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JERUSALEM – For some Gazan Catholics, it was a mixed blessing being stuck in the West Bank as Israel attacked the Gaza Strip.

VATICAN CITY – At least 20 church workers were killed in 2008, demonstrating that Catholic men and women – bishops, priests, religious and laity – continue placing their lives at risk in order to proclaim the Gospel and serve the poor, said the Vatican’s Fides news agency.

Parishioners of St. Leo in Little Italy were informed Dec. 28 that Michael Salerno, their former Pallottine pastor, admitted to the sexual abuse of a minor in the 1970s and that his faculties to function as a priest have been permanently revoked.

VATICAN CITY – Christmas celebrations underscore the importance of the family in people’s lives, but for many it also is a time when wounds caused by one’s family become more painful, Pope Benedict XVI said.

WASHINGTON – A new study, to be published in February, shows that exposure to violent media makes adolescents more likely to be violent or aggressive themselves.

JERUSALEM – Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal’s first Christmas message as patriarch of Jerusalem was one of hope and encouragement, without ignoring the Holy Land’s difficulties.

ALBANY, N.Y. – A new budget released by New York Gov. David Paterson Dec. 16 that proposes $9 billion in spending cuts would eliminate a program used by Catholic schools and other independent and religious schools.

January 1 marks the feast of the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God. The holy day of obligation falls on a Thursday this year. According to the Dictionary of the Liturgy, “this feast recognized Mary as the physical parent of Christ, the God-Man, defined at the Council of Ephesus in the fifth century.