Ahead of the 106th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Eric Estrada Buenaño tells his story about being welcomed into a new family in Venezuela.

Israel and the United Arab Emirates announce the normalization of relations, marking Israel’s first diplomatic ties with a Gulf Arab nation.

Greece is continuing to build up a wide-ranging diplomatic front against Turkey, which it accuses of illegal oil-prospecting in Greek-controlled waters.

In a “Note” published on Friday, the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) criticises the Italian health ministry’s decision to change the nation’s “Guidelines” for abortion, which allow for chemically-induced abortions in the home, rather than in hospitals. Support for the life of babies in the womb, and for families, the Note says, "is the litmus test of an attentive and sensitive society that knows how build its own future.”

In a message on the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, Japan’s bishops are urging the country’s citizens to free themselves from preconceptions and bias against the displaced people in society and accept and protect them, living in harmony with them.

Thousands march in a peaceful demonstration in Papua New Guinea, in recognition of the First International Day against Witchcraft and Sorcery Accusation.

The Director of the Center for Evangelisation of Sydney Archdiocese reflects on the role of lay men and says Australian Bishops recognize that their participation in the Church and society “is something that ought to concern the Church and makes a claim on our faith.”

When he was just twelve years old, the pious child, Rajmund Kolbe (born in Zduńska Wola, Poland, a subject of the Russian Empire) had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which he later described to his Franciscan Superiors thusly: That night, I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me, a Child of Faith. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked me if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity, and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both. It is fitting that we today anticipate Saturday’s Feast of the Assumption of Mary by remembering a saint whose devotion to the Blessed Mother informed and inspired a heroic life lived energetically—and…

The Catholic Bishops of the Philippines are calling for a massive, nationwide prayer campaign for the healing of the country and the end to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Bishop of Cefalù in Sicily entrusts a participation in the pastoral care of the parish of St Paul the Apostle to a team of lay people, under the direction of a priest moderator.