Justice is a word that creates so many emotions and reactions. Merriam Webster has named the noun its Word of the Year for 2018. The word saw a 74 percent spike on the company’s website from the previous year.

Both of these books feel necessary and needed. They also feel, through no fault of their own, of slightly of a different time, given how much the ground has shifted since their writing. Outreach to young adults is a challenge even in the best of times – and these are far from the best of times.

Nativity scenes on display at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Ga., feature a multitude of colors and sizes, reflect various cultures and are crafted from materials such as ceramics, shells, pewter, paper-mache, alabaster, corn husk and wax, to name a few.

While all eyes are on the critical February 2019 Vatican summit on clergy sex abuse, the U.S. bishops will anticipate that meeting by kicking off the New Year with a week-long spiritual retreat at Mundelein Seminary in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

A preliminary report released Dec. 19 by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan shows clergy sexual abuse of minors in the state to be “significantly more extensive” than what the state’s dioceses had previously reported, it said.

The three finalists of this year’s Opus Prize, one of the world’s largest faith-based awards for social entrepreneurship, are in their own ways working to rebuild such lost hope and provide opportunities for the most vulnerable – while at the same time inspiring the next generation of leaders to do the same.

President Donald Trump has signed into law the Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act of 2018, which will provide humanitarian relief to genocide victims in Iraq and Syria and hold accountable Islamic State perpetrators of genocide.

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 the 1990s.