In the story of Lazarus, the leper, his sores were licked by dogs. St. Roch, the patron saint of dogs, was befriended by a dog in the forest as he waited in the forest to die from the plague. The dog licked his sores and brought him food, and St. Roch was able to recover.

Pope Francis said he was “moved” by a photo of an old registry that showed his participation as a young man at sessions of overnight eucharistic adoration at a basilica in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

As religious leaders, scholars, experts and abuse survivors come together online to participate in a three-day international symposium on faith, healing and prevention, Pope Francis sent a message as part of a series of opening remarks for the event.

Archbishop Chaput told Catholic News Service he hopes that after reading his latest book, “anybody who is a serious Christian will take the Gospel more seriously, their lives more seriously and the world around us more seriously.”

Father Küng was one of the most outspoken Roman Catholic theologians and one of the sharpest critics of St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.

“Our aim is to serve and inspire the ongoing revival of Catholic letters in our time,” said co-founder James Matthew Wilson, outgoing professor of humanities at Villanova University near Philadelphia.

“It is always possible to begin anew, because there is a new life that God can awaken in us in spite of all our failures,” the pope said April 3 during his celebration of the Easter Vigil.

For the second year in a row, Pope Francis led the Way of the Cross from St. Peter’s Square rather than Rome’s Colosseum because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

As Pope Francis presided over the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion, the preacher of the papal household called on bishops and all Catholics to examine their consciences for ways they may be harming the unity of the Catholic Church.

Many Catholics rely on passion plays or films to aid in their reflection on Christ’s passion and death. One of the unlikeliest of places to find echoes of this pivotal moment in Christian history is director Zack Snyder’s trilogy based on the beloved DC Comics superheroes.