The St. Mary’s parish community is preparing to celebrate the bicentennial of the opening of the parish’s original church.

A funeral Mass for Franciscan Sister Alice Klein (formerly Sister Margaretta Marie) was offered Feb. 2 at Assisi House in Aston, Pa. Sister Alice died Jan. 30. She was 91 and had been a professed member of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia for 69 years.

Pope Francis expressed his “spiritual closeness” and “solidarity” with those affected by a pair of powerful earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria Feb. 6.

In this encore episode, presented during Black History Month, the Catholic Review speaks with Dr. Williams about what inspired her to write this history and what she learned in her extensive research, which included a look at the Baltimore-based Oblate Sisters of Providence.

A Chinese surveillance balloon flying at high altitudes over the continental U.S. was shot down over the water off the South Carolina coast by U.S. military Feb. 4, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III confirmed in a statement Saturday afternoon.