For Maoz Inon, the past two years have been a personal journey from profound loss and anger toward the Israeli government to embracing “radical forgiveness” and working for lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace through InterAct — the NGO he co-founded with Palestinian partners Aziz Abu Sarah and Hamze Awawde.

Richard A. Zmuda, a parishioner of St. Mary in Annapolis and author of “The Mole of Vatican Council II: The True Story of Xavier Rynne,” tells the tale behind the pseudonym: Redemptorist Father Francis Xavier Murphy, the priest who became Vatican II’s whistleblower. 

St. Thérèse is often seen as a “sweet saint of roses,” a childlike figure whose holiness seemed effortless. Yet behind this image was a young Carmelite who embraced the demands of cloistered life, endured spiritual darkness, and suffered from tuberculosis, dying at just 24.

From the solemn proclamation of St. John Henry Newman as a doctor of the church to the Jan. 6 closing of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Leo XIV has a full calendar of liturgies and prayer services in the coming months.

A year after Helene devastated Western North Carolina, signs of recovery are everywhere — from rebuilt roads and bridges, to refurbished homes, to revived workplaces. Yet scars remain, too.