Our Dispatches contributors were kind enough to share some thoughts on what stories are likely to be important in 2022 as we cross off, in some relief, the concluding days of 2021.

The Vatican has reaffirmed its support of Covid-19 vaccines with both the head of the Pontifical Academy for Life and a Holy See communique reiterating Pope Francis’ insistence that getting inoculated is “an act of love.”

President Biden is playing the long game in trying to revitalize the economy after Covid. It may take a long time to figure out how to measure the results.

Pope Francis spoke with an abused woman who recently fled her home with her four children.

Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J., speaks about the need for the Canadian church to apologize to Indigenous population for its role in abuse at residential schools.

Patriarch Sabbah: “When you celebrate Christmas, remember that in Bethlehem, in Jerusalem, life is not a Christmas life. It is not the blessed life of the new redeemed humanity. The song of the Angels is far away.”