Christmas this season in the Holy Land will be celebratory, despite ongoing bloodshed and war, the patriarchs of the Holy Land said, as Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa encouraged pilgrims to come back to the birthplace of Jesus.

The celebration of a Holy Year every 25 years is an acknowledgment that “the Christian life is a journey calling for moments of greater intensity to encourage and sustain hope as the constant companion that guides our steps toward the goal of our encounter with the Lord Jesus,” Pope Francis wrote.

Charity involves more than offering material aid to those in need; it also calls for a commitment to fostering societal change, Pope Francis said.

Homilies must be prepared with the help of the Holy Spirit, be shorter than 10 minutes and put the spotlight on the Lord, not oneself, Pope Francis said.

During two days of meetings, Pope Francis and his closest cardinal advisers discussed the relationship between local churches and other institutional church assemblies, a main topic of discussion to come out of the Synod of Bishops on synodality.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Dec. 4 in a case concerning a challenge to a Tennessee state law banning certain types of medical or surgical gender reassignment procedures for minors who identify as transgender.

President-elect Donald Trump will attend the upcoming reopening ceremony for Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, he said Dec. 2. The trip will mark his first foreign trip since his election to a second term.

Catholic leaders in Central America expressed alarm over the idea of repealing a national prohibition on extractive activities in El Salvador — putting the church in opposition to the country’s popular president.

To a packed St. Dominic Church Nov. 29, Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of Washington delivered a homily focused on the Catholic tradition of honoring the dead and on the legacy of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Artist and psychologist Tetiana Myalkovska of Ukraine used her art therapy techniques to work with children who have special needs and with her country’s traumatized soldiers returning from the conflict when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014.