Catholic leaders in northeastern Nigeria appealed for prayers and humanitarian support as devastating floods engulfed Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, known as the epicenter of the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram’s insurgency.

The Diocese of Buffalo, N.Y., plans to reduce the total number of its 160 parishes by 51 percent following a Sept. 10 announcement of final decisions on closures and mergers.

A funeral Mass was offered Sept. 10 for School Sister of Notre Dame Maria Natividad Aponte at Villa Assumpta in Towson. She died Sept. 2 at 99 after serving more than 70 years in Maryland, Pennsylvania and her native Puerto Rico.

With some prudence, Catholics can benefit spiritually from the messages and spiritual practices associated with the alleged apparitions of Mary in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina, said the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Six young people, aged 10 to 16, said Mary began appearing to them in June 1981 in Medjugorje, a town in what was then Yugoslavia and is now Bosnia-Herzegovina.