Speaking on background, a Vatican official told Crux in early December that when the crisis of clerical sexual abuse explodes in Pope Francis’s native Argentina, the situation would be dramatic.

With 2019 already off to a running start, Vatican-watchers can expect a packed year of surprises, updates and new twists and turns. The to-do list includes the papal reform agenda, the clerical abuse crisis, international travel and possible new appointments to key dioceses and curial offices.

In a landmark 8-page letter to U.S. bishops who are on retreat in response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis that has engulfed the American Church, Pope Francis called for a “new ecclesial season” led by bishops who are more than administrators interested in “pointing fingers,” and instead, leadership marked by “collegial spiritual fatherhood,” rooted in humility and unity.

In response to a “dubia,” or doubt, posed about the moral implications of a woman getting a hysterectomy, the Vatican’s doctrinal office said Thursday the removal of the uterus is licit in “extreme cases” where health risks are imminent and where sterilization is not an issue.

Due to its influence and presence, representing 40 percent of the global Catholic population, there’s a tendency for a disproportionate share of Catholic stories to come from Latin America. 2018 was no exception.

When news broke on New Year’s Eve that the Vatican’s two official spokespersons, American Greg Burke and Spaniard Paloma Garcia Ovejero, had resigned, words such as “sudden” and “unexpected” figured in many headlines.

The Vatican asked U.S. bishops to delay voting on proposals for responding to the sexual abuse crisis back in November due to the lack of time given the Vatican to study the proposals and potential conflicts with church law, according to a letter obtained by the Associated Press.