Childhood memories for Felipe de Jesus Abrego include celebrating each Dec. 2 with his grandmother at the tomb of two U.S. women religious buried in the local cemetery.

Heroic trust in the Holy Spirit and a firm resolve to move forward “on mission” are at the heart of the Archdiocese of Detroit’s transition to “families of parishes,” Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron said Nov. 22 in a new pastoral note.

A move by the Department of Justice to expand how it carries out federal death sentences — to include electrocution, gas or firing squads along with lethal injections –was sharply criticized by Catholic anti-death penalty activists.

The approval decades ago of a Zairean rite of the Roman Missal demonstrated that it is possible also to develop a rite for the Amazon region, Pope Francis said in a preface to a new book.

Born in Baltimore and raised across the street from Memorial Stadium, Bishop Fisher was baptized at St. Anthony of Padua, Baltimore, and later attended the Church of the Annunciation, Rosedale.

Concelebrating Mass with newly created cardinals, Pope Francis said Advent is a time to be vigilant, hopeful and helpful.

One by one 11 senior churchmen, including two U.S. citizens — Cardinals Wilton D. Gregory of Washington and Silvano M. Tomasi, a former Vatican diplomat — knelt before Pope Francis to receive their red hats, a cardinal’s ring and a scroll formally declaring their new status and assigning them a “titular” church in Rome.

“I am a pastor,” Cardinal-designate Enrico Feroci, 80, said after Pope Francis announced he would make him a cardinal. “I hope to continue being a pastor.”

Cardinal-designate Tomasi, a Scalabrinian, said Pope Francis has not explained why he chose him, but he thinks one reason is that he belongs “to a small religious family that for over a century has been working with migrants and refugees and displaced people and people on the margins of society

In a 5-4 decision issued just before midnight Nov. 25, the Supreme Court lifted the pandemic restrictions on congregation sizes at houses of worship imposed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.