At the request of Pope Francis, the Vatican has established a new body to oversee the global Catholic Charismatic Renewal, which launched Dec. 8, creating a single group in Rome for a movement almost defined by its lack of most official structures.

On Tuesday, a gunman opened fire at Europe’s largest Christmas market in Strasbourg, France — leaving two individuals dead, another in a vegetative state, and wounding over a dozen others.

A gunman opened fire inside a Brazilian church, killing four people and injuring four others before turning the gun on himself, police said.

A nun in India accusing a bishop of raping her says she wants “the Church to recognise that I was wronged.”

For most people, Christmas is a joyous time with family and friends; but this joy can turn to grief when those family and friends have died.

In the heart of Rome, near streets of fancy shops already blinged out for Christmas shopping, Pope Francis prayed for Romans struggling to survive and for families in the city and around the world who face the same lack of welcome that Mary and Joseph experienced.