Catholic News
- Pope thanks ITA Airways, decries aerial bombardments (Dicastery for Communication)
Pope Leo XIV thanked directors and staff of the ITA Airways, the Italian national airline, for the carrier’s service to the popes on their international apostolic journeys. “My predecessors and the collaborators who accompanied them on their international journeys found in the personnel of Alitalia and ITA not only qualified and experienced professionals, but also people capable of creating a serene, I would say almost family-like, atmosphere, where respect goes hand in hand with devotion,” Pope Leo said on March 23. “Meeting you gives me the chance to express my personal appreciation and gratitude, and that of the Holy See, for this precious service.” The Pope added: Aircraft should always be vehicles of peace, never of war! No one should fear that threats of death and destruction will come from the sky. After the tragic experiences of the twentieth century, aerial bombardment should have been banished forever! Instead, as we know, it still exists, and technological development, which is positive in itself, is being put at the service of war. This is not progress, it is regression! - Palm Sunday procession cancelled, Chrism Mass postponed in Jerusalem (Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem)
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem announced the cancellation of the Palm Sunday procession and the postponement of the Chrism Mass in Jerusalem during Holy Week. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, O.F.M., said that amid the Iran war, he is in “constant dialogue with the competent authorities” and that churches remain open. “The traditional Palm Sunday procession, which goes up to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, to Jerusalem is canceled,” he announced. “It will be replaced by a moment of prayer for the city of Jerusalem, at a location to be determined.” “The Chrism Mass is postponed to a date to be determined, as soon as the situation allows, possibly within the Easter season,” he added. “The Dicastery for Divine Worship has already granted the necessary approval.” - Pope Leo: Let children convert us, and protect their childhood from AI (Avvenire (Italian))
In a letter for the 30th anniversary of the children’s section of Avvenire, the Italian bishops’ newspaper, Pope Leo XIV reflected on Christ’s words, “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” “To be like children is not to go back, but to guard a key to see the essential of everything, to find surprising answers to even the most difficult questions,” Pope Leo wrote. “Perhaps only by looking at the bewildered eyes of children in the face of the barbarity of war can we be converted.” “We must not let children come to believe that AI chatbots can be their best friends or the oracle of all knowledge, thereby dulling their intellect and their ability to form relationships, and stifling their creativity and their thinking,” the Pope added. “We must protect their childhood and guide their growth so that they are protagonists of a renewed world.” - 6 beatification causes advance; Father Flanagan of Boys Town declared venerable (CWN)
During a March 23 meeting with the prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Pope Leo XIV approved decrees that advanced six beatification causes. - Pope meets with Yad Vashem chairman, renews condemnation of anti-Semitism (Yad Vashem)
Pope Leo XIV renewed his condemnation of anti-Semitism during a March 23 meeting with the chairman of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center. “The meeting was warm and highly constructive. His Holiness underscored the importance he places on preserving the memory of the Holocaust and reaffirmed his commitment to advancing our shared goals,” said Dani Dayan, Yad Vashem’s chairman. “We also addressed the alarming rise in anti-Semitism worldwide and the urgent need for coordinated, decisive action to confront it.” - Cardinal Pham Minh Mân, who formed Vietnamese priests in postwar period, dies at 92 (CWN)
Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Mân, who formed priests in Communist Vietnam after the Vietnam War, died on March 22 at the age of 92. - 370,000 pilgrims venerated St. Francis of Assisi's relics during unprecedented exposition (Vatican News)
Over 370,000 pilgrims made their way to Assisi for the unprecedented exposition of St. Francis’s remains for veneration. For the first time since the saint’s death in 1226, the saint’s remains were on public display from February 22 to March 22, during the current Year of Saint Francis. Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, celebrated the closing Mass on March 22. - Pressure grows on Spanish confraternity to admit women (Irish Times)
