Just because it’s summertime doesn’t mean that things have slowed down here at the Catholic Herald. Lately, we’ve been updating our website every day with fresh articles, opinion pieces, faith commentary, movie reviews and blogs. In case you missed it, here are some of the top stories from the Web this week.

Last Thursday marked the beginning of the Fortnight for Freedom, a U.S. Bishops-sponsored 14-day period of prayer, study, catechesis and public action meant to draw attention to the importance of religious liberty. An opening Mass was offered at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore by Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori. In the diocese, local Catholics kicked off the initiative with more than 40 Holy Hours at local parishes, including one at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington celebrated by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde.

More events are planned around the diocese as the fortnight continues, including a trivia night, which took place Monday night at Pat Troy’s in Old Town Alexandria. For more information about the Fortnight for Freedom, visit arlingtondiocese.org/religiousliberty/.

Elsewhere in the diocese, Catholics gathered in Manassas to discuss the human costs of the death penalty and an independent school in Springfield, Angelus Academy, was recognized by the diocese as a Catholic school.

In other news, we here at the Herald are all aglow about the announcement of this year’s Catholic Press Association Awards, which were distributed Friday night at the annual Catholic Press Association convention in Indianapolis. This year, we were honored with 18 awards, bringing us to a grand total of 58 awards in the past five years alone. Read Senior Staff Writer Gretchen Crowe’s column about the awards, complete with links to the award-winning stories and photos, here.

Thanks so much for reading this week and every week. Have a great evening!