The Church is gathering many of the world’s bishops in October to start talking about how the Christian life is really lived. They will meet in the Vatican at an extraordinary Synod of Bishops convened by Pope Francis to start to address the pastoral challenges of family life.

Bishop Anthony Francis Sharma loves his title as emeritus bishop of Nepal. He loves it because it allows him to make a little joke at his own expense.

It may be the diplomatic equivalent of a Hail Mary pass, but it seems Pope Francis is serious about talking to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Not only did the Pope tell reporters as he flew home from South Korea Aug. 18 he would go to Beijing “tomorrow” if he had the chance, he has now sent a letter to Xi through Argentinian diplomatic channels inviting the Chinese leader to the Vatican to discuss world peace. 

A touch of Canada, a touch of Scotland and a feminine touch has been added to the assembly of 30 theologians who advise the Pope and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — all in one appointment. Canadian Moira McQueen, a Scottish-born, University of Glasgow-trained lawyer turned moral theologian, is among a record five women appointed to the International Theological Commission.

As Amir Harrak watched the news this summer, the Toronto scholar saw a history, culture and language that he devoted his life to understanding being turned to dust. Churches, monasteries, mosques blown up, libraries full of ancient manuscripts burned and the people who still speak and live according to the language of Jesus and his Apostles dispersed. The news out of Iraq could not have been worse.

Two revolutions and economic collapse, wars and revolutions raging just beyond every border, his people dispersed around the world, the Internet and mass media eroding old certainties — Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak has a tough job. 

With a guilty verdict on child-sex charges against former missionary priest Eric Dejaeger, Bishop Tony Krotki hopes the people of Igloolik in the diocese of Churchill-Hudson Bay will be able to continue healing with support from the Church and away from the media spotlight of a lurid, wrenching trial.

The United Nations should create a permanent, rapid-response peacekeeping force for rapid intervention in emergencies, said Canada’s elder statesman of peace and disarmament.

Every one of the $13 million Development and Peace raised last year to help Filipinos left homeless by the most powerful hurricane ever to make landfall has a job to do. Thousands of Filipino families are still living in tents, in the beached hulks of ships Typhoon Haiyan left stranded on the streets of Tacloban City and in elementary schools where Filipino families first found shelter from the storm 10 months ago.

Cuba’s Cardinal Jaime Ortega is about to welcome Canada’s bishops to the rough and tumble of Latin American theology.