Last year on Reformation Day (Oct. 31) one of my cousins mentioned the Protestant “holiday” on Facebook. It was a celebratory post. “Happy Reformation Day!”

JERUSALEM - For Salim Badawi, a Greek Orthodox Palestinian from the West Bank village of Beit Jalla, the opportunity to help a group of Franciscan priests harvest olives in the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives offers a sense of hope amid the adversaries his family has faced in their own olive groves.

CHEHALIS - The twists and turns in the early history of Chehalis are intertwined with those of St. Joseph Parish, like the rivers that flow into this fertile bottom land.

When Pope Francis on Oct. 19 formally declared Pope Paul VI “Blessed,” the event recalled a painful period in church history together with the long-suffering servant-pope who stood at the helm when the storm was at its worst.

MADISON, Wis. - When Father Bruce Hennington attended St. Lawrence Seminary -- a high school seminary located in Mount Calvary -- he got interested in history, especially in the Civil War.

VATICAN CITY - The word "synod" derives from the Greek word "synodos," meaning "to walk together."

"The Visitor: Andre Palmeiro and the Jesuits in Asia" by Liam Matthew Brockey. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2014). 528 pp., $39.95.

"Evangelization in China: Challenges and Prospects" by Kin Sheung Chiaretto Yan. Orbis Books (Maryknoll, New York, 2014). 178 pp., $30.

Tumultuous past, service to others shape the 150-year story of Port Townsend’s parish