Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, is expected to sign an immigration bill that would make it a state crime to cross into Texas from Mexico. Catholic organizations including the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops have opposed the legislation.

Ukrainian church leaders have joined anniversary commemorations of the 1932-1933 Holodomor, or Great Famine, in which millions died in a disaster deliberately engineered by Soviet Union rulers.

Bon Secours Sister Mary Jean Aulenback, who served as a nurse in Baltimore and managed her order’s bookstore at its Marriottsville headquarters, died Nov. 17 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

If upholding a nation’s laws is dependent on the politics of those in power or on their opinion about who is and is not deserving of protection, then democracy and justice are threatened, Pope Francis said.

As Vatican workers continued to decorate the Christmas tree in St. Peter’s Square and to erect a platform for the Nativity scene, the office of papal liturgical ceremonies published the list of holiday Masses and prayer services Pope Francis would celebrate.