The pro-life movement had a mixed record of success in its first full calendar year without Roe v. Wade in place, losing an Ohio ballot measure but also seeing the passage of new legislation limiting the procedure in some states and new streams of support for pregnancy resource centers.

On Dec. 31, 2022, the Catholic world stopped as Pope Benedict XVI passed away on the last day of the year, leaving behind an enormous theological legacy.

The coming calendar year will include the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage that begins mid-May and the National Eucharistic Congress in July, two large-scale efforts that lead into the revival’s final year, the Year of Going Out on Mission, which ends on Pentecost 2025.

The Vatican publishing house announced it will release a book of some 130 homilies given by the late Pope Benedict XVI at private Sunday Masses — 30 given while he was pope and more than 100 given to members of his household once he retired.

Since Church Militant’s founder Michael Voris announced his resignation in November, the Ferndale, Michigan-based media organization has found itself in the midst of a number of scandals, financial troubles and court proceedings.

For at least the fourth time since Russia began its large-scale attack on Ukraine in February 2022, Pope Francis and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke by telephone Dec. 28.

U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, a former top Vatican official, met privately with Pope Francis Dec. 29, about a month after reports that Pope Francis wanted to stop giving him a monthly salary and would ask him to pay the market rate for his Vatican apartment.

Pope Francis’ 2023 was a year of important trips made or postponed, a predecessor’s funeral and his own 10th anniversary as pope, a call to the world to act on climate change and a call to the Catholic Church to strengthen its mission by learning “synodality.”

The Christian community and society need young people to live out their dreams of a world where people listen to one another, accept each other and build bridges with members of different cultures and religions, Pope Francis told young Europeans meeting to “pray in” the new year.

Amid ongoing bombardment of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military — despite the Christmas season — Christian clergymen in the Middle East are decrying attacks on their community’s dwindling numbers.