On Sunday, Sept. 18, at 6:30 p.m., St. Bernadette Parish in Orchard Park will release a new youth ministry program. Its pastor, Father Paul D. Seil, said helping middle and high school aged students to become more engaged in their Catholic faith was too important of a goal to abandon after a partnership with another Southtowns parish ended.

A tradition dating back almost a century will come to an end in early August, when the final campers spend a week at the St. Vincent de Paul Summer Camp on the shores of Lake Erie in Angola.

Last month, Cardinal O'Hara High School in Tonawanda welcomed fifth- through eighth-graders to its campus for its 2016 summer camps. Tailored toward specific interests, they included a summer enrichment camp for a variety of academic subjects, an acting and singing camp, and a creative writing camp, in addition to a lineup of three sports clinics for youth to engage in baseball, football and soccer.

KRAKOW, POLAND - As the sun rose over Krakow's Field of Mercy, over 2 million people woke up in anticipation of Mass with Pope Francis. The current pontiff, following in the footsteps of his predecessors St. John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, celebrated Sunday Mass on the closing day of World Youth Day.

KRAKOW, POLAND (CNA/EWTN News) - Pope Francis challenged massive crowds of young people at World Youth Day's final vigil to step away from the "sofa" of comfort and convenience, and respond to Christ's call to transform a suffering world.

KRAKOW, Poland — Early in the morning of Saturday, July 30, the seventh early morning of the week, nearly 150 pilgrims from the Diocese of Buffalo walked on foot to see Pope Francis.

KRAKOW, POLAND - Poland has a lot to offer Catholic pilgrims looking for history and stories associated with their, and other, faiths.

CZESTOCHOWA, POLAND (CNA/EWTN News) - Those who embrace their own littleness become the "spokespersons" of God, Pope Francis said during Mass at the shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa, celebrating the 1050 anniversary of Poland becoming a Christian nation. It was the first major event of the Pope's trip to the country for the 31st World Youth Day.

About 200 pilgrims from the Diocese of Buffalo are currently attending World Youth Day 2016 in Krakow, Poland, and so are we. Staff reporter Patrick J. Buechi is documenting the journey of these local Catholics, and you can see it for yourself in our new photo gallery.

KRAKOW, POLAND (CNA/EWTN News) - On his first night in Krakow Pope Francis was already stirring things up with participants in WYD by hosting an off-the-cuff Q and A and telling them to 'make chaos' by spreading the joy of their faith.

KRAKOW, POLAND - The Tauron Arena in Krakow, Poland, hosted cardinals, singers, theologians and pilgrims as it became Mercy Center, a main site for World Youth Day 2016.

KRAKOW, POLAND - World Youth Day 2016 officially kicked off Tuesday, July 26, at 6 p.m., with a welcoming Mass by the shepherd of Krakow, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz.

Laura Szczepankiewicz came to Krakow to meet as many people as she could. And she has the photographic proof to show she met her goal.

KRAKOW, POLAND - On Sunday, July 24, World Youth Day pilgrims got as close as they could to a full night's sleep before heading out at 8 a.m. to Czestochowa, Poland to visit the Jasna Góra Monastery and shrine.

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) - Pope Francis has asked for prayers as he, and all the pilgrims attending this year's World Youth Day, prepare to make their way to Krakow, Poland for the international event.

While pilgrims are in Poland celebrating with the pope, locals will be doing the same at the seminary.

"We have an exciting journey ahead of us," said Bishop Richard J. Malone to some of the 200 local pilgrims who are headed for World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland. During a send-off Mass Friday afternoon at Our Lady of Victory Basilica, the bishop said "I ask you to keep in mind one simple truth. The experience we're sharing is all about Jesus."

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) - Even though World Youth Day doesn't start until next week, thousands of pilgrims from throughout the world are already descending on Krakow ahead of the official event.

Christian pilgrimages began as a following in the footsteps of Jesus. Today, the term is used to describe a journey to a religious shrine for the purpose of strengthening one's faith. A pilgrim, therefore, is a person who travels to grow in his or her faith, experience the faith, and often, to share one's faith.

