Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, expressed the Catholic Church’s solidarity with the Jewish community in the wake of a Dec. 14 terror attack by two gunmen that targeted Jewish beachgoers at an event celebrating the first day of Hanukkah at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

The Little Sisters of the Poor appealed an August ruling from a federal district court that struck down a religious conscience rule, their legal representatives said Dec. 15.

Several parishes and schools across Western Washington have shut down operations due to historic flooding in the state.

Although there was a significant increase in executions in the U.S. in 2025, a smaller number of new death sentences was imposed, a new report from the Death Penalty Information Center found.

Americans who leave their childhood religion typically do so by the age of 30, with just under half saying they stopped believing their former religion’s teachings.

A Catholic Nobel Peace Prize winner who was unexpectedly freed from jail in Belarus has paid tribute to supporters who helped secure his release, while warning that over a thousand political prisoners still languish in his country’s penal colonies.

Christmas is a reminder that people can encounter God in ordinary, everyday places, Pope Leo XIV said.

Two gunmen targeted Jewish beachgoers at an event celebrating the first day of Hanukkah in an apparent terror attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, New South Wales police said.

The Nativity scene and the Christmas tree are signs of faith and hope, Pope Leo XIV said.

Even in difficult situations and harsh places, like prisons, when people focus on caring for one another, respecting each other and offering forgiveness, “beautiful flowers spring forth from the ‘hard ground’ of sin and suffering,” Pope Leo XIV said.