Women who worked in Ireland's "Magdalene laundries" but were denied compensation under the state's Magdalene Restorative Justice program have won their long-running battle to have their applications reassessed.

The editor of the "Woman-Church-World" supplement to the Vatican newspaper "L'Osservatore Romano" argued in the January 2, 2019 edition that "the sacrifices of women" are used to "reinforce the power of those who already have it." The editor, Lucetta Scaraffia, wrote about how the Catholic Church should include women in leadership and decision-making capacities.

The Associated Press reports on the shocking abuse of women religious in India, going back decades.

Some of Egypt's Coptic Christians are deliberating whether they should change the date of their celebration of Christmas to align with the western date of December 25th, as a sign of global Christian unity.

Catholic organizations called for greater personal responsibility in tackling climate change and stepped up their advocacy in opposing the rollback of U.S. environmental regulations during the last year.

The Supreme Court's past year will probably be remembered more for the shakeup at the bench than for specific rulings.