The “Faith Manifesto,” signed by around 6,000 people, sharply criticizes the demands of the Synodal Path, which amount to a “self-secularization of the church,” Bernhard Meuser said.

For the first time, a layman and a nun provided the English and Spanish translations of Francis’ weekly catechism lesson rather than a cloaked monsignor, a small but revolutionary change for the Vatican.

In mid-January, a law firm is scheduled to publish a report into the handling of clerical sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, where Pope Benedict XVI was archbishop.

In a video message released by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network, Pope Francis offered his prayer intention for the month of January, which he dedicated to people who suffer from religious discrimination and persecution.

“As the omicron variant of Covid sweeps through our area, I ask that you please continue to be extremely cautious,” Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory said.

A retired priest of the Diocese of Arlington, who for seven years oversaw the diocese’s program on protecting minors from clerical sexual abuse, was indicted shortly before Christmas on two counts of sexually abusing a minor.