Today people are free to pray at the western wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, al-Aqsa mosque, or anywhere else they decide.

ECONOMIST: Municipal unrest

John Paul once compared the Western and Eastern Rites of the Church to left and right lungs and that for the Church to thrive it must breathe with both.

CNN: Pope's Ukraine visit stirs protest

He has failed to halt the steady haemorrhage of believers in many Western countries, although the Catholic Church continues to grow in numbers in parts of Africa and Asia.

BBC: Pope Benedict: Will retirement seal his legacy?

Critics point to a decline in the number of people going to Mass in many Western nations as evidence of a Church out of touch with a large section of its congregation.

BBC: St Peter's Square

Today such view is heretical and actually undermines the role of women in the Church, particularly in the Western World.

FORBES: Pope Francis: What Can He Change?

Salem and many of the western townships beyond are characterised by pretty church steeples and ancient oak trees that give them a stateliness that belies the drama that occurred centuries ago.

BBC: Historical day trips from Boston

And Cesar Sotolongo, originally from Florida but currently in Lima, Peru, explains that the Latin American way of doing things in a more accommodating manner, rather than the Western-driven methods of leadership, would prove positive for the church, and its followers.

CNN: Catholics: 5 ways for Francis to move forward

The holiday is celebrated across Europe but while in Scotland, Greece and Romania the saint (one of Jesus's 12 disciples) is honoured in church prayers, pubs or even with a bank holiday, in some remote western Ukrainian villages people will be throwing a boot over a rooftop and whispering chants in candlelight to find a husband or a wife.

BBC: Pagan holidays in modern Ukraine

The Kabul church's origins date back to 1921, when Italy became one of the first Western nations to recognize Afghanistan as a sovereign country independent from Britain.

WSJ: Afghan Church Endures Amid War and Strife