The 49th annual national March for Life — with a rally on the National Mall and march to the Supreme Court Jan. 21 — will go on as scheduled this year amid a surge in the omicron variant in the nation’s capital.

Just as the Magi were guided by a shining star, Christians can rest assured that the light of Christ will guide them to a happy and meaningful life, Pope Francis said on the feast of the Epiphany.

A year since the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Msgr. Salvatore A. Criscuolo continues to see the physical pain and mental stress among officers of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department.

The attack on the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6, 2021, “represented a direct blow to the heart of American democracy,” the Vatican newspaper said.

Proceedings before a criminal trial involving former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick will continue March 3 in Massachusetts, where he faces three counts of sexually assaulting a teenager in the 1970s.

In mid-January, the law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl is scheduled to publish a report into the handling of clerical sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.

Since Christmas, the Missionaries of Charity have been strictly rationing the food and daily use items for their regular 600 beneficiaries at their motherhouse and Shishu Bhavan, a children’s orphanage. On Jan. 2, the breakfast of tea, bread, and eggs was cut short by an hour.

Wearing a high-filtering mask over one’s nose and mouth at Mass “is a small sacrifice we can bring to the altar as an offering pleasing to God for the good of all his children,” said Father Roberto Colombo, a geneticist and member of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory announced in a Dec. 31, 2021, statement that he tested positive for COVID-19. He was asymptomatic at the time and remained so Jan. 3, according to the media relations director for the archdiocese.

As Catholics begin a new year contemplating the motherhood of Mary, they should be inspired not to let problems weaken their faith or prevent them from helping others grow, Pope Francis said.