to a new report by the Death Penalty Information Center.

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.

For Latin American Catholics, December is an important month, not just in anticipation of the Christmas celebrations, but also for important Marian feast days, such as Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Immaculate Conception, that remain linked to their cultural history.

State laws of interest to Catholics spanned policy areas from abortion to IVF to immigration in 2024. An expected ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in 2025 could have an impact on state laws across the country banning certain types of medical or surgical gender reassignment procedures for minors who identify as transgender.

Looking back at the year, editors at OSV, in their longstanding tradition of shining a light on exemplary signs of faith, have named the following 10 individuals Catholics of the Year for 2024.

With a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon barely holding, as both sides accuse each other of violations, hopes for even a fragile peace seem impossible for those living and aiding people in Gaza.

Cardinal O’Malley, who was ordained a priest in the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin on Aug. 29, 1970, at the age of 26, has been a key figure at the highest levels of church governance in helping oversee reforms in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse crisis.