Bishop discusses Holy Week piety, poverty in South Sudan (Vatican News)

In an interview with Vatican News, Bishop Christian Carlassare of Rumbek, South Sudan, discussed the nation’s poverty, as well as local Holy Week customs. “South Sudan is not poor because it lacks wealth, but because it lacks peace,” he said. What he is needed, he added, is not dependence on oil revenue—rendered tenuous because of […]

Papal gift to Rome’s priests: book on discernment (L’Osservatore Romano (Italian))

At the Holy Thursday Chrism Mass, Pope Francis gave a book to Rome’s priests: Sul discernimento [On Discernment]. The book is a collection of the Pope’s Wednesday general audiences on discernment, given between August 2022 and January 2023. The book includes a foreword by Father Antonio Spadaro, SJ, and an essay by Fathers Miguel Àngel […]

4,000 Nicaraguan police deployed to prevent Holy Week processions (Infobae (Spanish))

Over 4,000 police officers were sent to Nicaragua’s churches to prevent outdoor Holy Week processions, according to a report by the online Argentine news site Infobae. “There were at least two police officers in each church, and in some churches several patrol cars arrived with special operations agents,” said Martha Patricia Molina, a human rights […]

Shrine’s Divine Mercy Sunday weekend to focus on Eucharist, ‘spiritual fatherhood’

(OSV News) — An upcoming celebration of the Divine Mercy devotion focuses in particular on the Eucharist and on the need for “spiritual fatherhood.” Some 15,000 pilgrims are expected at the annual Divine Mercy Sunday Weekend, which takes place April 6-7 at the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The shrine also […]

Pope Francis at Easter Urbi et Orbi: Christ is risen! All begins anew!

Following the Easter Sunday Mass, Pope Francis delivers his Easter message and blessing “To the City and the World,” praying especially for the Holy Land, Ukraine, Myanmar, Syria, Lebanon, and Africa, as well as for victims of human trafficking, unborn children, and all experiencing hard times. Read all  

Anatomy of a Tragedy

Anatomy of a Tragedy On October 19, 2023, an Israeli airstrike near St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in Gaza City caused a wall of the church to collapse, killing eighteen Palestinian civilians who had taken refuge there. If, as Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) stated, the deaths were a case of “collateral damage,” what happened two […]