In a 267-114 vote, members of the Confraternity (Brotherhood) of the Purest Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ voted to retain male-only membership. Since the fifteenth century, the confraternity has organized Holy Week processions in Sagunto, a Spanish city of 73,000. Stating that “Holy Week must be egalitarian,” Ana Redondo García, Spain’s minister of equality, vowed to take action against the confraternity. In 2024, the Spanish Constitutional Court ruled that a confraternity with male-only membership in another Spanish town violated women’s constitutional rights, including the right to free association. That ruling is under appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. - Thousands of Australian Catholics take part in pro-life procession (The Catholic Weekly)
Archbishop Anthony Fisher, O.P., led thousands of Catholics in procession through the streets of Sydney, Australia, on the Day of the Unborn Child. The procession, begun in 2001, takes place annually on the Sunday closest to the Solemnity of the Annunciation and winds through the central business district (abbreviated as CBD in the article). “The Lord weeps with us, and we with him, for all those innocents lost each year, each month, and each day in our world, each day in our city,” Archbishop Fisher preached during Mass at the cathedral. Father Daniele Russo, the archdiocesan vocation director, said during the closing address: To build a culture that is pro-life, it is not enough to renounce the evil of abortion, nor is it enough to pronounce the blessedness of life in the world. Our efforts to rebuild a culture of life must rediscover the blessedness of woman. Does our culture believe the greatness of woman is found in Our Lady being a handmaid of the Lord, a virgin spouse, a mother of a child made in God’s image? Or have we instead built the dignity of woman on the sands of feminism and sexual revolution? - Reporter describes wartime suffering of Lebanon's Christians (Angelus News)
Jovel Álvarez, a Rome-based journalist who covered Pope Leo’s apostolic journey to Turkey and Lebanon, returned to report on the suffering of the nation’s Christians in the 2026 Lebanon war. “In the midst of this conflict, generally viewed from the Israeli or Shiite Muslim perspective, are the Christians,” he said. “The great overlooked ones in media coverage. Christians who have grown up between one war and another, and who lament that Hezbollah has dragged their country into yet another conflict.” - Veronica's veil displayed in St. Peter's Basilica (Rome Reports)
As is customary, Veronica’s veil was displayed in St. Peter’s Basilica for the veneration of the faithful for a few moments on the Fifth Sunday of Lent. Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, O.F.M. Conv., the basilica’s archpriest, presided at the rite. - Pope praises Focolare's charism of unity and peace, calls for transparency, respect for conscience (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV received participants in the Focolare Movement‘s general assembly and praised the movement for its charism of unity and peace. - Cardinal Müller strongly criticizes SSPX, defends Vatican II (Communio)
In an interview published in the theological journal Communio, Cardinal Gerhard Müller defended the Second Vatican Council and strongly criticized the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) and its arguments for ordaining new bishops without the Pope’s approval. Cardinal Müller, who served as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2012 to 2017, charged that the leaders of the SSPX wish to “convert the Church into their own conventicle.” “Everyone brings schism upon themselves through the free decision not to recognize the Pope’s authority, either in theory or in practice,” he said. “Canonical disobedience is not made any better by asserting that one is not opposing the Pope, even if one claims one must consecrate bishops for the sake of the salvation of souls.” Cardinal Müller added: Jesus Christ promised the continuation of the Church until the end of history only to the universal Church, which he built upon the rock of Peter, to whom he also handed over the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and, together with the other Apostles, the power to bind and loose. What God wants to say to the SSPX, in view of the advanced age of their two remaining bishops, is to turn away from the wrong path of distancing themselves from the Church and self-isolation amongst like-minded people, and to entrust themselves with confidence to the guidance of the Successor of Peter, to whom the Lord of the Church has personally entrusted the care of his flock. Cardinal Müller also criticized bishops, priests, and theologians who “give the people stones of agnostic ideologies instead of giving the bread of the Word of God and the grace of the sacraments,” and who “dabble around in sociology and psychology and remain silent about Jesus as the only Savior of the world.” - Pope pays tribute to late Georgian Orthodox Patriarch (Vatican Press Office)
