Just four states were responsible for three-quarters of the executions that took place in the U.S. in 2024, according to a new report by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Pope Francis, who celebrated his 88th birthday Dec. 17, mostly uses a wheelchair instead of walking and presides over rather than concelebrates most public liturgies. Still, he had a 2024 full of important engagements, the longest trip of his papacy and major preparations for the Holy Year 2025, which he is set to open Dec. 24.

The true gift of Christmas is always the same—love come down from heaven to earth, love that changes everything, the Son of God made man, come to show us how to live and how to love.

Wearing red vestments for the feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, Pope Francis knocked on the door of the church in Rome’s Rebibbia prison complex and walked over its threshold.

God wants to save each and every person, and Christians are called to give witness to that fact by praying even for people who have harmed them, Pope Francis said.