The funeral service for Fletcher Merkel, 8, was held Sept. 7 at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church in Minneapolis, just over a mile from Annunciation Catholic Church, where he and another student were shot and killed during an Aug. 27 all-school Mass.

In a Jubilee year dedicated to hope, Pope Leo XIV and Christian leaders will commemorate “new martyrs and witnesses of the faith” — people whose lives were signs of hope to the people around them and who died firm in the hope of being welcomed into God’s presence, said the secretary of the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

The Department of Education will issue new guidance “protecting the right to prayer” in public schools, President Donald Trump said Sept. 8 during remarks at the Museum of the Bible for the Department of Justice’s Religious Liberty Commission.

The Catholic Church needs the theological study and model of Mary, Pope Leo XIV said, calling for a great promotion of Mariology in parishes, religious life and educational centers.

At a packed canonization Mass in Rome, with 80,000 attending, it was the face of the mother that said it all during the canonization Mass — Antonia Salzano was moved beyond words when her son, Carlo Acutis, was officially declared saint of the Catholic Church.