The pope sent a telegram to New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan offering “heartfelt condolences and the assurance of his spiritual closeness” to those affected by the blaze, which killed at least 19 people, including nine children.

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.

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.

“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.

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

Catholic Charities USA is accepting donations at https://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org. The site has a button where users can donate money for tornado relief.

The Vatican Dec. 13 published the list of Pope Francis’ liturgies for the Christmas season.

The newly installed Catholic bishop of Hong Kong promised action to heal Catholics and the wider society, divided because of the Chinese action to suppress a two-year-long protest seeking democratic freedoms.

“Let us use this moment to rededicate ourselves to the intentional, difficult and uncomfortable work of naming and eradicating systemic racism,” the Atlanta archbishop said in a statement Nov. 24.