Even though Palmer was a lifelong Presbyterian, he'd had a relationship with St. Vincent's spanning more than 50 years, when Archabbot Nowicki himself was in the high school at the archabbey.

Palmer did not let denominational differences deter him. "Arnie sort of appealed to everyone. There were no barriers, race, color, creed -- those were things that never entered into" his mind, Archabbot Nowicki said. "He was welcoming to everybody and treated everyone with tremendous warmth and respect." Palmer came with his wife on occasion to the archabbey's 7:30 a.m. Sunday Mass.

We profess each Sunday in the Creed: “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.” These four interrelated marks come from God, and they describe the Church that Jesus Christ founded.

The Church is unified (“one”) across many languages, cultures, and places because God himself is one in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Significantly, Christ prayed at the Last Supper that the Church would reflect this unity of God: “that they may all be one, as you, Father are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us.” (John 17:21)

Acknowledging that he had little religious faith growing up and often wondered what happens when individuals die, Sean Forrest is now a fervent Catholic husband and father who seeks to inspire other Catholic men to have the same courage and joy in living out their faith.

He was one of two main speakers at the Diocesan Men’s Conference held Sept. 11 at the Doubletree Hilton Hotel in Willamsburg.

The event, featuring both an English-speaking and Spanish speaking track, drew approximately 300 people.

The Catholic Community Foundation of the Diocese of Richmond announces their two-year anniversary today. Since it was founded on September 23, 2014, by Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo, the Catholic Community Foundation has created over 66 funds and has over $93 million in assets.

St. Matthew School trained its teachers in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and began using the Leader in Me program with their students in 2011. The school has seen its success in the classroom and out, Principal Louis Goldberg said. For example, since implementing the program, the school has seen a steady drop in behavioral problems each year. The overall decrease in conduct notices has been 67 percent, from 327 in 2010 to 107 last school year, according to Mr. Goldberg.

The Ladies of Carmel, who work diligently to better their parish Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Newport News, its school and the community, recently raised $10,500 through its baby bottle campaign for the parish’s pregnancy outreach for parents, children and infants.

Violence in the name of God does not represent the true nature of religion and must be condemned by all faiths, Pope Francis said.

“We never tire of repeating that the name of God cannot be used to justify violence. Peace alone, and not war, is holy!” the pope said Sept. 20 at the closing ceremony of an interreligious peace gathering in Assisi.

We have all heard of the water problems in Africa. Most of us can’t do anything about it, but for some reason God has arranged divine appointments for me to actually help Him solve this problem

Anna Smith had started her senior year at the University of Virginia last fall, knowing she would be a teacher after graduation, when she "got a nudge from God" telling her to be a missionary instead. She was sitting in the campus chapel on a Tuesday morning during Eucharistic Adoration when she felt a sudden desire to become a missionary with Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), a group she had joined her freshman year for its Bible study and community.

“I had my life all planned, to be a high school Latin teacher,” said Smith, 22, from Roanoke. “But God had something else in mind for me.”

The Office for Evangelization is sponsoring a series of workshops for all pastoral staffs, Catholic school and campus ministry staffs, and evangelization team members, with a focus on practical ways to reinvest in the diocesan pastoral plan for evangelization with a focus on Stage 1 and Stage 2. These workshops, which are provided free of charge, will include a keynote presentation, several breakout sessions, and dinner.

On September 9, 2016, OLMC School's 8th grade class traveled to the Bethlehem Monastery of The Poor Clares in Barhamsville, VA.

The students, along with their teachers, principal, and parent helpers spent the day in service and prayer. They worked to clear and rake walking paths, pick up debris, remove dead trees and branches, and trim trees and shrubs.

"We never tire of repeating that the name of God cannot be used to justify violence. Peace alone, and not war, is holy!" the pope said Sept. 20 at the closing ceremony of an interreligious peace gathering in Assisi.

