Parish outreach programs provide needed assistance, companionship and, most importantly, listening ears to offer support and a warm sense of community. At St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Tonawanda, the outreach center co-coordinators, Rita Alviti and Karen Szafran, give back to their community as a key facet of their jobs.

For many years a small group of parishioners at St. John Kanty Parish in Buffalo have been getting together to make pierogi. It all started in the mid 1980s when the former church secretary, Lorraine Wiernik, along with the pastor, Msgr. Robert Golombek, came up with the idea of selling fish frys during Lent.

Father James O'Connor has been a source of peace, strength and love to parishioners for 44 years. His smile conveys a joy of lifelong service to God and others.

Our Lady of Charity Parish in Buffalo will host a program for young people 16-21 who would like to obtain their high school equivalency diploma. The program will be held at Maguire Hall at 51 Alamo Place and is free of charge.

WEST FALLS — St. George Parish is continuing its participation in "Living the Eucharist." This spiritual renewal experience from Paulist Evangelization Ministries welcomes all who are seeking to enrich their faith during the season of Lent.

Father Richard Jedrzejewski, pastor of Assumption Parish in Buffalo, was a childhood friend of Bishop Edward M. Grosz. The grew up in Buffalo's Black Rock neighborhood and attended Assumption School.

Throughout his time as a priest and bishop of the diocese, Bishop Edward M. Grosz has always stayed true to his Polish heritage and helped people in the traditionally Polish areas of Buffalo's East Side. Father Thaddeus N. Bocianowski, current pastor of St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Parish in Buffalo, known as the Mother Church of Polonia, recalled how Bishop Grosz served Polish-speaking parishioners during his time as the parish pastor from 2003 to 2009.

How far has society come to ending racism 50 years after the Civil Rights marches from Selma to Montgomery Ala.? That question was posed to the congregation gathered at Blessed Trinity Parish for a special Martin Luther King Mass on Jan. 18.

The eighth Buffalo Mass Mob is set to converge upon St. Casimir Church, Buffalo, this Sunday morning, with a generational chanted Mass set to begin at 10 a.m.

By now Catholics have no doubt seen commercials inviting them to come home to the Church. Hopefully, some have accepted the gesture and stopped by their childhood parish or the church around the corner. Now pastors and parish councils have to decide how to keep them.

On Sunday, January 18, Bishop Richard J. Malone will be the main celebrant at the annual diocesan Mass honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Rev. Brother Henry Fulmer, OFM, from the diocese of Charleston, S.C., will be the guest homilist. The Mass will be held at Blessed Trinity Church, 317 Leroy Ave., Buffalo, at 10:30 a.m.

Friends, family and clergy gathered at St. Joseph Cathedral in downtown Buffalo for the funeral of the Most Reverend Bernard J. McLaughlin on Jan. 10. The auxiliary bishop emeritus of Buffalo passed away Jan. 5 at the age of 102.

A special parish Mass was held at St. John the Baptist Church in Kenmore to honor the late Bishop Bernard J. McLaughlin on Jan. 8. The retired auxiliary bishop of Buffalo passed away Jan. 5, at the age of 102.

Father Czeslaw Krysa ensures his parishioners at St. Casimir are aware of the significance of St. Nicholas. The beloved saint is near and dear not only to his own heart, but to many of those in Eastern European Catholic Churches as well. St. Nicholas visits the parish each year on his feast day, Dec. 6, to teach children to pray.

A Mass marking the observance of the 42nd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion will take place on Saturday, Jan. 17, at 4:30 p.m. at Our Lady of Victory National Shrine, Ridge Road and South Park Ave., Lackawanna. The Most Reverend Richard J. Malone, bishop of Buffalo, will be the celebrant.

St. Joseph Cathedral, 50 Franklin St., Buffalo, has scheduled a number of celebrations during the Advent and Christmas seasons.

A parishioner of Resurrection Parish in Batavia has designed a large display which includes much of the important symbolism and an explanation of the season of Advent, as the Church readies for the celebration of Christ's birth.

Lewiston might be not quite be the North Pole, but the elves of Our Lady of Fatima Shrine are working hard to make Christmas special for everyone. The Barnabite Fathers who direct the shrine are preparing their 24th annual Festival of Lights.

The tradition of celebrating the diocesan Family Mass the Second Sunday of Advent continued on Dec. 7, when Bishop Richard J. Malone presided at St. Gabriel Church in Elma. Until 2013, the Mass was celebrated at St. Joseph Cathedral in downtown Buffalo, but is now celebrated in parishes.

Immaculate Conception School in East Aurora swept the 2014 Moog Regional Rocketry Challenge taking home trophies for the top three places. The competition pitted 12 teams against each other for a spot at the the Team America Rocketry Challenge national launch in Washington.

