The following briefs were recently published by Catholic News Service:

Bishops, young people walk to St. Peter's on pilgrimage of faith
VATICAN CITY  – Following the Francigena Way, an ancient pilgrims' path, a group of about 300 synod participants and young people from Rome parishes headed to St. Peter's Basilica to pray at the apostle's tomb.

The wayfaring cardinals, bishops, priests and young people were stocked with small backpacks, shod with comfortable sneakers or hiking boots, and readied with hats and water bottles to walk 3.7 miles (6 km) from an urban nature preserve to Christianity's largest church.

Sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization, the pilgrimage was held Oct. 25 as part of the Synod of Bishops on young people, faith and vocational discernment. The walk gave participants opportunities to stop for prayer and for photos, but even more, according to the pilgrimage booklet, it offered a way to experience the itinerant condition of the Church, which is the people of God journeying on their way to heavenly Jerusalem.

The Synod of Bishops, too, it said, "is a sign of a journey that the community of believers wants to accomplish as a response to God's call" to listen to his Word more closely, to renew one's heart and profess the faith in a more "committed and responsible" way.

Pope names Steven Chu to Pontifical Academy of Sciences
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis has appointed Steven Chu, a Nobel-winning physicist from the United States, to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Chu, who served as secretary of energy under U.S. President Barack Obama, was appointed to the papal think tank, the Vatican announced.

Born in St. Louis, Chu is the co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics "for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light." He was a professor of physics and molecular and cellular physiology at Stanford University in California before serving as energy secretary from 2009 to 2013; in that post, he was the first scientist to hold a cabinet position, according to the Stanford physics department website.

After his term in the Obama administration, Chu returned to teaching at Stanford. Chu, 70, has published over 280 papers in atomic and polymer physics, biophysics, biology, bio-imaging, batteries, and other energy technologies. Additionally, he holds 15 patents.

Religion-reporting do's and don'ts unveiled for U.S. TV, radio stations
WASHINGTON – For those who have lamented the cursory, superficial and too-often incorrect reporting of religion on television and radio, help is on the way. The National Association of Broadcasters has issued a "Reporting on Religion Toolkit" to aid local broadcast stations in how to get the story right.

It is the second in an ongoing NAB "Awareness in Reporting" series that has been in the works for nearly three years, according to Marcellus Alexander, president of the NAB Education Foundation. The first toolkit, on race issues, made its debut a year ago.

The religion toolkit was formally unveiled during an Oct. 22 symposium for journalists at NAB headquarters in Washington.

What does the toolkit have to say about the Catholic Church? "There are nearly 1.3 billion Roman Catholics worldwide, more than all other Christian denominations combined. More than 70 million Americans identify as Catholic, about 20 percent of the nation's population. It is the largest religious denomination in the U.S.," it says.