Following a prayer service with Christian leaders, including Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople and Anglican Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury, the pope joined religious leaders from around the world to appeal for peace and unity.

"We, the undersigned scholars, affirm that the Catholic Church's teachings on the gift of sexuality, on marriage and on contraception are true and defensible on many grounds, among them the truths of reason and revelation concerning the dignity of the human person."

Titled "God's Servant First: The Life and Legacy of Thomas More," the exhibit runs through March 31. The title comes from what are believed to be More's last words before going to the chopping block where he was beheaded: "I die the king's good servant, and God's servant first."

Nearly all of the 60 or so items in the exhibit come from Stonyhurst College in England, according to Jan Graffius, the curator of collections at Stonyhurst, a Jesuit institution. The Knights of Columbus and Stonyhurst's Christian Heritage Center organized the exhibit and are its sponsors.

"Catholic faith and teaching have condemned abortion since the earliest days of the Church. Every unique human life begins at conception," he said in a Sept. 16 statement. "Every unborn human being shares with every other member of the human family a basic moral right to life."

With every passing U.S. election cycle, First Amendment and religious freedom-minded voters and watchdogs might be tempted to think, "This is the election that will most matter in our lifetimes."

But as recent years have brought a wave of religious liberty court battles and the federal contraceptive mandate infringing on an array of operations by church entities -- along with a U.S. Supreme Court vacancy to be filled -- 2016 might be a seminal electoral year.

"I encourage you to welcome refugees into your homes and communities, so that their first experience of Europe is not the traumatic experience of sleeping cold on the streets, but one of warm human welcome," he said.

"Remember that authentic hospitality is a profound Gospel value that nurtures love and is our greatest security against hateful acts of terrorism," he added.

Religious leaders celebrating the 30th anniversary of St. John Paul II's Assisi interfaith peace gathering in 1986 called on people from around the world to continue its legacy to combat today's indifference and violence.

The event Sept. 18-20 was sponsored by the Rome-based Community of Sant'Egidio, the Diocese of Assisi and the Franciscan friars to reflect on the theme, "Thirst for Peace: Faiths and Cultures in Dialogue."

He said Vatican II was the first time the church asked itself "Who am I?" but he believed the council could have gone further with a more rigorous academic look at the early church.

"It was important to have bishops from other rites with different ways of understanding things according to their different cultures," said Bishop De Roo, adding that by the 1960s the Italian culture had come to dominate the culture of the Latin-rite church. He said the presence of clergy from other rites at the council helped open the door to new ways of understanding the church.

Participating in the National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children, 62 people from several Hampton Roads parishes and the community prayed outside of St. Matthew Parish in Virginia Beach Sept. 10.

The national event, now in its fourth year, calls for solemn prayer vigils at gravesites and memorials erected in honor of the 59 million children who have lost their lives to legal abortion in this country since 1973, explained Christine Martinez who organized the event at St. Matthew’s with fellow parishioner Steven Scheerbaum. The parish has two such memorials on its grounds.

Msgr. Marvin Mottet, a priest whose name is synonymous with social justice, died Sept. 16 at Kahl Home in Davenport, three months after marking the 60th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. He was 86.

In July, unresolved tension between the bishops over how to respond to Duterte resulted in a meeting of the episcopal conference that produced no public statement or news conference, the first time that had occurred in recent memory.

The September statement on the death penalty represents a new approach, according to Father Marvin Mejia, secretary-general of the episcopal conference.

The changes regard practices for ministering not only to Eastern-rite Catholics, but also to members of the Orthodox churches when a priest of their church is not available, Bishop Arrieta said. Such ministry was foreseen in the canons of the Eastern Catholic churches, which often minister in places with a strong Orthodox presence.

"The Eastern code had a greater sensitivity in its ecumenical aspects," the bishop said. For example, one of the Eastern canons adopted for the Latin church says that when an Orthodox priest is not available, a Catholic priest can baptize a baby whose parents are members of an Orthodox Church and plan to raise the child Orthodox.

