Howard University celebrated the blessing and dedication of its Sister Thea Bowman Catholic Student Center on Aug. 28.

The 30-year-old priest flew to Italy with an unnamed 18-year-old woman who is a recent graduate of McGill-Toolen Catholic High School in Mobile, which Father Crow also attended.

A Reflection for Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time, by Molly Cahill

On the plane home from Mongolia, Pope Francis answered several questions about this October’s synod of bishops.

Since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis has constantly looked to the peripheries both in the choice of countries to visit and men to make cardinals.. And he has consistently looked to the East where he detects the first signs of a new springtime for the Catholic Church

Among the hundreds of onlookers from several countries at the back of the square were many Catholics from mainland China, present in defiance of an order from the authorities in Beijing prohibiting not only the bishops of mainland China but also the country’s Catholics from traveling to Mongolia.