Mary is not a “motionless wax statue,” but a disciple who wants to share the good news of Jesus with everyone and reaches out to help and comfort them, Pope Francis said.

Students — many of whom are exploring careers in science — conduct hands-on, faculty-mentored research, design and perform experiments, analyze and interpret data, and present their results.

In his homily during St. Maximilian Kolbe’s canonization Mass Oct. 10, 1982, St. John Paul II said the Polish Franciscan was granted the grace of carrying out “in an absolutely literal manner” the words of Christ: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

Summer is mission trip season — which usually conjures up images of a few dozen Catholic teenagers and their chaperones practicing the corporal works of mercy in developing nations while simultaneously expanding their cultural horizons.

Retired FBI official James Bogner was recently named chair of the National Review Board, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ consultative safe environment body established in 2002 under the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” also known as the Dallas Charter.

Russian forces have destroyed another Ukrainian Greek Catholic church, while a priest at a separate parish is hastening to remove sacred items ahead of an expected Russian attack.

Catholic schools are still excluded from Maine’s tuition grant program, a federal judge ruled Aug. 8, but he added that he expected the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit to eventually provide “a more authoritative ruling.”

Paris wrapped its Olympic Games bursting with pride, closing the Games at Stade de France — a more traditional setting than the Seine River, where the opening ceremony took place.

The annual celebration of the World Day of Peace during the Holy Year 2025 will be inspired by “the concepts of hope and forgiveness” — including the forgiveness of foreign debt — “which are at the heart of the Jubilee,” the Vatican said.

In this third and final year of the National Eucharistic Revival, the Year of Mission, “we are called to be Eucharistic missionaries in the world,” Bishop Rhoades said. “We are called to live Eucharistic lives — lives transformed by the Eucharistic love of Jesus.”