Catholic leaders around the world who had been praying for retired Pope Benedict XVI reacted with sorrow to news of his death Dec. 31 but expressed gratitude for his years of service to the Catholic Church as a theologian and pope.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI, who had an impressive record as a teacher and defender of the basics of Catholic faith, is likely to go down in history books as the first pope in almost 600 years to resign.

Just a few hours after retired Pope Benedict XVI died in his Vatican residence Dec. 31, Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, provided a few early details of what to expect in the coming days.

Although 2020 protests addressing racial disparity followed more than a century of civil liberty struggles in the U.S., more white Americans have been among the crowds of demonstrators in the more recent movement demanding racial equality than in the past, something many Catholic leaders believe is key.

The goal of the used food truck — named “Holy CHOW,” for Christian Hospitality on Wheels — is to improve the lives of the hungry in the Manville, N.J., area.

With economic aid, political support, and boots on the ground inside Ukraine and Poland, U.S. Catholics have been steady partners helping Ukrainians under attack.

Two days after Pope Francis told people retired Pope Benedict was “very sick” and in need of prayers, the Vatican said he again had a restful night and was able to participate in the celebration of Mass in his room.

Most of the 18 Catholic missionaries murdered in 2022 were not carrying out high-risk missions when they were assassinated but were simply “immersed and submerged in the ordinariness of their lives and their apostolic work,” said the editor of Fides, the Vatican’s missionary news service.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, head of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, met with top Ukrainian military chaplains Dec. 29 in Kyiv.

Even though 2022 was another year with fewer than 30 executions, more than half of those were in just two states, Oklahoma and Texas.