Cindy Wooden

The rabbi accused Pope Francis of fueling anti-Israeli and anti-Jewish sentiments by focusing on the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and not acknowledging the multiple threats to Israel's existence.

Meeting more than 7,000 pilgrims who filled the Vatican audience hall or pressed against crowd-control barriers outside, Francis began a series of Saturday general audiences designed, as he said, to "welcome and embrace all those who are coming from all over the world in search of a new beginning."

"I am praying for all of you," Pope Francis said, using his televised Sunday Angelus address to speak directly to the people impacted by the wildfires in Southern California.

A cross containing dirt stained with the blood of Sister Dorothy Stang, a U.S. member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur shot down in the Amazon 20 years ago, and one of her sweaters were placed Jan. 10 on the altar of the "new martyrs of the Americas" in Rome's Basilica of St. Bartholomew.

In its annual report on pastoral workers killed, Fides, the news agency of the Pontifical Mission Societies, listed eight priests and five laymen. Six were killed in Africa, five in Central or South America, and two were killed in Europe.

"I wanted the second Holy Door to be the one here, at a prison," Francis told the inmates. "I wanted all of us, inside or out, to have an opportunity to throw open the doors of our hearts and understand that hope does not disappoint."

Victor Genina Cervantes, director of integral human development at Caritas Internationalis, the umbrella organization for national Catholic charities around the world, presented the campaign "Turn Debt into Hope" at a Vatican news conference Dec. 23, the eve of the opening of Holy Year 2025.

An Italian association for LGBTQ+ Christians, their parents and the priests and religious who minister with them is among the many groups registered to make a pilgrimage together through the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican.

Climate change, war, immigration and other global challenges can only be resolved with the input and cooperation of the entire global community, Pope Francis told a group of new ambassadors to the Holy See.

The celebration of a Holy Year every 25 years is an acknowledgment that "the Christian life is a journey calling for moments of greater intensity to encourage and sustain hope as the constant companion that guides our steps toward the goal of our encounter with the Lord Jesus," Pope Francis wrote.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Legislative Texts are setting up a working group to study how "spiritual abuse" can be defined and punished in church law, a note from the doctrinal office said.

Pope Francis, who will celebrate his 88th birthday in December, has approved simplified liturgical rites for the death of a pontiff.

As the 1,000th day since Russia launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine approached, the Vatican secretary of state said he hoped the milestone would "awaken a sense of responsibility in everyone, especially those who can stop the ongoing carnage."

Pope Francis has appointed a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago to serve as administrative management director of the Laudato Si' Center for Higher Education, which is based at the papal villa and farms at Castel Gandolfo.

The Vatican, dioceses around the world and religious congregations have a patrimony of an estimated $1.75 trillion to invest but there are only a handful of investment funds that meet the multiple criteria of being consistent with the teaching of the Catholic Church, said Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, president of the Institute for the Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican bank.

Asked about Trump's victory Nov. 5 and looking toward his second term as president, Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin said, "I think he has to work above all to be president of the whole country and therefore overcome the polarization that has occurred and is very evident."

The pope traveled Nov. 2 to Rome's Laurentino cemetery, which has a special section for children who have died and, nearby, a section called the "Garden of the Angels" where parents who have experienced a miscarriage can opt to have their children buried rather than having a hospital dispose of the remains.

Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle, a papally-appointed member of the Synod of Bishops, said that as the second synod assembly nears its conclusion Oct. 27, people might not see what they hoped for in the synod's final document, but the gathering heard them and took their input seriously.

Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, Pope Francis' envoy for peace in Ukraine, returned to Moscow in mid-October for meetings with Russian government officials and leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church.

"Those who are running for public office probably will not satisfy each and every issue that lies before you," so Catholics must decide which issues are most important to them and then "rank them, learn about them, pray about them, make a conscientious decision," Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington said.