Catholic News
- Pope fields questions from Roman priests, urges them to avoid AI in preparing homilies (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV fielded questions from four priests of the Diocese of Rome during his February 19 meeting with them in Paul VI Audience Hall. In addressing one of the questions, he urged priests to avoid AI in preparing homilies. - Pope encourages youth of Los Angeles to open their hearts to God's love in the Blessed Sacrament (Vatican Press Office)
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, sent a message in the Holy Father’s name to Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles on the occasion of the archdiocesan Religious Education Congress. Cardinal Parolin wrote: His Holiness would likewise encourage the young people present to open their hearts to the love of God. Love not only led Jesus to give himself for us on the Cross, but also to remain with us in the Blessed Sacrament. In this regard, he prays that their experience at the Conference will help them to discover Jesus’ Eucharistic presence as an unfailing source of comfort and strength in all of life’s circumstances. Addressing catechists, Cardinal Parolin also said that “by deepening your relationship with Jesus, who is the Truth (cf. Jn 14:6), and continuing to be faithful and joyful disciples in your daily lives, your authenticity as educators and catechetical leaders will enable you to transmit the Gospel in such a way that it leads to a true encounter with the Lord and contributes to building up a lasting and life-giving culture.” - Vatican message to Muslims: Do not yield to despair or violence, but seek peace (CWN)
In its annual message for the month of Ramadan, the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue called on Muslims not to “yield to despair or to violence,” but instead strive to restore “peace to our broken world.” - Synod establishes commission to propose revisions to Eastern canon law (CWN)
The General Secretariat of the Synod announced the establishment of an Eastern Canonical Commission to propose revisions to the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches in light of the synod on synodality. - USCCB: $38.3B ICE detention expansion is a 'moral inflection point for our country' (USCCB)
The chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration described a $38.3-billion expansion of the federal immigration detention system as a “moral inflection point for our country.” “The thought of holding thousands of families in massive warehouses should challenge the conscience of every American,” Bishop Brendan Cahill of Victoria, Texas, said in his February 20 statement. “Whatever their immigration status, these are human beings created in the image and likeness of God, and this is a moral inflection point for our country.” “We implore the Administration and Congress to lead with right reason, abandon this misuse of taxpayer funds, and to instead pursue a more just approach to immigration enforcement that truly respects human dignity, the sanctity of families, and religious liberty,” he added. In releasing Bishop Cahill’s statement, the USCCB said that the expense “amounts to nearly fifty times the annual budget for the entire immigration court system and almost five times the funding provided this year to operate the federal prison system.” “The plan partly entails opening eight ‘mega‑centers,’ each of which would be capable of detaining 7,000 to 10,000 people,” the USCCB added. “Aside from the internment camps used to incarcerate Japanese Americans in the 1940s, such facilities have no precedent in American history.” - Franciscan friar describes widespread suffering in Gaza, departure of Christians from Bethlehem (CWN)
A Franciscan friar who oversees 18 schools in the Holy Land described continued widespread suffering in Gaza, four months after the signing of the Gaza peace plan. - SSPX rejects Vatican offer, will proceed with episcopal ordinations (CWN)
The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has announced that it plans to go ahead with the ordination of new bishops on July 1, despite a Vatican warning that the move will lead to schism. - Argentine archbishop declares marriage between transgender persons null (EWTN News)
Archbishop José Adolfo Larregain, OFM, of Corrientes, Argentina, declared a marriage contracted last month between two transgender persons ipso facto null. The putative marriage was contracted between a man who presents himself as a woman and a woman who presents herself as a man. At the time, the parish priest said that he had consulted with Archbishop Larregain, and that the prelate had found no canonical impediment to wedding because they were of opposite sexes. - Cardinal Dolan, in wide-ranging interview, discusses Trump administration, Mayor Mamdani, synodality (National Catholic Register)
