A Holy Door is an image of God, who awaits the return of his children with open arms, said the archpriest of Rome’s Basilica of St. John Lateran.

The Holy Family, though made up of saints and God incarnate, faced real challenges and offers a model for navigating the “dramatic” moments that test all families, Pope Francis said.

A member of the protest group FEMEN was arrested after she jumped the barricade around the Vatican Nativity scene, took off her shirt and tried to grab the statue of the baby Jesus.

A passenger plane arriving from Bangkok exploded after skidding off the runway at a South Korean airport of Muan Dec. 29, crashing into a concrete fence, claiming the lives of most of the 181 people on board.

In a dark sign of descending security in Africa’s most populous country, a Catholic priest has been shot dead on the open road in southeast Nigeria on Boxing Day.

From Nigeria to Mozambique, Sudan and Congo to Burkina Faso, Christians across Africa were victims of horrific persecution in 2024, mainly because of their faith.

Former President Jimmy Carter died Dec. 29 at his home in Plains, Georgia, his presidential library announced. At 100, Carter, who had been in hospice care since February 2023, was the longest-living U.S. president.

When British parliamentarians approved a law to allow physician-assisted suicide on Nov. 29, it followed a year of legislative inroads against Catholic social teaching across Europe.

A Missouri native, Father Augustus Tolton is recognized as the first African American to be ordained a priest. A candidate for sainthood, he has the title of “Venerable.”

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.