President Donald Trump, the State Department, and members of Congress expressed concern after Hong Kong’s prominent Catholic media tycoon and pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai was convicted of national security offenses under the city’s controversial national security law.

Fifty French Catholics killed under German Nazism were beatified Dec. 13, 2025, during a Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris — an event that recognized their witness of faith during World War II.

Chile’s bishops’ congratulated José Antonio Kast for claiming the South American country’s election, but called for the president-elect to “promote an environment of dialogue, encounter, and respect, essential for rebuilding social trust” amid deep divisions and rising concerns over crime and migration.

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, expressed the Catholic Church’s solidarity with the Jewish community in the wake of a Dec. 14 terror attack by two gunmen that targeted Jewish beachgoers at an event celebrating the first day of Hanukkah at Sydney’s Bondi Beach.

Having first gained fame for his role on the landmark CBS-TV sitcom “All in the Family” (1971-79) in which he played Archie Bunker’s Polish American son-in-law, Mike Stivic — whom the cranky bigot dubbed “Meathead” — Rob Reiner helmed his first film in 1984. His work crossed various genres and included a number of features now regarded as classics.