In a wide-ranging interview, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York from 2009 until his recent retirement, discussed the Trump administration, Vice President JD Vance, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and his own new appointment as co-chief chaplain of the New York Police Department. Cardinal Dolan also offered strong praise for his successor (Archbishop Ronald Hicks) and said that it is time to “move on” from the emphasis on synodality. - Adult baptisms surge in Belgium (Pillar)
The number of adult baptisms in Belgium is expected to grow from 534 in 2025 to 689 in 2026, as a trend of steady growth continues. In 2010, there were 143 adult baptisms in Belgium; in 2015, 180; in 2020, 305. The Western European nation of 12 million (map) is 61% Christian (58% Catholic) and 9% Muslim. - Tanzania's Cardinal Pengo dies at 81 (CWN)
Cardinal Polycarp Pengo, one of Africa’s leading prelates during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, died on February 19 at the age of 81. - Cardinal Ruini speaks bluntly in 95th birthday interview [News Analysis] (CWN)
As a rule Catholic bishops—and especially cardinals—choose their words very carefully. Reading an interview with a prelate, therefore, is often an exercise in discernment, in interpreting the hints and reading the message between the lines. - American bombing of Castel Gandolfo recalled (Vatican News)
Laudato Si’ Village, dedicated last September at Castel Gandolfo, recalled the anniversary of the American bombing of the Holy See’s property in 1944, during World War II. The hundreds of refugees who were killed “were people looking only for a safe place,” said Father Manuel Dorantes, administrative director of the Laudato Si’ Higher Education Center. “They were seeking protection.” Pope Venerable Pius XII, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, “opened doors,” Father Dorantes added. “He made space available. He saved lives.” - Priest brutally murdered in DR Congo (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))
A priest was brutally murdered on February 16 in Botemola, a village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Mai-Ndombe Province, the Vatican newspaper reported. The body of Father Jules Bontone Nkaa Yulu, “killed shortly after mediating a conflict in a nearby village, was found headless on a road regularly used by locals,” according to the report. “The province of Maï-Ndombe has been plagued by insecurity for over three years due to the activities of the Mobondo militia, in the conflict between the Yaka and Teke communities.” - 4 economists, in Vatican newspaper, reflect on Pope Leo's Dilexi Te (CWN)
The Vatican newspaper marked the World Day of Social Justice by publishing four economists’ reflections on Dilexi Te, Pope Leo XIV’s apostolic exhortation on love for the poor. - Vatican announces 6 papal trips in Italy between May and August, including Lampedusa on July 4 (CWN)
The Prefecture of the Papal Household announced on February 19 that Pope Leo XIV will make six pastoral visits within Italy between May and August. - Pakistani prelate: Lent and Ramadan call Christians, Muslims to interfaith harmony (Fides)
The coinciding of the beginnings of Lent and Ramadan this year “offers a unique opportunity to further strengthen interreligious harmony,” a Pakistani archbishop wrote in his Ramadan greetings to the Muslim community. “Churches and mosques should be centers of compassion, peace, and love,” said Archbishop Joseph Arshad of Rawalpindi-Islamabad. The shared practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, he added, are “a powerful testament to the fact that faith is not a source of division but rather a means of mercy, solidarity, and unity.” Islam is the official religion of the South Asian nation of 257 million (map), the fifth most populous in the world. 95% of Pakistan’s people are Muslim, 2% are Christian, and 1% are Hindu. - New Stations of the Cross on display in St. Peter's Basilica (St. Peter's Basilica)
New paintings of the Stations of the Cross were inaugurated in St. Peter’s Basilica last evening as the basilica celebrates its 400th anniversary year. The paintings, the work of Swiss artist Manuel Andreas Dürr, will be on display during the remainder of Lent. According to the basilica, Dürr was one of a thousand artists from 80 nations who submitted entries to the artistic competition for the painting of the Stations. - Ecumenical Patriarch's Lenten message emphasizes asceticism (Ecumenical Patriarchate)
In his catechetical homily for the opening of Holy and Great Lent, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople reflected on asceticism. “Asceticism is not a matter of self-willed choices and subjective particularities, but of submission to the rule and the ‘catholic experience’ of the Church,” said the Ecumenical Patriarch, who holds a primacy of honor among the Orthodox churches. “Repentance, prayer, humility, forgiveness, fasting, and philanthropic deeds are interconnected and interwoven.” - Rekindle the fire within you, Pope tells Rome's priests (CWN)
Pope Leo XIV met with priests of the Diocese of Rome on February 19 and encouraged them to rekindle the fire of the Spirit within them. - More...