Lent is a time to reconsider the path one is taking in life and to finally answer God’s invitation to return to him with one’s whole heart, Pope Francis said.

In a Feb. 15 segment for the “Today” show’s “Changemakers” and “Black Voices” series, Cardinal Wilton D. Gregory of Washington reflected on his faith journey and on his own experiences with racism.

President Joe Biden signed an executive order Feb. 14 reestablishing the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships as a means to work with religious and secular organizations to help with COVID-19 and economic recovery and confront systemic racism.

The Franciscans trace their presence in the Holy Land to 1217 when St. Francis of Assisi founded the Province of the Holy Land, a custodian priory of the order he founded in 1209 — formally called the Order of Friars Minor.

A group of Spanish lawyers has launched petitions and lawsuits to prevent the removal of crosses by local officials, after claims that Christian symbols are linked with the country’s former dictatorship.

As Christians pray, fast and give alms during Lent, they also should consider giving a smile and offering a kind word to people feeling alone or frightened because of the coronavirus pandemic, Pope Francis said.

The bishop of a Colombian city that is suffering from a deadly spike in drug violence boarded a firetruck to spray the town’s main street with holy water and help to “cleanse it” of evil.

Pope Francis will celebrate Ash Wednesday Mass Feb. 17 in St. Peter’s Basilica rather than making the traditional walk from the Church of St. Anselm to the Basilica of Santa Sabina on Rome’s Aventine Hill, the Vatican said.

The international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need said it found “very plausible” the claim of a former employee that the late Norbertine Father Werenfried van Straaten, founder of the charity, had sexually assaulted her in the 1970s.

Several global institutions are working to find ways to allocate COVID-19 vaccines in ways that are equitable and effective in stanching the acute phase of the pandemic.