Stopping to gaze at and perhaps pray before a Nativity scene is one of the best ways to remember the real meaning of Christmas, Pope Francis said.

Making churches accessible and services understandable is important, but having wheelchair ramps and sign-language interpreters is not enough for a parish to call itself “inclusive,” Pope Francis said.

Parishioners at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Minneapolis, about half of whom are deaf, had the chance to attend Mass celebrated by the first deaf man ordained a Roman Catholic priest in the U.S., Father Tom Coughlin.

Reflecting on the horror and the events of the intervening years after the Sandy Hook school shootings, Msgr. Robert Weiss said: “Gratitude sustains me. I pray a lot and try to keep myself in the Lord’s hands.”

Nadia Molina e is not only praying; she is been putting her talents into action: cutting, sewing and piecing fabric into quilts to help Ukrainian children affected by the war.

Catholic media, like their secular counterpart, is facing a day of reckoning caused by the rapid switch from print to digital media, as well as financial challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops changed the name of one of the best-known acronyms in the church, reorienting the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) into the new Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA).

Casa Juan Diego and Catholic Charities, recuperating from an overflow of Venezuelans seeking asylum from their country’s economic and political spiral this summer, may have to brace themselves for another possible surge this holiday season.

Italy’s declining birthrate is alarming, and groups that assist Italian families must do more both in terms of lobbying and witnessing to the joy of family life, Pope Francis said.

Migration across the Mediterranean Sea is as old as humanity, and while some governments say they want to stop that movement of people, it will not and should not happen, Pope Francis said.