Bishop W. Shawn McKnight, of the Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri, asked for prayers after three people died following an Oct. 24 shooting at a high school in St. Louis.

Parishes around the archdiocese paid tribute to first responders with a variety of services during October, and firefighter Michael Johnson’s experience was typical of the recognition bestowed upon Catholic police officers and firefighters.

The importance of the family for the Catholic Church and for society means that theological reflection on family life and pastoral responses to the joys and problems of families must focus on more than the relationship between a husband and wife, Pope Francis said.

Ten months after a marble statue of Our Lady of Fatima in the Rosary Walk and Garden outside the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception was vandalized and destroyed beyond repair, a replacement statue was blessed Oct. 23 by Washington Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory.

The international community must work for peace, and believers of all faiths must pray for it, but pressuring Ukraine to make peace with Russia would be to “consecrate the law of the strongest,” French President Emmanuel Macron told religious leaders meeting in Rome.