The last Advent calendar window has been opened; the four candles on the Advent wreath have been lit; all the verses of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” have been sung.

Elizabeth...said, “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” ~Luke 1:42

If you find the Christmas tale too good to be true, you are going to have a problem with Willa Cather’s short story, “The Burglar’s Christmas.”

In these final days of Advent, may we direct the thoughts of our hearts not towards self, but towards Christ.

The Christian community in Iraq has been decimated by decades of conflict, persecution and disorder, culminating in the unbelievable savagery of ISIS. After two millennia in Iraq, the Christian population has reduced to a vanishing point, raising concerns around the world about the viability of this ancient community.

Growing up in a Mexican-American household in the southern United States, we didn’t have snow days. What we did have were tamales. Lots and lots of tamales.

Though they certainly knew what it was like to find their lives in danger, the Holy Family would find many of the trials undocumented migrants and refugees are asked to endure today incomprehensible.

Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller delivers a Catholic response to the issue of immigration at the Mexican American Catholic College in San Antonio, Texas.

He expressed his remorse in remarks to parishioners a week after the Dec. 8 funeral of Maison Hullibarger, which received extensive media coverage. His remarks were released Dec. 17 by the Detroit Archdiocese along with its own statement of apology.

Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland signed an abortion law which takes affect on January 1, 2019. According to the Department of Health, only 200 of some 2,500 family doctors have signed up to be abortion providers. However, many Irish doctors have expressed concern that despite conscientious objections, they might be forced by law to conduct abortions.

The Government of Mexico has announced it is willing to house and protect refugees seeking admission to the United States but the number of people awaiting processing could reach in the tens of thousands, causing many to wonder if Mexico has the capacity to offer shelter to so many people.

As we are grateful for everything that your generosity enabled us to do in 2018, we also look forward to a future that delivers even greater impact. Remember America Media in your year-end giving.

The British state continues to make preparations for the growing possibility of a no-deal exit, an outcome sufficiently plausible that it is spending large sums recruiting new staff and renting warehouse space for key supplies, such as E.U.-produced medicine, that may abruptly prove hard to come by.

If we really want to scale back our reliance on prison, we need to change how we approach violence, and most people—politicians, reformers, the public—seem unwilling to do this.

The best movies from this year were about family, both natural and improvised.

Because God is in our midst, enlivening and strengthening us with his love, we can face the future with hope.

“Be converted and hand yourselves over to human justice, and prepare yourselves for the divine justice.”

The nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting reported earlier this week that at least 20 Jesuits who had been credibly accused of abuse against minors were housed at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., until 2016.

The terms used to describe and classify alleged sexual abuse are not standardized across dioceses and religious orders. Should they be?