Catherine Freymann, a student at Mount de Sales Academy, visited Krakow with Clare Rowedder, a friend from Virginia. The two were the only Americans in their group of seven missionaries and two consecrated women who served as guardians for the monthlong trip.

Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori blessed and dedicated a new $4 million museum and visitor center at the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg during a special Sept. 22 celebration recognizing the life and legacy of the first native-born American to be canonized.

he death toll in one of the deadliest earthquakes to strike Afghanistan in two decades has risen to 2,000, Taliban officials confirmed on Oct. 8.

Mary is not only an “advocate,” helping Christians in need, she also is a “facilitator,” who helps them recognize that as her children, they are all brothers and sisters, Pope Francis said.

The Catholic Church is called to be an instrument of communion with God and unity among all people, but it requires grace and “learning to ‘bear with’ reality, gently, generously, lovingly and courageously for the peace and salvation of the whole world,” a theologian told the assembly of the Synod of Bishops.