Pope Francis landed in Jakarta after a 13-hour flight from Rome and was greeted by the religious affairs minister of Indonesia and two children in traditional dress who offered him flowers.

A funeral Mass for Sister Kathleen Mary O’Brien, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, was offered Aug. 29 at Our Lady of Victory in Arbutus. Sister Kathleen died Aug. 15 in Massachusetts. She was 81.

Traveling on an ITA Airways plane, Pope Francis set off on the longest foreign trip of his papacy.

In what was a devastating Sunday morning for hostage families, Israel said Sept. 1 that it had recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose parents became outspoken global advocates for all hostages to be released.

The Holy Land’s sacred sites overflow with tourists in normal times, but with war in Gaza, most airlines have canceled flights to the region. The streets of the Old City of Jerusalem are deserted with merchant’s stalls shuttered.