The Global Catholic Climate Movement has produced a new resource of homily helps, petitions, and bulletin announcements for next weekend's liturgies (October 1-2). This is the final weekend of the Season of Creation, which ends with the Feast of St Francis on 4 October. There is also information about the link between climate change and Syria's crisis.

If you are a bright, dynamic self-starter - passionate about building relationships, engaging new audiences and helping them to find their voice on climate change - then Operation Noah wants to hear from you. Operation Noah is seeking a campaigner for 'Turning Up The Heat', a new campaign on engaging Christians for whom climate change is not yet a priority issue.

A peace deal, bringing the five decade long conflict in Colombia to an end, is being signed today. The pen used to sign the peace deal is made from a recycled bullet. It reads: "Bullets wrote our past. Education, our future." Big screens to watch the ceremony have been erected around the country of 49 million people.

Elizabeth Wang was laid to rest in Harpenden on 22 September after a Requiem Mass in her home parish of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. There were a total of nineteen celebrants, with her son, Fr Stephen Wang, being the main celebrant. He is currently Senior University Chaplain for the Archdiocese of Westminster. Fr Stephen's homily recalled many special family moments, including the four lively grandchildren in attendance the day she died, filling the house with love and joy.

Hundreds of Muslim and Christian schoolchildren are to meet in Aleppo next week to pray for an end to the death of children through bombing and war in Syria. On Thursday, October 6, they will sign and or place their fingerprints on a written appeal begging the worlds' leaders to put an end to the violence. "But above all, they will pray. They will pray for all of their peers. And we trust in the fact that children's prayer is more powerful than ours", said Archbishop Boutros Marayati, the head of the Armenian Catholic archeparchy in Aleppo.

"We can only respond to the devil's attack with the works of God: forgiveness, love, respect for our neighbours, even if they are indifferent to it." That was Pope Francis's message to families from the French city of Nice grieving the loss of relatives mowed down in the city's streets by a truck driven by a Muslim extremist. A basket of 86 flowers - symbolising the 86 victims of the attack on Bastille Day (July 14, 2016) was given to the Pope by Christian Estrosi, the former Mayor of Nice.

The body of a priest kidnapped last week in Mexico has been found. Father José Alfredo López Guillén, 43, had been robbed before being kidnapped from his home in the Western Mexican state of Michoacan, according to Church officials. Prosecutors said that a post-mortem examination revealed that he had been murdered several days before his body was found.

Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh and Muslim leaders have gathered with Catholics at the tomb of St Teresa of Calcutta to pray for her intercession. The leaders - who met at invitation of the Catholic Archdiocese of Calcutta (Kolkata) and the Missionaries of Charity - prayed that they might emulate her commitment to the poor. "Although St Teresa has left us, we can all emulate her," said Maulana Mubarak Karim Jawahar, president of the Quran Research Society.

Just before the mid-day Angelus today (September 25, 2016), the Pope prayed for an end to the violence assailing Mexico, and especially for two priests murdered last week. On Monday, the bodies of the priests were found ridden with bullets in a ditch at the side of a motorway in the gulf state of Veracruz. Father Alejo Nabor Jiménez, 50, and Father José Alfredo Juárez, 28, who was recently ordained, had been kidnapped from their parish church hours earlier.

At the Angelus on Sunday, September 25, 2016, Pope Francis offered prayers and a greeting to the deaf community worldwide. "I want to salute all deaf persons - some of whom are here [at the Angelus] - and encourage them to give their part for a Church and for a society that are both ever more ready and willing to welcome everyone," he said.

Pope Francis has urged catechists to focus first and foremost on the Resurrection. Speaking at the Jubilee of Catechists this Sunday (25 September 2016) the Holy Father said Christ's victory over death was "the centre" of the Good News, and "the beating heart" around which all else revolves. He described Christ rising from the dead as "the key message of the faith", which catechists needed to keep right at the centre of their apostolate.

Operation Noah, an ecumenical Christian charity focusing on Climate Change, was one of many Christian groups taking part in the 2016 Interfaith Climate Symposium on 21 September in London. Ruth Jarman of Operation Noah's Board reports on the event: "Nearly everyone working in this area agrees that climate change is a spiritual issue," said Bishop Nicholas Holtam, the lead Anglican bishop on the environment, in the first talk at the Interfaith Climate Symposium. The aim of the event was to enable and encourage faith groups to work together on climate change.

Dear Readers - On Sunday morning I'm setting out for Heathrow Airport with a group of walkers from Farm Street Church, to fly to Barcelona where we will begin our ten-day 'Ignatian Camino' to Montserrat, to raise funds for Aid to the Church in Need projects in northern Iraq, and the Jesuit Refugee Service UK. We will be following the route that St Ignatius walked hundreds of years ago, from the Shrine of St Peter Claver in Verdù across Catalunya to the Abbey of Montserrat and Manresa.

