Signaling further reforms of the Vatican City State penal code, particularly when it comes to financial crimes, Pope Francis said the laws must reflect “the equality of all members of the church” by doing away with “privileges that go back in time and are no longer in keeping with the responsibility of each for building up of the church.”

The Vatican has imposed sanctions on two Polish Catholic bishops, who resigned in 2020 after being accused of ignoring sexual abuse by their clergy.

With Italy already facing a diminishing population, low birth rates and fewer religious and civil marriages, the COVID-19 pandemic severely impacted those numbers for 2020, according to the Italian National Institute of Statistics.

A suicide bomb attack on a Catholic cathedral compound shattered the calm of Palm Sunday Mass, leaving two bombers dead and at least 20 people wounded.

Fierro was fatally shot outside his home, dying at the scene. Being killed in such a violent manner was a sad irony, Montali said, because his late friend was “a peacemaker” by nature.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced March 25 that one of the three new Staten Island Ferry boats transporting people between Staten Island and lower Manhattan will be named for Catholic Worker Movement co-founder Dorothy Day, whose sainthood cause is being considered by the Vatican.

A Christian life should be filled with amazement — astonishment at the son of God suffering and dying for humanity and awe at realizing how precious and loved people are in his eyes, Pope Francis said.

Father Hector Maldonado, of El Buen Pastor Parish in Apancoyo, El Salvador, said he recently tried to convince a family of five from his parish, who told him of their plans to leave, not to undertake the dangerous journey.

A March 22 online webinar on the Equality Act focused on criticism that the legislation is so vaguely worded it would harm religious liberty and obscure biological reality.

Pope Francis, his liturgy office and his communications team made very deliberate decisions over the past year with the goal of letting people experience how close the pope was to them in their isolation and suffering.