November unemployment numbers released on Dec. 2 indicated a decrease in joblessness from 9 percent to 8.6 percent.
The Rhode Island governor's decision “to avoid the word Christmas” in an invitation to a “holiday tree lighting” ceremony “is most disheartening and divisive,” said Bishop Thomas Tobin.
Climate change is a faith issue because it deals with God's creation and with poverty, said Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa.
In every region of the country, death sentences have declined, which eventually will affect the number of executions.
Kinshasa Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo challenges election results in Democratoc Republic of Congo.
Congress must find ways to continue unemployment compensation to protect jobless workers and their families, said the chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.
"For millions of American workers and their families, economic hardship continues and grows," said Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, Calif.