Pencil Preaching for Thursday, September 19, 2019

The Catholic Church will endure, despite the frailty and sins of its members, because it is God's project, Pope Francis said.

Cokie Roberts, a broadcast journalist and political commentator who spoke publicly about her Catholic faith and her admiration for the Sacred Heart sisters who taught her, died Sept. 17 due to complications from breast cancer. She was 75.

Pope Francis' call for church of missionary disciples who go to the peripheries to listen and accompany those most in need may have seemed radical and new at the start of his pontificate.

NCR Connections: She was a wonderful public Catholic, someone for whom faith was so obviously an influence in her relentless pursuit of the truth but also in her broad embrace of humanity.

Acknowledging evidence that "for several generations" the Catholic Church has not sufficiently taught its core truths, Bishop Daniel R. Jenky has called for all ministries of the Diocese of Peoria to be "intentionally centered" on the Real Presence in the holy Eucharist.

The killing of Fr. Paul Offu triggered a massive protest by priests in the Diocese of Enugu, who marched through city streets. Many priests have been killed or victimized in Nigeria in recent times.

Covering Climate Now: "What gives me the most hope right now is that we've finally got the vision for what we want instead, or at least the first rough draft of it. This is the first time this has happened in my lifetime."

Season of Creation Daily: Nature's peace will flow into you. Today's message is from two American treasures: Ansel Adams and John Muir, and then an invitation.

Covering Climate Now: As world leaders converge on New York City for the United Nations Climate Action Summit on September 23, they enter what may be the most consequential week in climate politics since Donald Trump's surprise election as president of the United States in 2016.