Archdiocesan staff and clergy gathered on June 28 to thank Paddy Buckley for her work as coordinator of the Year of Grace. Ms Buckley took on the voluntary role at the request of the then-Archbishop Barry Hickey in 2011 and said she had enjoyed it immensely.

In this tiny South Hebron Hills encampment of tents and cave dwellings, where camels cling to the sandy hillside and hardy goats scrounge for shoots of brush and desert grasses, it is summer camp time for the children. It is the 11th year in which the South Hebron Hills Popular Resistance Committee and the Alternative Information Center, a joint Palestinian-Israeli non-governmental organization promoting cooperation, have run a summer camp for the children of Tuba and four other villages. The European Union funds the program.

In this ancient city that has become synonymous with the ends of the earth, the recent terrorism of Islamist extremists belies long years of peaceful Muslim-Christian coexistence. Troubles in Timbuktu began in April 2012 when the city was taken over by the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, or MNLA, a largely Tuareg group that wants a secular and independent state in northern Mali. Yet the group’s Islamist allies soon turned against the MNLA and drove it out of the city. That left the jihadists in control of Timbuktu.

Visiting the Holy Land was the experience of a lifetime for Perth school teacher David Tunchon. Amid the constant conflict surrounding him, he was able to deepen his own faith, as Juanita Shepherd reports…

With retired Pope Benedict XVI sitting next to him, Pope Francis formally recited separate prayers to consecrate Vatican City to St. Joseph and to St. Michael the Archangel. The early morning ceremony in the Vatican Gardens July 5 featured the unveiling of a new statue of St. Michael, sculpted by Giuseppe Antonio Lomuscio. The project, along with a fountain by Franco Murer dedicated to St. Joseph, was initiated under Pope Benedict.

The two popes whose canonizations received final clearance July 5 “each had a profound impact on the church and the world,” as New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan put it.

He has one of the most recognisable faces in WA. Starting off in journalism helping his dad as a casual at The Sunday Times at the age of 15, Peter Kennedy finished secondary school at Aquinas College and then studied at UWA. Failing to secure a cadetship, he turned to teaching but an unexpected break at The West Australian catapulted him into political journalism. Now a retired ABC journalist and winner of the Clarion Award who lectures at Notre Dame University, he continues to write and is researching a book about the premiers he has known. Peter opens up to The Record and tells us about his faith, what he thinks about Gregory Peck and how technology aids reporters …

Quality education is built around partnerships. At least, that was much of the thinking that underpinned the recent open day held at Kolbe Catholic College on June 28.

Take one dance teacher, three residents of an aged care facility with nearly three centuries of life between them, a complement of student dancers, a little inspiration and the result is a moving tale of life’s highs and lows.

As people of faith and as Americans, the nation’s Catholics should kneel in prayer and also stand in defense of religious freedom, Washington Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl said July 4 during the closing Mass for the Fortnight for Freedom at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington.