Catholic News Service

2019 in review: Headlines included the U.S. bishops' approval of a plan to implement Pope Francis' Vos Estis Lux Mundi, a document that came out of the Vatican's February summit on the clergy sexual abuse.

Over the last year, Catholic dioceses on the U.S. side of the border with Mexico, in places such as El Paso and Brownsville, Texas, scrambled to accommodate the growing number of children, men and women crossing the border, seeking asylum and entering the U.S.

The upcoming movie "Just Mercy" "has the potential to wake up out of a slumber the part of society that either doesn't believe the death penalty is still in practice or chooses to ignore it," according to two leaders of the Catholic Mobilizing Network, founded 10 years ago to eliminate death penalty laws and executions.

2019 in review: Throughout his papacy, Pope Francis has welcomed dialogue. In some segments of the modern-day media, however, the emerging dialogue has been portrayed as a church reeling in conflict.

A national newspaper published a document that, it says, is a copy of a report now in the hands of the Vatican, detailing what witnesses say transpired during the tenure of the retired bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, as well as other allegations of sexual misconduct while he was the rector of Washington's Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Bishop R. Daniel Conlon of Joliet announced he is taking a medical leave of absence starting Dec. 27.

As India continued to experience violent protests against a controversial citizenship law, Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai said citizenship should never be based on a person's religion.

A Catholic member of Congress and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom welcomed the U.S. Department of State's redesignation of nine nations as "countries of particular concern" for carrying out or tolerating "systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom."

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops applied Catholic teaching to a number of bills circulating in one or both chambers, although the slowdown affected the U.S. bishops' priorities as well.

2019 Year in Review: For Pope Francis, 2019 included his sixth anniversary as pope, his 83rd birthday and his 50th anniversary as a priest, but it also was a year that saw him still confronted with the clerical sexual abuse crisis and with Vatican financial scandals.

After accepting the resignation of 92-year-old Cardinal Angelo Sodano as dean of the College of Cardinals, Pope Francis changed the norms of the office so that the dean would be elected to a five-year term renewable only once.

In his traditional pre-Christmas meeting with cardinals and top officials of Vatican offices, Francis recognized that few countries today can be described as Christian, but warned that attempts to meet the new challenges are threatened by "the temptation of assume an attitude of rigidity."

Pope Francis and the secretary-general of the United Nations said that, like millions of people around the world, during the Christmas season their thoughts turn to yearnings for peace and for the well-being of those in need.

The Supreme Court will take a deeper dive into laws governing church and state next year when it examines two Catholic school teacher firings.

Bishop Lawrence T. Persico Dec. 17 announced the opening of the canonization cause for Gertrude Barber, a renowned Erie educator and Catholic woman of faith who dedicated her life to serving children and adults with intellectual disabilities/autism and their families.

Before blessing a large resin cross constructed around a used orange life vest, Pope Francis insisted human beings have a "binding" moral obligation to save those whose lives are threatened, including the lives of migrants and refugees.

Recent media coverage that points to potential financial misdealing at the Vatican is creating misperceptions about corruption and fails to adequately explain how the fluid world of financial investing works, said the authors of an article published in a University of Notre Dame journal.

The Catholic bishops of Northern Ireland have asked the U.K. government to include a mandatory waiting period for women who request abortions under a new law.

Use of the death penalty in the United States continues to decrease, according to a report released Dec. 17 by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Putting up a Nativity scene before Christmas is a reminder to stop and remember what Christmas is really about and to prepare one's heart like a manger for the coming of Christ, Pope Francis said.