(photo: Jens Junge / Pixabay)

USCCB Meeting, Pro-Life Gains (Nov. 21)

The U.S. Bishops met this week for their annual fall meeting under the shadow of the scandal surrounding the Vatican’s report on Theodore McCarrick. What did the bishops say, and what lies ahead for the Church in the United States? We talk to Catholic News Agency DC editor Ed Condon. And then, the 2020 election brought hard-fought gains for the pro-life movement in Congress. We hear from Lauretta Brown, Register staff writer, for what the pro-life cause can expect in 2021.

Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne attends a German Synodal Way assembly on March 9, 2023.

Four German Bishops Resist Push to Install Permanent ‘Synodal Council’

Given the Vatican’s repeated interventions against the German process, the bishops said they would instead look to the Synod of Bishops in Rome. Meanwhile, on Monday, German diocesan bishops approved the statutes for a synodal committee; and there are reports that the synodal committee will meet again in June.

Palestinian Christians celebrate Easter Sunday Mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City on March 31, amid the ongoing battles Israel and the Hamas militant group.

People Explain ‘Why I Go to Mass’

‘Why go to Mass on Sundays? It is not enough to answer that it is a precept of the Church. … We Christians need to participate in Sunday Mass because only with the grace of Jesus, with his living presence in us and among us, can we put into practice his commandment, and thus be his credible witnesses.’ —Pope Francis