March 2021

An Italian cardinal who remained in Syria for the entire duration of the 10-year civil war has said that he fears “time is running out” to rebuild the country as it descends into deeper poverty.

Wiktoria Ulma with six of her children. / Credit: The Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in World War II. Early on March 24, …

Consecrated life is beautiful and contains a call to witness to what is beautiful and true, Cardinal João Braz de Aviz wrote yesterday in a letter marking the 25th anniversary of St. John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation on consecrated life.

Credit: 578foot via www.shutterstock.com. An international pro-life group today rejected claims about its abortion pill reversal service published by a UK-based political website. Heartbeat International …

In a letter for the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, Pope Francis said that the mystery of Christ’s Incarnation is the “true heart and inspiration” of Dante’s great poetic work, the Divine Comedy.

Canon Tom White, who is challenging Scotland’s ban on public worship. / Credit: Photo courtesy of ADF International. Scotland’s supreme civil court ruled yesterday that …

Pope Francis issued a letter yesterday cutting the salaries of some Vatican employees as a way to contain costs after the institution’s budget projected a deficit of $60 million in 2021.

The Vatican’s financial watchdog will soon get a new director responsible for its supervision unit. Carmelo Barbagallo, president of the Vatican Supervisory and Financial Information Authority (Autorità di Supervisione e Informazione Finanziaria, or ASIF), broke the news in a 20 March  interview with Vatican media.

Cardinal Charles Maung Bo committed Wednesday to ongoing support for Burma’s protest movement, provided that it remains “non-violent and peaceful.”

Pope Francis sent a video message to the people of Bangladesh on Wednesday as they mark the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence and the centenary of the birth of the “Father of the Nation,” Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Pope Francis today said that Jesus entrusted the Virgin Mary to us as a Mother, “not as co-redeemer.”

Ahead of Holy Week, Bishop Declan Lang, chair of the Bishops’ International Affairs department, has issued a reminder that the Christians living in the lands of Christ should be held in prayer.

A Catholic bishop has lamented an English appeal court ruling that life-sustaining treatment can be withdrawn from a five-year-old girl against her mother’s wishes.

Pope Francis chose a scouting group from central Italy and kids from a Roman parish to prepare the meditations for this year’s Good Friday Stations of the Cross at the Vatican.

Germany’s leading Catholic bishop on Tuesday criticized a request to halt public worship during a “hard lockdown” from Holy Thursday to Easter Monday.

A Swedish scholar who studies China has called for the Vatican to speak up about human rights abuses by the Chinese government, noting that “dialogue on equal terms is not what is happening.”

The restriction of private Masses in the upper side chapels of St. Peter’s Basilica went into force today.

The Vatican marked World Water Day on Monday with a message urging an end to water waste and contamination.

Police have fined a Catholic priest for celebrating public Masses amid a nationwide lockdown.

Gardaí imposed a 500 euro (£430) fine on Fr. P.J. Hughes, pastor of Mullahoran and Loughduff parish in County Cavan, after he offered Masses with a small number of parishioners present.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, and four leading imams have called for a day of prayer on Tuesday 23 March, a national day of reflection marking the anniversary of the first national lockdown for the coronavirus pandemic.