As negotiations between the Congolese government and rebels were to begin, the nation’s bishops warned that any agreement should not “sell out the unity of the Congolese nation.”

The French bishops described as “shocking” the French Senate’s approval of a law permitting the use of human embryos for stem-cell research.

The U.S. Supreme Court will take up two cases over the constitutionality of same-sex marriage in the spring.

Pope Benedict has named his personal secretary, Msgr. Georg Ganswein, an archbishop and the new prefect of the papal household.

Christmas in St. Peter’s Square this year has a particularly southern Italian flavour with a towering tree from the Molise region and a Nativity scene donated by the Basilicata region.

An Ultra-Orthodox Jewish couple lights candles on the third night of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, The Festival of Lights in Jerusalem Dec. 10.

We have reached the point in Western society where it needs to be asked whether we still celebrate Christmas. That is, is it Christmas – the revolution of the Word made Flesh – we celebrate or has a Bacchanalian, consumerist ritual taken over?

FR. RON ROLHEISER, omi

In late November, 1982, while a graduate student in Louvain, Belgium, I began writing this column. That makes for 30 years. When I began writing this, I had no idea as to where this would go, no grand plan. I was putting notes into milk bottles and floating them out to sea, across an ocean in this case, hoping somebody might read them.

JOHN CONNELLY

Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 23, 2012

Here we are at the threshold of another Christmas. I am thinking of the lyrics of John Lennon's poignant song of the season, "And so this is Christmas. And what have you done? Another year over and a new one just begun."

SR. LOUISE ZDUNICH, NDC

I'm tired of buying presents at Christmas. Isn't there something else?