Red Rose Rescue, the small Michigan-based group that has conducted blockades of abortion clinics in Michigan, New York and Virginia since 2017, was ordered Dec. 8 to abide by a new restriction on clinic access covering 13 counties in New York.

As the humanitarian crisis escalates in Gaza — amid tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered near Gaza’s border with Egypt, attempting to flee, and a health care system on the verge of collapsing — a Gaza priest warned that Christians in Gaza are suffering a lot.

The council of the Synod of Bishops will ask Pope Francis to authorize studies on the need to update canon law, revise the rules for priestly formation, deepen a theological reflection on the diaconate — including the possibility of ordaining women deacons — and consider revising a document that provides norms for the relationship of a bishop with members of religious orders in his diocese.

The Texas Supreme Court on Dec. 11 overruled a district judge’s order allowing a pregnant mother to obtain an abortion under an exemption to the state’s abortion ban.

For the first time in history, 150 homeless people had a festive meal, served by Italian journalists and their families, under the famous baroque Bernini’s colonnade in St. Peter’s Square.

The Texas Supreme Court has temporarily stayed a district judge’s Dec. 7 ruling in favor of a pregnant mother who sued the state for an exemption to its abortion ban, after arguing her pregnancy would endanger her life and future fertility.

A Catholic church in Ukraine named for St. Nicholas marked its patron’s feast day by enshrining relics from St. John Paul II, who witnessed the power of faith over authoritarianism.

To connect with God, Christians must disconnect from the “pollution of vain words and chatter” that reach them through social media and instead seek silence in the desert, Pope Francis said.

Commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Weeping Madonna of Syracuse, a plaster image of Mary hung in the bedroom of a newlywed couple in southern Italy that began shedding tears, Pope Francis said the miraculous sign is a reminder of Mary’s maternal presence and her desire that all people would know the love and peace of her son.

Away in a cave near Greccio, Italy, St. Francis of Assisi had the first Nativity scene — a live one — staged for the faithful on Christmas Eve in 1223. A 15th-century fresco now decorating the cave inspired the Nativity scene erected in St. Peter’s Square for the 800th anniversary celebrations.