The 69-year-old member of St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish in Delano, who is married with three adult sons, is a professional gravedigger. He has been doing it for 44 years, and he now digs around 300 graves per year in 30 cemeteries in Delano and surrounding communities.

An important part of the process for him comes at the end, when he stands over the hole after the casket has been lowered and says a prayer for the deceased. It's his way of carrying out one of the corporal works of mercy: burying the dead.

The abortion advocacy organization Catholics for Choice placed full-page ads Sept. 12 in the print editions of more than 20 local and national publications, including Politico, the Nation, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Dallas Morning News and La Opinion.

The group "is not affiliated with the Catholic Church in any way," said Cardinal Dolan in a Sept. 14 statement as the chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities. "It has no membership, and clearly does not speak for the faithful. It is funded by powerful private foundations to promote abortion as a method of population control."

In keeping with its mission, the Virginia Catholic Conference (VCC) aims to educate and inform Catholics about a wide range of issues.

Four commercial airliners were commandeered the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, by al-Qaida-linked terrorists in a calculated attack against the U.S. Two planes were flown into the World Trade Center's twin towers in New York City; a third flew into the Pentagon outside of Washington; and the fourth, Flight 93, went down in Somerset County.

Celebrating the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, the pope entered the chapel dressed in a red chasuble, the color symbolizing martyrdom. He reverently bowed before the altar, where a picture of Father Hamel was placed in front of two lit candles.

Archbishop Lebrun said he had brought the photo and asked Pope Francis to sign it with a note for three religious women who had been with Father Hamel at Mass that day. The sisters care for the sick in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray and were not able to join the pilgrimage to Rome.

With a large tapestry bearing the portrait of the woman known as the “Saint of the Gutters” suspended above him, Pope Francis proclaimed the sainthood of Mother Teresa of Kolkata, hailing her courage and love for the poor.

In his new role as Director of Diocesan Cemeteries, Deacon Edward Handel will work on implementing the Diocese’s new Catholic Funeral Services program.

Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo accepted the recommendation of the Diocesan Priests’ Council for implementation of the program earlier this year.

Parishioners of Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Lebanon celebrated the parish’s 50th anniversary on Sunday, Aug. 28. Msgr. Mark Richard Lane, Vicar General of the Diocese, was principal celebrant of the liturgy.

A newly established non-profit organization known as Belmead on the James, Inc. is seeking to raise funds to preserve the historic site in Powhatan County initially purchased by St. Katharine Drexel.

“Mercy and Healing in the Jubilee Year” will be the theme of a Respect Life gathering at St. Bridget Church, Richmond, on Saturday, Oct. 1.

“It is a great way to witness our belief in the Divine Presence in the Eucharist,” he said. “As a result, it is a tremendous aid in evangelization.”

St. Olaf Parish in Norge will be the lead Church for the fourth Greater Williamsburg “Life Chain” to be held on Sunday, Oct. 2, in observance of Respect Life Sunday.

The event is not seen as a protest, but is meant to focus on prayer.

Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo is scheduled to celebrate Mass on Friday, Sept. 23, at 7 p.m., the eve of the Feast Day of Our Lady of Walsingham, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Williamsburg

Father Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit priest long involved in helping former gang members in Los Angeles, will speak at the Sacred Heart Center in South Richmond on two successive evenings in late September.

Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo announces clergy appointments.

Sr. Patricia McCormack, IHM, facilitated the Catechists’ retreat entitled “Catechists and Parents: Sacramental Agents of Evangelization.” Mrs. Deirdra Flavin, a parent and a Pre-K catechist at Holy Cross Church, provided this reflection of Sr. Pat’s retreat:

“This retreat called on participants to consider their role as being a witness to personal faith, being a mentor by sharing life stories of continual conversion, and being teachers in matters of faith and morals.”