A Mexican bishop has called for people not to be indifferent after the massacre of a dozen young people at a Christmas party in one of the country’s most violent states.

A new declaration from the Vatican on pastoral blessings does not change the Catholic Church’s teaching on marriage, Catholic experts told OSV News, but seeks to extend the church’s accompaniment to those in irregular situations.

This Advent, the Archdiocese of Detroit also wanted people to know they weren’t spiritually alone, no matter how isolating post-pandemic, 21st-century life might seem.

Following a series of attacks on Christians in the Gaza Strip by Israeli forces Dec. 16, including the killing of a mother and daughter at a Catholic church, the Israeli Defense Forces said that it “takes claims regarding harm to sensitive sites with the utmost seriousness.”

A new version of an iconic cockerel, or rooster, is once again watching over Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, symbolizing resilience amid destruction after a devastating April 2019 fire.

With song, cake and circus performers, Pope Francis celebrated his 87th birthday in festive style at the Vatican.

A Catholic priest can bless a gay or other unmarried couple as long as it is not a formal liturgical blessing and does not give the impression that the Catholic Church is blessing the union as if it were a marriage, the Vatican doctrinal office said.

The Vatican City State criminal court sentenced Cardinal Angelo Becciu to five years and six months in prison on two counts of embezzlement and one of aggravated fraud but found him not guilty of abuse of office or witness tampering.

When St. Francis of Assisi staged the first Nativity scene 800 years ago, he did so to remind people of the powerful, awe-inspiring truth that God became human in Jesus, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis condemned the Israeli military’s killing of two Christian women sheltering at a Catholic parish in Gaza and an attack on a convent, noting that in the current fighting “unarmed civilians are targets for bombs and gunfire.”