(OSV News) — The global Synod on Synodality has been two years in the making, but even as the synod’s universal stage in Rome is underway, the synod’s public discussions are revealing how this process is starting to free the church to realize the vision of a missionary church Pope Francis advanced at the very beginning of his pontificate with the publication of “Evangelii Gaudium.”

JERUSALEM (OSV News) — Just before the children in her kindergarten class went on vacation for the Jewish Sukkot Festival, Romina Shvalb, 42, a kindergarten teacher in the quiet Israeli kibbutz of Nir Oz near the Gaza border, had baked challah — the braided sweet bread Jews traditionally eat on the Sabbath and holidays — with the children.

(OSV News) — Ukrainian Catholic leaders have expressed their support for Israel, following a surprise attack by Islamic militants that has so far killed at least 1,600 and left some 2,500 wounded.

SÃO PAULO (OSV News) — Pro-life activists demonstrated in dozens of Brazilian cities Oct. 8 to celebrate the country’s Day of the Unborn Child and protest against the decriminalization of abortion, a possibility that was being analyzed by the Supreme Court in September.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Finding better ways to live “like Jesus did” — reaching out, welcoming, healing and including others — was the focus of Sister Liliana Franco Echeverri’s small group discussions Oct. 9-10 at the assembly of the Synod of Bishops, she said.

(OSV News) — The death toll in one of the deadliest earthquakes to strike Afghanistan in two decades has risen to 2,000, Taliban officials confirmed on Oct. 8.

(OSV News) — While the doors of the Synod on Synodality, taking place in the Vatican Oct. 4-29, are closed to journalists and the public, a group of survivors of sexual abuse anxiously awaits news on how the assembly addresses the clerical sexual abuse that affected their lives so painfully.

ROME (OSV News) — The shock of the surprise attack by Hamas militants on Israel, in which hundreds were killed, wounded or kidnapped, has left a traumatic mark on Israeli citizens, said the country’s ambassador to the Vatican.

(OSV News) — Two bishops recently told OSV News they are working to ensure Indigenous Catholics have “a seat at the table” in the church, for a conversation led by the Holy Spirit.

BRICK, N.J. (OSV News) — An air of both excitement and reverence permeated the parish community of St. Dominic in Brick, Oct. 1, when some 1,200 worshippers gathered throughout the church complex to witness the dedication by Bishop David M. O’Connell of Trenton of a new Diocesan Shrine to Blessed Carlo Acutis and to pray with his mother, who was visiting from Italy.