NATION/WORLD

Arriving in Sri Lanka, a country recovering from two-and-a-half decades of ethnic and religious civil war, Pope Francis said reconciliation would require its people to explore their painful recent history and accept persistent differences within their multicultural society.

New York's French Catholic community offered solemn prayers for the victims of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris at an otherwise-joyful family Mass.

Dominican Sister Donna Markham has been chosen to succeed Father Larry Snyder as the new president of Catholic Charities USA.

Father Jonathan Morris, program director and talk-show host for the Catholic Channel on the Sirius XM satellite radio platform, has left the station.

As Pope Francis once again urged new moms not to be afraid to breast-feed in public, he reminded people to pray for the world's mothers whose poverty means they are unable to provide enough food for their children.

Exactly 31 years after St. John Paul II personally forgave him for shooting and trying to assassinate him, Mehmet Ali Agca returned to the Vatican with a bunch of white roses and laid them at the late pope's tomb.

Found unclothed, nonverbal, and malnourished roaming in a cemetery in 2010, Patrick was taken to the General Hospital of Port-au-Prince, where he was nursed to good health. But, despite the care and because of the pervasive influence of the practice of voodoo, Patrick was chained to a radiator every night out of fear he would jump out of a window.

Pope Francis' Christmas greeting to the Vatican bureaucracy this year was an extended warning against a host of spiritual ills to which he said Vatican officials are prone, including "spiritual Alzheimer's," "existential schizophrenia," publicity-seeking, the "terrorism of gossip" and even a poor sense of humor.

God is knocking to come into people's lives, so be attentive, humble and courageous to let him in, Pope Francis said. On the fourth Sunday of Advent, Pope Francis talked about Mary showing the way to be ready, humble, generous and courageous when God calls people in their lives.

New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan joined in mourning what he called the "brutal and irrational execution of two young, promising and devoted police officers" fatally shot Dec. 20 as they sat in their New York Police Department cruiser on a Brooklyn street.