Vietnamese Catholic Youth Ministry of WA invited World Youth Day Rio pilgrims from throughout Perth to the Holy Vietnamese Martyrs Centre in Westminster on October 20 to reflect on the themes of the three most recent WYDs.

A priest of the Romanian Catholic Diocese of St. George was sentenced to two years in prison for stealing from the coffers of the parish where he served and from an 89-year-old parishioner who entrusted him to oversee her finances.

Joyful prayers, songs and conversation could be heard along the street as the parish community of St. Francis de Sales in Belle Harbor gathered to observe the first anniversary of Hurricane Sandy.

Pope Francis Oct. 29 appointed Father Kurt Burnette, rector of Sts. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Pittsburgh, to head the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic, N.J. The diocese covers Byzantine and Ruthenian Catholics living in New England and on the East Coast.

During the last week of October, the main entrance to Manila North Cemetery looked like a small-town fiesta. In the Philippines, the Day of the Dead usually is celebrated Nov. 1, All Saints’ Day. This is when people visit their loved ones’ graves bearing food, flowers and candles and sometimes music — when it’s allowed at the cemetery.

Pope Francis has expressed his empathy for, and solidarity with, people suffering amid bushfires in New South Wales.

Laughingly describing himself as America’s most famous Catholic who as an 11-year-old altar boy put in his time “with the uppin’ and the downin’, the crissin’ and the crossin’,” Stephen Colbert headlined the 68th annual dinner of the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation held Oct. 17 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

The Catholic Church has a history of taking on major technological innovations that promote mass communication, such as the printing press in the 15th century and radio and television in the 20th. In fact, one of the very first motion picture films ever made was an 1896 reel of Pope Leo XIII.

Although Pope Francis made very similar remarks after his election in March, it was actually his predecessor, Pope John Paul I, who spoke these phrases in September 1978, thus introducing a new, down-to-earth style into the papacy.

The persecution of Christians around the world has intensified over the last two-and-a-half years, according to a review of religious freedom in 30 countries.