Given that just days before the bishops met, the United States wrapped up a bizarre election season, there were some sparks in Baltimore about what to expect under President-elect Donald J. Trump.

Yangon Cardinal Charles Bo said it was time to "reverse the trend" of a 60-year decline in Myanmar.

"The problem that we have today, not only in society but also in the church, is that we've become too polarized," Cardinal Kevin Farrell, an Irish-born prelate who was bishop of Dallas before taking over a Vatican department on family life earlier this year, told America.

In Chicago, 17 people were lost to gun violence in a single weekend.

The Sudan Catholic Bishops' Conference, which includes the bishops of Sudan and South Sudan, said in a statement released on Nov. 8 that "there is nothing more needed than forgiveness"; to heal the divisions both countries have experienced over decades of conflict.

In this year's election, voters went against nearly all of the ballot initiatives backed by Catholic leaders and advocates, except referendums on minimum wage increases and gun control measures in four states.