Even Queen Elizabeth II is expected to attend this week’s ecumenical “Service of Reflection and Hope.” So why has the president of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, turned down his invitation?

In a statement released Oct. 11, the Diocese of Assisi said that since his beatification one year ago, an estimated 117,000 pilgrims visited the teen’s tomb in the Shrine of the Renunciation at the Church of St. Mary Major in Assisi.

The 2,500-page document was issued as the Catholic Church in France, like in other countries, seeks to face up to shameful secrets that were long covered up.

While some bishops have called for rapid and dramatic changes to the German church, representatives from the Vatican have underscored the need for unity and deliberation.

Besides taking up the challenge of exploring new frontiers of evangelization in Africa, Asia and Latin America, Brazilian women religious have also become evangelizers of the “old continent,” Europe, where female vocations have radically declined in recent decades.

Why, and how, do high-profile figures in the Church of England make the swim across the Tiber?