Covid-19, the 2020 election and racial justice remained hot topics in 2021. But the past year also brought new debates within the Catholic Church, including over the Latin Mass.

The documentary, based on Francis’ 2018 book “Sharing the Wisdom of Time,” addresses fundamental lessons to be learned through the experiences of the elderly: love, dreams, struggle and work.

Pope Francis has dismissed from the priesthood Robert McWilliams, a Cleveland man who is serving a life sentence in prison for sexually exploiting children.

I spent the past year writing about the economy through the lens of Catholic social teaching. Here’s what I learned.

The new policy instructs priests who currently celebrate a form of the Mass, sometimes called the Latin Mass or Tridentine Mass, which was supplanted with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, to request permission from the archbishop if they wish to continue using the extraordinary form.

In his letter to families, like in “Amoris Laetitia,” Pope Francis paid tribute to the strength and tenacity of couples as they face real difficulties together on the journey of life.

“The Word became flesh in order to dialogue with us,” he insisted. “God does not desire to carry on a monologue, but a dialogue. For God himself—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—is dialogue, an eternal and infinite communion of love and life.”

This is what we should ask Jesus for at Christmas: the grace of littleness.

Here’s a rundown of some of the issues the pope tried to keep at the forefront of the news in 2021 and articles about them you may have missed.

The pope’s talk was aimed at promoting a synodal culture, rooted in humility, at the heart of the central government of the church.