Pope Francis urged people to join the Italian bishops’ request that Catholics pray the luminous mysteries of the rosary together March 19, the feast of St. Joseph.

People must use this time of the coronavirus pandemic to rediscover the importance of small, concrete gestures of affection and care toward others, Pope Francis said in a new interview.

Pope Francis asked people to pray for all victims of COVID-19, including the health care workers who sacrificed their lives caring for others.

The effects of the coronavirus can be defeated only with a combination of science and solidarity, said the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Pope Francis prayed for families who are cooped up in their homes and for all those who are ill with COVID-19.

A number of priests and religious women have been among the nearly 2,000 people who have died in Italy because of illness connected with COVID-19.

A reporting system accepting sexual misconduct allegations against U.S. bishops and eparchs is in place.

With Italy on lockdown and Rome streets almost deserted, Pope Francis left the Vatican March 15 in a mini-pilgrimage to an icon and to a crucifix associated with miraculous interventions to save the city and its people.

The Archdiocese of Seattle became the first in the country to announce March 11 the temporary suspension of all public Masses to help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

A priest who serves as director of the Justice, Development and Peace Commission in his diocese in northern Nigeria cited an ongoing series of religious freedom violations in his region of the country, which is majority Muslim.