CRS, the official international relief and development agency of the U.S. Catholic community, is marking the 50th anniversary of its Rice Bowl program, which has raised more than $350 million to support domestic and overseas poverty relief efforts.

At the start of Catholic Relief Services’ 2025 Rice Bowl initiative — an annual Lenten program blending almsgiving and prayer to provide aid to overseas and domestic aid — OSV News spoke with Rice Bowl founder Monsignor Robert Coll, a retired priest of the Diocese of Allentown, Pa., about the program as it marks its 50th year.

On his 21st day in Rome’s Gemelli hospital, Pope Francis recorded a 27-second audio message thanking people for their prayers.

The 12th anniversary of Catholic Sisters Week (March 8-14) is celebrating their many ministries and achievements with campaigns and activities that aim to educate, inform and even surprise.

Along the way, the couple has witnessed how God has used Kathryn’s AHC to make a difference in others’ lives.

On his 21st day in Rome’s Gemelli hospital, Pope Francis’ condition remained stable, and he continued his respiratory and physical therapy “with benefit” March 6, his doctors said.

Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, head of the U.S. military archdiocese, reminded the congregation at an Ash Wednesday Mass of the elements of “our blessed journey” of Lent: “prayer, self-denial and charity.”

Like St. John Paul II, Pope Francis knows the “cross of Christ is never abandoned” and that everything is in God’s hands, said Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, who was the late pope’s personal secretary for 39 years.

The infinite and inalienable dignity inherent in every human being has practical consequences which include protecting everyone’s right to life from conception to a natural end and opposing the “technocratic” ideology of gender, said the head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office.

In what is billed as a first in history, India’s Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal seeking to end discrimination against socially poor Dalit Catholics in a parish in southern India.