Thousands of youth and young adults across the nation were assured of God’s love — and encouraged to respond to his call in their lives — during an annual gathering spanning three cities, with Pope Leo XIV delivering a special recorded message to participants.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis filed a Dec. 23 motion seeking to have several counts dismissed in a lawsuit alleging “decades” of sexual abuse against minors by clergy, men and women religious, archdiocesan employees and other affiliated persons.

Corporal Snook, a 2009 graduate of St. Mark’s High School, was shot and killed as he worked an overtime assignment at the Division of Motor Vehicles branch in Wilmington, Del., Dec. 23. He was remembered Jan. 5 at a service at the Bob Carpenter Center at the University of Delaware in Newark that brought an outpouring of supporters from law enforcement and the community.

The Trump administration’s stated plans to acquire Greenland for the U.S. — either through purchase from Denmark or by military means — are being met with concern, sometimes fear and “a quiet strength” by residents, the Arctic island’s only Catholic parish priest told OSV News.

The teachings of the Second Vatican Council are still “the guiding star” the Catholic Church is meant to follow, Pope Leo XIV said.

Cardinals from around the world are gathering at the Vatican Jan. 7-8 for an extraordinary consistory called by Pope Leo XIV, an event seen as the first major step in his governance of the universal Church.

Pope Leo XIV has accepted the resignation of Bishop Salvatore R. Matano of Rochester and named as his successor Bishop John S. Bonnici, currently auxiliary bishop of New York.

After President Donald Trump told House Republicans to be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits public funding of elective abortions, in negotiations on health care subsidies, a key national pro-life group argued the policy should be “a minimum standard in the Republican Party.”

Russell Shaw, a veteran Catholic journalist who led communications for the U.S. bishops and Knights of Columbus and authored numerous articles and books, died Jan. 6 at the age of 90 in Silver Spring.

Just a few days before the Jan. 3 U.S. strikes on — and temporary takeover of — Venezuela, the Catholic bishops of several Caribbean nations had repeated their earlier plea for peace while expressing support for the Venezuelan people, amid a pre-attack buildup of U.S. military in the region.