Hundreds of spectators, media and workers descended on the home of Devon and Julie Price, parishioners at Immaculate Conception Church in Elkton, Maryland, to watch as a 79-foot-tall, 46-foot-wide Norway spruce was cut down and removed from their property.

Bishops approved new guidelines governing financial investments of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that include wider limits on where money would be invested and advance a policy of engagement on corporate practices that impact human dignity.

Coming together for the first time in two years has been good for the bishops of the United States, in the judgment of Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States, spoke to the U.S. bishops Nov. 16 about the importance of listening to people in the church and being open to the work of the Holy Spirit.

“People are starting to examine what they truly believe and what they value most deeply in their lives,” said Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez, who spoke Nov. 16 during the opening public session of the USCCB’s Nov. 15-18 general assembly in Baltimore.

Honoring two reporters who have covered the Vatican for more than 40 years, Pope Francis paid tribute to all journalists who work to explain what is going on in the world and “make it less obscure.”

Honoring an Australian theologian, a French philosopher and two German theologians, Pope Francis prayed that they may continually be inspired by retired Pope Benedict XVI’s episcopal motto, “Cooperatores veritatis” — co-workers in the truth.

With the U.S. Capitol at his back, Darian Benitez Sanchez Nov. 8 told the story of how his father used to take him to high school math competitions on weekends in Arizona, where he attended the Jesuit-run Brophy College Preparatory high school, and how his dad would wait hours for him inside a locked car.

A billboard will go up in New York’s Times Square during Christmas and New Year’s to promote and celebrate the evermore popular podcast “The Bible in a Year,” but more is in store for the program that topped the charts shortly after its debut in January.

The pope’s pilgrimage to Assisi Nov. 12 was dedicated totally to the poor in preparation for the celebration Nov. 14 of the World Day of the Poor.