IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy Congregation of Holy Cross By Dennis Sadowski WASHINGTON (CNS) — 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 …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Vatican Media By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Annunciation — the Angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she will bear God’s son — was such a tremendous, history-changing event that preaching about it is extremely difficult, Pope Francis said. So, when the Gospel reading for daily …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Aprille Hanson, Arkansas Catholic By Aprille Hanson LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (CNS) — Some people wear their faith on their sleeve, others on their feet, which is hardly sacrilegious. It is in fact, Sock Religious. Catholic socks are a rarity, but images like Mary, Pope Francis, St. Teresa of …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Max Rossi, Reuters By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Christmas will not be authentic if people get caught up in a frenzy of shopping, presents and meals, all while ignoring the poor and forgetting who the celebration is really all about, Pope Francis said. "If Christmas ends …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec By VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of 69-year-old Auxiliary Bishop Alexander Salazar of Los Angeles after the archdiocese’s independent Clergy Misconduct Oversight Board recommended he not be allowed to minister because of an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor in …

IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy www.stillenacht.com By Richard Szczepanowski WASHINGTON (CNS) — 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 …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Vatican Media By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) — While St. Joseph was a practical, down-to-earth man, he had enough faith to be open to God speaking through dreams, Pope Francis said at morning Mass. "Joseph had his feet on the ground. But he was open-minded," the pope …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Oscar Durand By Oscar Durand LIMA, Peru (CNS) — Elide Pena, 55, grins when she talks about her favorite Christmas memory: the time when she fell under Santa’s sleigh attempting to grab a toy for one of her grandchildren during a Christmas party in her native Venezuela. For …

By Carol Glatz VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In today’s climate of mistrust, rejection and nationalism, the world urgently needs peacemakers and politicians who protect and lovingly serve others, Pope Francis said in his annual message for the World Day of Peace Jan. 1. "Terror exerted over those who are most …

IMAGE: CNS photo/Bob Roller By Mark Pattison WASHINGTON (CNS) — It has been 25 years and counting, but Father Michael Shields doesn’t have any plans to leave the mission of the Archdiocese of Anchorage, Alaska, in Magadan, Russia, at least any time soon. Father Shields, 69, loves his ministry in …