Atlanta

People need to rediscover and recommit to the vision of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to work nonviolently for equality for all, Pope Francis said.

"The political process is an extension of living out our faith," said Mike Harris, a longtime member of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Atlanta. "We must engage and stand for what is right, stand for the poor, stand for the needy, stand for the imprisoned, for those people who have no other voice. We are called to be the voice of God for the people of God."

Democrats won both Georgia Senate seats — and with them, the U.S. Senate majority — as final votes were counted Wednesday, serving President Donald Trump a stunning defeat in his last days in office while dramatically improving the fate of President-elect Joe Biden’s progressive agenda.

When the Rev. Raphael Warnock arrives in Washington to take his Senate seat, he is likely to be welcomed by a collaborator from his home state of Georgia: the city's archbishop, Cardinal Wilton Gregory.

This year, as tens of thousands of people nationwide protested racial injustices, Catholics similarly took to the streets and also joined in prayer services and discussions.

Extreme global temperatures, wildfires and hurricanes continued to plague the planet during 2020, prompting U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to urge an end to global "war on nature."

Conservative Christians are rallying behind the state's two Republican senators, while Black churches and liberal-leaning Jewish groups are backing their Democratic challengers.

Msgr. Jeffrey D. Burrill, a priest of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, is the new general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.