VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) - Christauria Welland is a clinical psychologist who's worked with both victims and perpetrators of domestic violence - and with one in three women worldwide suffering from abuse at the hands of a partner, her goal is to make sure bishops know about the problem.

In honor of the Synod on the Family, which takes place in Rome in October, St. Christopher Parish in Tonawanda will hold its own Family Day to promote the Catholic Church providing pastoral care for all families and the need for this care regardless of how traditional or non-traditional they may be.

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) - Despite the significant differences among the 13 small groups that are discussing the working document at the Synod on the Family, the majority are in agreement that gender ideology poses a serious challenge for families in the modern world.

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) - Mercy has emerged as a major theme in the synod of bishops, as discussion has moved forward with many participants emphasizing that while mercy is greatly needed, it must always be linked to truth.

SAN FRANCISCO (CNA) - A new group called the Marriage Reality Movement aims to help Catholics and others renew the vision of marriage in society.

ROME, ITALY (CNA/EWTN News) - Glass cases with the relics of Saint Therese of Lisieux and her parents, Blessed Louis and Zelie Martin, will be displayed in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome for the entirety of the Synod on the Family, Oct. 4-25.

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) - In an unexpected speech at the synod on Tuesday, Pope Francis has stated that this gathering is in continuity with 2014 synod, which he said never called into question the Church's teaching on marriage.

Pope Francis arrived in Philadelphia Saturday for the World Meeting of Families. We decided to catch up with several of our diocesan friends in Philly as we present our day four photo gallery.

About 100 people skipped Sunday's Buffalo Bills victory over the Miami Dolphins for another kind of community activity: a special telecast of Pope Francis' closing Mass of the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia screened at St. Leo the Great Church in Amherst.

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) - Pope Francis told journalists on board his flight to Rome that giving communion to divorced and remarried Catholics is a "simplistic" solution to the issue, and stressed that there are also other problems that need to be discussed.

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) - In a 47 minute Q&A with journalists on his way back to Rome Pope Francis touched on sensitive topics such as forgiving abusers and conscientious objection, as well as the upcoming synod of bishops and women's ordination.

PHILADELPHIA, PA. (CNA/EWTN News) - At the final Mass closing out the 2015 World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, Pope Francis warned against narrowing God's love and works to only a certain group of people.

Issues of religious freedom have become a regular feature of headlines in recent years. Lawsuits have tried to protect small businesses, individuals and even a religious order from being forced to act against their religious morals. During the World Meeting of Families, one of several breakout sessions dealt with religious freedom and the family.

Two men from Buffalo traveled to Philadelphia to learn how to raise their children in the faith. They, along with 20 others from the Diocese of Buffalo, joined a crowd of 18,000 for the World Meeting of Families.

WASHINGTON, DC (CNA/EWTN News) - In his lengthy speech to the U.S. Congress on Thursday, Pope Francis said the family is being threatened today like never before, and praised American figures, including Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr., for their tireless efforts to defend freedom and values.

On Wednesday, the same day Pope Francis was in Washington, D.C., meeting with President Barack Obama and many American bishops, the World Meeting of Families was held in Philadelphia. Michael Gilhooly, assistant director of the Response to Love Center in Buffalo, attended one of the workshops held there, entitled "In the City: Concerns of the Urban Family," which addressed the concerns that plague many urban families whose members end up caught in a cycle of poverty and violence.

A delegation of about 20 people from the Diocese of Buffalo will attend the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. The mixed group of parents, grandparents, educators, clergy and vowed religious will attend keynote addresses and breakout sessions dealing with parents as catechists, concerns of the urban family, marriage and vocations.

With the upcoming World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia (Sept. 22-25), and in anticipation of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, which begins on Dec. 8, Bishop Richard Malone has decided to eliminate all fees associated with seeking a marriage annulment through the Diocese of Buffalo's Marriage Tribunal.

A confusing process to many, we've answered many of the common questions regarding annulments.

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) - Pope Francis told couples to defend God's design for the family as the union of a man and woman for the procreation of children, and urged them to be merciful to those whose marriages have failed.

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) - By reforming the process for discovering the nullity of marriage on Tuesday, mere weeks before the beginning of October's Synod on the Family, Pope Francis has taken that issue out of the hands of the synod fathers.

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) - In a reformed marriage annulment process, Pope Francis has made significant changes, giving more of a role to the local bishop, dropping automatic appeals, and declaring the process free of charge.

DENVER, COLO. (CNA/EWTN News) - "I have a friend who has been divorced for 30 years. Her husband just left her one day, and she hasn't received communion in all this time," author David Dziena recalled.

When Pope Francis arrives in the U.S. for the World Meeting of Families later this month, he will find a Catholic public that is remarkably accepting of a variety of non-traditional families, according to a new Pew Research Center survey that provides an in-depth look at American Catholics' views on family life, sexuality and Catholic identity.

LINCOLN, NEB. (CNA/EWTN News) - It was a cold December day in Nebraska, and Ashley Stevens was riding in a car with four other women.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (CNA) - Of the countless Catholic couples who have come through Father T.G. Morrow's office in Washington D.C. for marriage counseling, two remain imprinted in the priest's mind even today.

VATICAN CITY (CNA/EWTN News) - Echoing his predecessors on the need to care for divorced and remarried persons, Pope Francis said Christians should help these persons integrate into the community rather than treating them as though they are excommunicated.

The tragic and mistaken Supreme Court decision to redefine marriage legally to include so-called "same-sex marriage" has many negative consequences. Among those consequences, one of the most alarming, in my judgment, is the threat this ruling poses to the religious freedom of people of faith and faith-based institutions that honor marriage as God has created it to be, the union of one man and one woman, open to the birth and rearing of children.

GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR (CNA/EWTN News) - During a Mass said on Monday, the first full day of his visit to Ecuador, Pope Francis called for prayers that the upcoming Synod on the Family might discern the needs of the family, an institution irreplaceable to society.

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. (CNA/EWTN News) - Few love stories can say that they began at the age of eight. But for Jeanette and Alexander Toczko, they couldn't have imagined life any other way.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (CNA/EWTN News) - Friday's Supreme Court ruling against the traditional understanding of marriage may pose huge obstacles to the free exercise of religion and conscience across the US, the nation's bishops have said in response to the decision.

I am bitterly disappointed that the majority of justices of the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to overturn the definition of marriage, which has remained unchanged for more than two millennia. Marriage is the lifelong exclusive union of one man and one woman, a font of unitive life and love as well as the foundation of a stable family and society.

In a wide-reaching decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has declared that same-sex "marriage" is a constitutional right and that states must recognize same-sex unions contracted as marriages in other states.

Ahead of the highly anticipated Synod on the Family in October, many dioceses and Catholic media producers are finding new ways to ramp up their resources on marriage and family life.

Bishop Richard J. Malone discussed the current status and future of several religious liberty issues on "EWTN Live" Wednesday night. Host Father Mitch Pacwa interviewed the bishop about gay marriage, human trafficking and the HHS mandate forcing religious institutions to provide health care coverage for contraception and abortion-inducing drugs, with Bishop Malone explaining that government intrusion is starting to prevent the Catholic Church from performing its ministries.