Before washing the feet of 12 inmates, Pope Francis told them and other prisoners that God never tires of forgiving anyone who asks.
World News
Church’s mission is not about numbers, but evangelizing, pope says
The Catholic Church in Europe and other places will, as retired Pope Benedict XVI had said, be smaller and less influential, but the church’s mission and joy is not to increase numbers but to share the Gospel, Pope Francis told Jesuits in Malta.
For Catholics, first in-person chrism Mass in two years is like a reunion
For many U.S. dioceses, this year marked the first chrism Mass to draw a capacity crowd of congregants since before the pandemic. For the last two years, COVID-19 turned most in-person liturgies into livestreamed events.
Grace of priesthood is given for service, not priests’ glory, pope says
With some 1,800 priests concelebrating and renewing the promises made at their ordinations, Pope Francis celebrated the chrism Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica April 14.
Pope blesses Easter basket symbolic of Knights’ care packages for refugees
Pope Francis blessed a special Easter basket during a private audience with Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly and his family at the Vatican April 11.
Knights say order’s evangelization training program really needed in church
Leaders of the Knights of Columbus see the Catholic men’s fraternal organization as a powerful engine for evangelization, and to start that engine they are developing a program to train members on how to evangelize.
Ukraine: Russian soldiers attack Caritas office, ransack seminary
Russian forces in Ukraine attacked a Caritas office in Mariupol and a Catholic seminary in a small village north of Kyiv, prompting renewed calls for an end to the war and to the targeting of innocent civilians.
Brooklyn bishop prays for victims, first responders after subway shooting
Brooklyn Bishop Robert J. Brennan urged prayers April 12 for victims of an early morning shooting spree at a Brooklyn subway station and for the protection of first responders on the scene and those hunting for the shooter.
Pope says ‘forces of evil’ are at work in war on Ukraine
In Russia’s war on Ukraine, “the forces of evil” are clearly at work, leading to “abominable” attacks on innocent people and widescale destruction of their homes, Pope Francis said.
Ukrainians ask Vatican to reconsider plans for Via Crucis at Colosseum
The head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church asked Pope Francis to scrap plans to have a Ukrainian woman and a Russian woman carry the cross together during the pope’s Way of the Cross service at Rome’s Colosseum April 15.
Eucharistic revival called ‘a movement’ that gets to core of Catholic faith
The U.S. Catholic Church’s three-year eucharistic revival about to get underway “is not a program but a movement” that is an invitation to the faithful from God to go on mission and be compelling witnesses of our faith, said Tim Glemkowski, the newly named executive director of the National Eucharistic Congress.
Victory is not raising a flag on pile of rubble, pope says on Palm Sunday
Jesus obeyed the most challenging of commandments: to love one’s enemies; and he invites humanity to do the same by breaking a vicious cycle of evil, sorrow and hatred with love and forgiveness, Pope Francis said on Palm Sunday.