Addressing a room crowded with several hundred university students, Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau, Germany, discussed a wide range of topics with attendees during an open question-and-answer session held during the SEEK24 conference in St. Louis.

Congressional lawmakers Jan. 7 released the framework for a nearly $1.7 trillion agreement to fund the federal government in 2024, keeping funding intact for some domestic and social safety net programs despite demands from some Republicans to trim the budget.

Amid Russia’s war on Ukraine, the feast of the Epiphany highlights Ukrainians’ fight for “something new: the movement toward freedom,” said Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church should revise its celibacy requirement for Latin-rite priests, a senior official in the Vatican’s doctrinal office said.

In the Sistine Chapel, where popes are elected, Pope Francis baptized 16 infants, who, he said, “give us the witness of how to receive the faith: with innocence and with an open heart.”

Pope Francis called on the international community to ban surrogate pregnancy, calling it “deplorable” and a “grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs.”

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on Idaho’s near-total abortion ban, which the court temporarily reinstated after the Justice Department asserted the law conflicted with a federal statute on emergency medical care.

Instead of splitting into ideological groups, members of the Catholic Church need to put God front and center, not their own personal ideas and plans, Pope Francis said.

Perinatal hospice and palliative care supports both mother and child from the time of diagnosis through the baby’s death while prioritizing quality of life and comfort.

In 2023, actor and comedian Rob Schneider celebrated his first Christmas as a Catholic.