There is a pile of unfinished business from 2012 and the nation’s looming “fiscal cliff” to step back from.
A high-ranking Vatican official from China says he does not expect much to change in church-state relations with the new Chinese government.
Bishop-designate William Crean, appointed on Nov. 24 to Ireland’s Diocese of Cloyne, vowed he would make a priority of healing the pain caused by the sexual abuse scandal.
Speaking on the day before World AIDS Day, Pope Benedict XVI called for special attention to those unable to afford life-saving H.I.V./AIDS drugs.