It's been described as 'a miracle in wood'. St Mary's Altar, towering behind the high altar of St Mary's Basilica in Kraków, is the largest Gothic altarpiece in the world and a national treasure of Poland. For centuries, pilgrims have come from around the world to gaze on this masterpiece. The work consists of 200 fine wooden sculptures, painted in vibrant colours and gold leaf. The central part, with huge 2.7 metre tall lifelike statues, depicts dramatically the death of the Virgin Mary, surrounded by the twelve Apostles.

Born in South London, the artist and poet David Jones nevertheless grew up a fervent Welsh patriot, absorbing the romantic epics of Welsh history with its battles and brave warriors. Hardly surprising then, that he should volunteer in the Royal Welch Fusiliers when the Great War broke out. Thomas Dilworth takes us through Jones's wartime life as if inviting the reader to be a third party to a conversation between friends, and indeed the book is largely the fruit of interviews with David Jones and his friends. Like other poets and former soldiers Jones never got the

The Apostleship of the Sea (AoS) is a great example of the Works of Mercy by the Church, offering friendship and support to seafarers, said Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark. In his homily at a Mass to celebrate the feast of Stella Maris, Our Lady Star of the Sea, Archbishop Peter said: "This charity is indeed a wonderful work of mercy and we thank God today for all of you who support this work as volunteers, or who help to provide the financial support without which this work of mercy could not continue."

We don't have to travel very far to see the contrasts of poverty and excessive luxury, its all around us especially in the urban areas and cities of our world. In London for instance, just underneath the recently built and grotesquely expensive Hyde Park flats (some unoccupied because their rich owners use them as investments) the poor can be found. In the underpasses or on the grassy spaces they lie, homes of cardboard and ragged sleeping bags. Some are transient, wandering from place to place, others have fallen between the cracks of society to

There are few professions that have so much influence on society as that of journalism, Pope Francis told representatives from the Italian National Council of the Order of Journalists on Thursday. He noted that they are usually the ones who are there to record, the "first draft of history", "the building of the news agenda and introducing people to the interpretation of events. The Holy Father then went on to reflect on some aspects of the journalistic profession, and how it can serve for the betterment of the society in which we live.

Pope Francis urged the faithful to be as merciful as the Lord, because "that is the best way to be a sign, a channel, a witness of His love". The Holy Father was speaking on Wednesday during the weekly General Audience in St. Peter's Square. Reflecting on the reading from the Gospel of Luke on being merciful, "just as your Father is merciful," Pope Francis said that is not a mere slogan, but a commitment for life. That reading is where the motto of the Holy Year of Mercy comes from, he said.

The Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin and Minister for Education Richard Bruton will this evening officially launch Ministry Advocacy and Compassion a unique audio visual exhibition chronicling the role of the Church in the events of 1916. For the first time, historical documents from the Dublin Diocesan Archive will be on display alongside material from many other Religious Orders who were at the centre of events Easter Week - including the Capuchins, Dominicans, Franciscans, Irish Sisters of Charity, Jesuits, the Loreto Sisters and the Sisters of Mercy.

If Mosul is recaptured from Daesh (ISIS) it could pave the way for the return of Iraqi Christians to their ancient homelands in neighbouring Nineveh - according to bishops and other Church leaders who want to reach a deal with the government. A delegation to Iraq made up of MPs and clergy led by Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, which has provided emergency help for displaced Iraqi Christians, found that Church leaders and other leading Church figures were developing proposals which would enable the faithful

Cardinal Vincent Nichols and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Most Rev Justin Welby have responded to an appeal for support from Polish President Andrzej Duda in the wake of a number of racist attacks on the Polish community which left one Polish worker dead. In his letters, President Duda asked the church leaders to appeal to Britons to respect the fundamental rights of Poles living in the United Kingdom. 
Poles living in the UK are "honest, hardworking people, and they make an important contribution to Great Britain's economic growth," President

Pope Francis contrasted the anxiety that comes from the Holy Spirit and the anxiety that comes from a bad conscience during his homily at Mass in Casa Santa Marta on Thursday he also spoke about vanity, which "masks" life, making it look like something it is not. The Gospel of the day describes King Herod (Antipas) as being perplexed or anxious because, after having John the Baptist killed, he now felt threatened by Jesus. He was worried just as his father, Herod the Great, was troubled after the visit of the Magi.

Marco Politi, Italian journalist and author will be giving a lecture entitled: Loneliness of a Long-Distance Runner at Heythrop College on 12 October. A columnist for the Italian daily newspaper, Fatto Quotidiano, Politi has built a successful career commentating on the Vatican and religious matters since the 1970s. In addition to his recent coverage of Pope Francis, he has followed Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI on over 80 trips around the world and has regularly contributed to the BBC, CNN and ABC news channels.

Choirs and singers across the whole world got together to send a message of peace and unity on International Day of Peace. A million people were involved in One Day One Choir, a global choral initiative started in 2014 by singer Jane Hanson to mobilise the power of singing to unite people globally. A flash mob in Trafalgar Square, London, led by choir leaders Jeremy Haneman and Tom Morley, brought together singers for an impromptu performance of songs about peace.