Catholic News Service

James Grein, a Virginia man who said Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington, sexually abused him for years beginning when he was 11, gave his testimony about what occurred Dec. 27 before a judicial vicar for the New York Archdiocese.

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

Year in review: Hurricane, fire, flood and even earthquake, Catholic Charities agencies did their best to help thousands of their fellow residents through some of the worst natural disasters they had ever encountered.

Catholics working in border communities such as El Paso, Texas, have been impacted by Washington's squabbles, and expressed anger about experiencing more than just daily inconveniences.

Year in review: The most dramatic immigration development of 2018 took place around summer when then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new policy that resulted in separating children from parents or other family members traveling with them and then placing the minors in detention centers.

A priest who once served in the Diocese of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to prison for sexually molesting a boy in the 1990s.

The Vatican City State court sentenced an Italian contractor, who had done work for several Vatican offices, to 2 1/2 years in jail for using a Vatican bank account for money laundering.

Immigration officials announced new health checks for immigrant children under detention after a second child, an 8-year-old boy, died Christmas Eve while under the agency's care.

Francis Chronicles: While "it may seem strange" to celebrate the feast of the first Christian martyr on the day after Christmas, Pope Francis said it serves as a reminder that Jesus came to offer his life for the salvation of all.

The Vatican announced it had opened a new medical clinic for the homeless and the poor, expanding services previously offered in a small space just outside St. Peter's Square.

The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote Dec. 21 rejected the Trump administration's request that the court let it implement a rule that those who enter the United States without documents will not be eligible for asylum.

The Field Hospital: "How Can We Pray?" was written by Zachary Stachowski, director of music ministry at St. Ignatius of Loyola in Ijamsville, moved by the anger he felt immediately after the Pennsylvania grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse was released in mid-August.

Year in review: 2018 will no doubt be remembered as a dark time for the U.S. Catholic Church. Catholics felt betrayed by church leaders accused of sexual misconduct and cover-up revealed this summer and this cloud still hung over the church at the year's end.

Year in review: Pope Francis marked the fifth anniversary of his election in March in the midst of a firestorm over his handling of clerical sexual abuse and bishops' accountability in Chile.

Nativity scenes on display at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers are crafted from materials including ceramics, shells, pewter, paper-mache, alabaster, corn husk and wax.

Christmas: Exactly 200 years ago this Christmas Eve — Dec. 24, 1818 — in a little church in what is now Austria, the world heard for the first time a poem set to music that eventually would be hailed as one of the most popular and beloved Christmas carols of all time.

This Christmas will people go to adore and be amazed by Jesus, or will they let themselves be detoured by distractions? Pope Francis asked.

Although Ireland's new abortion law takes effect Jan. 1, by mid-December only 8 percent of family doctors had signed up to provide the terminations.

The nation's criminal justice system "is in need of reform" and the First Step Act "is a worthy 'first step' in the right direction," said Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice, Florida.

Several bishops who are planning to join a weeklong U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops retreat to start the New Year are trusting they'll return to their dioceses with a renewed sense of what it means to shepherd the faithful.