January

Pope Francis holds on to his skullcap as he arrives at the Cathedral at the Plaza de Armas to meet with Chile’s bishops and priests, in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018. Francis begged for forgiveness for the “irreparable damage” done to children who were raped and molested by priests, opening his visit to Chile by diving head-first into a scandal that has greatly hurt the Catholic Church’s credibility and cast a cloud over his visit. (Credit: AP Photo/Esteban Felix.)

 

People walk up Constitution Avenue headed toward the U.S. Supreme Court while participating in the 45th March for Life Jan. 19 in Washington. The 2019 March for Life is Jan. 18 and the theme is “Unique from Day One.” (Credit: Michael Reynolds/EPA via CNS.)

February

In February the parents of Alfie Evans asked to bring their child, sick with a rare disease, to the Vatican hospital Bambino Gesù.  The story of Alfie, who died a few months later, stirred a global debate on life and healthcare. (Credit: Alfie’s Army Facebook Page.)

 

Defendants Giuseppe Profiti, left and Massimo Spina in a Vatican courtroom. They were charged with illictly spending $500,000 belonging to a papal pediatric hospital on remodeling the private apartment of Italian Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, in what was the first-ever Vatican trial for financial crimes. (Credit: AP.)

March

Pope Francis sits among youths for a group photo during the opening session of the pre-synod of the youths meeting, at the the Mater Ecclesiae college in Rome, Monday, March 19, 2018. (Credit: AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino.)

March was the month of women  at the Vatican. South American bishops met at the Vatican to discuss the role of women in the Church. A Vatican owned magazine published a report on the mistreatment of religious sisters by male clergy. The picture above shows the Voices of Faith conference where women from all over the world met to call for greater female participation in the Church. (Credit: Voices of Faith.)

April

A Vatican tribunal began the trial of Msgr. Carlo Alberto Capella, a former Vatican diplomat, for possessing and distributing child pornography. In the photo Capella, left, speaks with his lawyer, Roberto Borgogno, in a Vatican courtroom on Saturday. Monsignor Capella was recalled from Washington in September. He was later sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of about $5,800. (Credit: Vatican Media/ANSA, via Associated Press.)

 

This month saw one of the greatest and most unnecessary communication fiasco’s with “Lettergate.” The Vatican’s public relations department doctored a letter by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on “The Theology of Pope Francis” series. (Credit: Courtesy of Vatican Media.)

May

The rich and famous gathered the first monday in May for the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute gala. The 2018 theme was “Heavenly Bodies” drawing from the Catholic imagination. In the photo Gucci designer Alessandro Michele, singer Lana del Rey and actor Jared Leto pose for a picture in the outfits inspired by the theme of the gala. (Credit: AP.)

Demonstrators hold posters as they march for more liberal Irish abortion laws March 8 in Dublin. Irish citizens voted “yes” in a referendum on whether the constitutional right to life of unborn children should be removed. The vote took place only a few months before Pope Francis’s visit to the country. (Credit: CNS photo/Clodagh Kilcoyne, Reuters.)

June

Pope Francis gives his speech in the Ecumenical Center in Geneva, Switzerland, Thursday, June 21, 2018. The one-day visit was part of celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the World Council of Churches. (Credit: AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino.)

 

Bishop Nunzio Galantino was named June 26 by Pope Francis as the new head of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See. (Credit: CNS.)

July

In this Nov. 14, 2011, file photo, then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick prays during the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ annual fall assembly in Baltimore. Credible accusations  of sexual misconduct and child abuse emerged against the cardinal in July rocking the Catholic Church. (Credit: AP Photo/Patrick Semansky.)

 

Victims of clergy sexual abuse and their family members react as Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro speaks during a news conference at the Pennsylvania Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2018. A Pennsylvania grand jury said that its investigation of clergy sexual abuse identified more than 1,000 child victims. The grand jury report says that number comes from records in six Roman Catholic dioceses. (Credit: AP Photo/Matt Rourke.)

August

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin and President of the 2018 World Meeting of Families in Ireland, during a press conference in Dublin, Ireland, Wednesday Aug. 22, 2018. Some thousands of people attended the World Meeting of Families in Dublin culminating in an open-air Mass celebrated by Pope Francis. (Credit: Brian Lawless/PA via AP.)

 

In this Nov. 16, 2015 file photo, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S., listens to remarks at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ annual fall meeting in Baltimore. Vigano accused Pope Francis of covering up the sexual misconduct of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and rehabilitating him from sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict XVI. (Credit: AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File.)

September

Delegates pray after receiving Communion during Mass Sept. 21 on the feast of St. Matthew during the Fifth National Encuentro, or V Encuentro, in Grapevine, Texas. The Sept. 20-23 event is a gathering of more than 3,200 Hispanic Catholic leaders and about 125 bishops from across the country. (Credit: CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn.)

 

In this April 18, 2018 file photo, Pope Francis meets a group of faithful from China at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican. On Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018, the Vatican announced it had signed a “provisional agreement” with China on the appointment of bishops, a breakthrough on an issue that for decades fueled tensions between the Holy See and Beijing and thwarted efforts toward diplomatic relations. (Credit: AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, file.)

October 

Bishops attended a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis for the opening of a synod, a meeting of bishops, on Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2018. The synod brought together 266 bishops from five continents for talks on helping young people feel called to the Church at a time when church marriages and religious vocations are plummeting in much of the West. (Credit: AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino.)

 

For a second day, protesters rallied to condemn a Supreme Court decision that acquitted Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, who spent eight years on death row accused of blasphemy, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018. Bibi plans to leave the country, her family said, as Islamists mounted rallies demanding Bibi be publicly hanged and also called for the killing of the three judges, including Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, who acquitted Bibi. (Credit: AP Photo/Shakil Adil.)

November

A poster regarding the 1983 disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi on a wall in Rome. Bones and skeletal remains believed to belong to a woman were found on Vatican grounds raising once again the mystery of Orlandi’s dissapearence. (Credit: Stock image.)

 

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, looks up while holding a press conference Nov. 12 at the bishops’ general assembly in Baltimore. The Vatican asked U.S. bishops to stand down regarding action against sexual abuse until the meeting organized in February by Pope Francis. (Credit: CNS.)

December

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, speaks Dec. 3 during the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland. The cardinal told participants “We are standing before a challenge of civilization for the benefit of the common good.” (Credit: Kacper Pempel/Reuters via CNS.)