Pope Leo XIV paid tribute to Georgian Orthodox Patriarch Ilia II, who died on March 17 at the age of 93. “Throughout his long life, Patriarch Ilia II was a devoted witness to faith in the Risen Christ,” Pope Leo wrote in a message to His Eminence Shio (Mujiri), the Georgian Orthodox Church’s temporary leader. “His ministry accompanied the Georgian people through difficult times and profound epochal change, lovingly preserving tradition and opening hearts and communities to hope.” “I would also recall his deep passion for music, which is a stimulus to the search for the beauty of God and can unite peoples, bringing Churches closer together beyond cultural and theological differences,” Pope Leo added in his message, dated March 18 and released by the Vatican on March 23. - Nigerian archbishop calls on President Trump to give nation weapons to combat Islamist terrorism (ACI Africa)
The archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, said that he was grateful to President Donald Trump for drawing attention to Islamist terrorism in the West African nation but said that U.S. strikes there in December have proven counterproductive. “That incident, coupled with Donald Trump’s words, has greatly inflamed the passions of the Islamists,” Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama said during a briefing in Madrid. “The number of attacks, the number of kidnappings carried out by Boko Haram and other groups, has been rising ever since.” “So we say to Donald Trump: give us intelligence reports, give us weapons, collaborate with our government, and then find a way to eradicate all these military groups,” Archbishop Kaigama added. - Church leaders outline four priorities for Church in Amazon region (CEAMA (Spanish))
The leaders of the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon outlined four “major pastoral horizons” for 2026-2030 in the final message of the body’s sixth general assembly. The four priorities are: “to proclaim the Gospel with an Amazonian face, promoting processes of inculturated formation and advancing in the adaptation of the liturgy in dialogue with the worldviews of the peoples” “to grow as a synodal Church, promoting the conversion of community practices, the recognition of the role of women, the protagonism of young people and the integral care of pastoral agents” “to live integral ecology, strengthening awareness and action in defense of the Common Home, especially on issues such as access to water and the formation of territorial leadership” “to encourage communion and sustainability, consolidating ecclesial ties, strengthening communication as a transversal axis and promoting formation processes and sustainable structures for the mission” - Pope Leo, Taizé prior discuss world peace, Christian unity (Taizé Community)
Pope Leo XIV received Brother Matthew, the prior of the Taizé Community, on March 21. “Both expressed their deep concern for peace, a topic dear to the pope’s heart, as well as for all the innocent victims of armed conflict across the world,” according to a Taizé statement. “They also shared a common desire to go further along the road to reconciliation among Christians, while reflecting on ways to transmit the faith to the younger generations.” The Taizé Community, an ecumenical French monastic community, was founded by Brother Roger Schütz in 1940. Its annual year-end gatherings attract tens of thousands of young adults. - Leading Pakistani prelate calls for investigation into death of Christian laborer (Aid to the Church in Need)
The president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan called for an investigation into the death of Marqas Masih, 22, a Christian laborer whose death was ruled a suicide but whose body bore the marks of torture. Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad joined the executive secretary of the National Commission for Justice and Peace in calling on authorities to “conduct a full investigation into the incident, bring the facts to light, and ensure that justice is delivered to this vulnerable community.” - Cardinal Semeraro: St. Benedict's example is needed in today's world (Vatican News (Italian))
Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, celebrated Mass at the Benedictine monastery in Subiaco on March 21, the anniversary of St. Benedict’s death in 547. Today, “people think that life is fulfilled by acting alone, by making decisions autonomously,” Cardinal Semeraro preached. St. Benedict, in contrast, “shows another path: that of listening [to the Father], of welcoming, and of respect for the other.” “It is there that something new is born; it is there that spiritual generation takes place,” the prelate continued. “It is only through obedience to God, in fact, that one generates spiritually.” - Vatican newspaper warns of worldwide water crisis (CWN)
The Vatican newspaper warned that “globally, a threshold of natural resource exploitation has now been crossed—one sufficient to trigger ‘a global water bankruptcy.’“ - More...