As part of the diocese's new evangelization, St. John Kanty Parish in Buffalo will implement a special Advent program designed to get parishioners back into the pews and into the spirit of the season. The program will span three weeks with evening sessions of discussion, videos, prayer and Scripture.

The gift shop at Our Lady of Victory will again offer a wide variety of religious-themed gifts for any family member or friend who prefers a uniquely inspirational keepsake that does not stray far from the traditional meaning of the spirit of the holiday season. The gift shop is located next to the Father Baker Museum in Our Lady of Victory National Shrine and Basilica in Lackawanna.

Christmas is coming to North Tonawanda in a big way this year. Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish is planning a special Advent celebration beginning Dec. 1. Food, fun and the Holy Family are all on the calendar. Activities include a Christmas play, a tour of the 86-year-old church and a traditional Wigilia dinner.

WNY Catholic Photographer Patrick McPartland ventured out to visit diocesan parishes and schools hit by the storm in an exclusive Facebook photo gallery.

Opera Sacra, the longest continually producing opera company in Western New York, was founded by Father Jacob Ledwon in 1975 at the former St. Joseph's New Cathedral in Buffalo. Choosing works that center on religious themes, its repertoire spans more than 1,000 years of music, including the classics of Grand Opera, medieval liturgical dramas, children's fables and contemporary masterworks. This fall, in celebration of the beginning of its 40th season, Opera Sacra is planning another exceptional program, a fully-staged production of Francis Poulenc's "Dialogues of the Carmelites."

WASHINGTON—The visit of Pope Francis to Philadelphia in September 2015 for the World Meeting of Families will be a "joyful moment," said Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Pope Francis made his intention to travel to the United States public, November 17, in an address to the Colloquium on the Complementarity of Man and Woman at the Vatican.

Two parishes in the diocese will present Life in the Spirit seminars this fall for those who would like to establish a deeper faith life and gain a better understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

On Sunday, Sept. 21, Our Lady of Fatima Shrine, 1023 Swann Road, Lewiston, will be the site of the 34th Annual Rosary Crusade for World Peace. The event, which will take place from 2-3:30 p.m., is sponsored buy the Niagara Council of Catholic Women of the Diocese of Buffalo. This year's theme is "Mary, Queen of the Holy Rosary, intercedes for all humanity."

The steeple rises the exact height that the Niagara River falls into the gorge at the American Falls a few blocks away. St. Mary of the Cataract Church in Niagara Falls has embraced its rich metaphors since its early beginnings as a mission parish of St. John Neumann. Ministering within this tradition is Father Jacek Mazur, pastor.

Currently, the pastoral council of St. Clare Parish in Buffalo is in the process of establishing parish focus statements and a mission statement to more clearly express the parish goals. Completed drafts of two of these focus statements have been placed in the back of the church to make sure people are aware of how the parish aims to serve the community.

Corpus Christi's historic restoration took another step forward with the repair and rebuilding of the church's north tower, which began last week. Rebuilding will include removal of the church's copper cupola.

After more than 20 years as a diocesan-wide event, the service program known as Young Christians at Work has moved to a parish-based version. However, the focus and lessons, remain the same.

Officials in the Catholic Church spend a lot of time thinking about how to get more people to come to Sunday Mass, but four people in Buffalo have developed a simple campaign that can fill the pews beyond expectations, even if it's just one parish at a time.

A number of Hispanic people from the Diocese of Buffalo had the opportunity to learn more about the Catholic faith and embrace a multicultural perspective of faith, as they recently graduated from St. Bernard's School of Theology and Ministry in Rochester.

This will be the 22nd year that St. John Vianney Parish in Orchard Park is welcoming visitors to its annual lawn fete which will take place from Thursday, July 24, until Sunday, July 27. It will feature events to keep both children and adults entertained, with an emphasis on family-friendly fun. An organizer said this year's lawn fete will maintain long-standing traditions while adding enough to also keep the event fresh.

PENDLETON — Good Shepherd Parish holds its annual picnic on the last Sunday of July every summer. This year, the event will take place on Sunday, July 27, on the same grounds once walked by St. John Neumann.

As the month of May came to an end, so did a session of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Retreat that began eight months earlier. Since the fall, eight men and women have met at St. Michael Church in Buffalo, with their spiritual directors, to learn how to live a more enthusiastic Christian life.

For families looking for a fun weekend event, this year's Summerfest at Our Lady of Charity Parish in Buffalo will take place from Thursday, July 24, to Saturday, July 26. The event offers afternoons and evenings of food, music, drinks, children's activities and raffles.

Eleanor Asklar, longtime organist at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, now a worship site for Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph Parish in Niagara Falls, will be retiring after serving in music ministry for more than 60 years.

For over a decade Corpus Christi Church has worked to preserve the art and architecture of this East Buffalo landmark. With the repair of the north tower seeking funding as the final piece of this ongoing restoration project, the beautiful interior and exterior of the East Side parish is almost complete.