WASHINGTON - More than 40,000 Americans are registered to attend World Youth Day (WYD), July 26-31, in Krakow, Poland. To assist this record breaking number of participants from the United States, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Secretariat of Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth has lined up a series of resources and a variety of digital platforms to engage youth and young adults at home and abroad.

If someone told me that my faith would change my life a few years ago, I would not have believed them. I used to be someone that didn't want to go to church and sometimes not even Sunday school.

The Department of Youth and Young Adult Ministry installed the 2016-2017 Diocesan Youth Board in June in the Catholic Center in downtown Buffalo. These 10 new members will follow a long tradition of teens helping other teens by planning youth ministry activities for the diocese.

Bishop Timon-St. Jude High School in Buffalo will host its "Anything-but-Ordinary" Summer Timon Camp for all boys entering grades 5-8, from July 11-22. This year's camp will feature day trips to Letchworth State Park, City Hall and other local landmarks.

A lot of sharing and caring took place at Christ the King Seminary recently, along with a lot of learning and square dancing, as 40 teens took part in the Christian Leadership Institute.

I knew what I wrote on my Diocesan Youth Board application was from my heart and every single word was the truth, but I had always been better at writing than speaking.

While tutoring in the inner city of Buffalo, Ting Gao discovered students can't learn without the proper tools. Rather than hold a simple collection, the Mount St. Mary Academy senior started a non-profit organization to fill the needs in the lives of the less fortunate.

Bishop Richard J. Malone and 200 pilgrims from the Diocese of Buffalo will travel to Krakow next month to be with Pope Francis. Bishop Malone shares his enthusiasm for the trip and the World Youth Day prayer in "Consider This."

In the Gospel of Matthew 19:14, we read the following: "Jesus said, 'Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.'"

A cross and icon of the Blessed Mother, gifts from a Polish bishop to the Buffalo Diocese, have served as tools for local pilgrims preparing for World Youth Day in Krakow.

KENMORE — Mount St. Mary Academy will present "Summer Sessions 2016" for girls entering grades five to eight. The program, running Aug. 1-5 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the school, will include a combination of athletic, arts and educational sessions.

Students of Niagara Catholic Jr./Sr. High School went out into their neighborhood to spend a day carrying out the Corporal Works of Mercy. They fed the hungry at soup kitchens, visited the sick at senior centers, and gave alms to the poor at community missions.

Fifteen parishioners of St. Brendan on the Lake in Newfane will be confirmed at St. Joseph Cathedral in Buffalo on May 15, at 3 p.m. The parish's director of faith formation, Mary Palmer, its catechist, James Cantella, and two confirmation students see a special significance in being able to celebrate the sacrament of confirmation in the Diocese of Buffalo's mother church.

St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute is offering two types of summer programming this year, both designed to introduce young men to our St. Joe's community of excellence.

Fans of the recent book, "The South Buffalo Boy Who Became Bishop," will enjoy the follow up, "The South Buffalo Girl Who Built a Hospital." Author Mariam R. Shannon again sets out to make a vocation book for children using local heroes and stories. This one tells the story of Anna Margaret O'Connor, who, like Bishop Joseph Burke, was born in South Buffalo to Irish immigrant parents and went on to accomplish great things after joining the religious life.

Checking one's heritage is a popular pastime, which takes time and patience.

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) - Freedom does not come from things we possess or from doing whatever we want, Pope Francis said Sunday in his homily for the Jubilee for boys and girls. Rather, true freedom and happiness can only be found in the love of Jesus.

As we prepare to celebrate these two occasions we may find ourselves reflecting on how our parents raised us, and we may also spend some time reflecting on how we are raising our own children. Are we raising them to be children of faith and service?

Seventeen teenage boys heard a call to visit Christ the King Seminary, and they answered. They gathered at the East Aurora education facility to learn about the priesthood and get to know the men who have already answered their vocational call.

KENMORE — Rosary making was recently taught to third-graders at St. John the Baptist School. The ornamental prayer beads, which emerged during the Middle Ages, continue to be a beloved, sacred tradition in honor of Jesus' mother, Mary, among Catholics.

World Youth Day pilgrims explored their personal past, present and future at a daylong retreat on Divine Mercy Sunday. "Mercy Awakens" paid homage to the theme of WYD 2016, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."