parish

Herminia has spent all of her long life here in Refoxos, a small parish of about 100 people in southern Galicia, in Spain.

Mr Acutis gained his nickname partly by designing websites for his parish and school, but he mainly became known for launching a website seeking to document every reported Eucharistic miracle.

A week before the general elections, worshipers at the St. Gertrude the Great Catholic Church in Bell Gardens were listening to the parish announcements when Father Nabor Rios introduced a political candidate.

Portuguese Catholic parishes and Portuguese halls — where weddings, festas and soulful fado concerts take place — dot the tiny towns that stretch from roughly Bakersfield to Redding.

He argued that the clergy had a lot to learn from the faithful in the poorest parishes who, he said, demonstrated day after day how hope could spring amidst suffering.