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.

In a recent interview with Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Cardinal DiNardo was asked about a pledge that all dioceses in Texas would release the names of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse.

With just two months to go until a high-stakes Vatican summit on the global clerical sex abuse crisis, organizers have asked heads of bishops’ conferences to prepare for the gathering by meeting with survivors to understand the gravity of the harm caused.

According to a new report released by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), executions in the United States are at a historic low. For the fourth consecutive year, there have been fewer than 30 executions and 50 death sentences.