Catholic News

• US commission names 16 'egregious' violators of religious freedom (USCIRF)
  The governments of 16 nations—Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), China, Cuba, Eritrea, India, Iran, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam—engage in, or tolerate, “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations” of religious freedom, according to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom’s 2025 annual report. The commission recommended that the US State Department designate these nations as “countries of particular concern” (CPCs) and include a dozen other nations in its “special watch list.” The 2025 annual report refers dozens of times to the persecution of Catholics in various nations. The commission, whose members are appointed by the president and House and Senate leaders, is chaired by Stephen Schneck, a retired Catholic University of America professor.
• Vatican schedule for Holy Week lists no celebrants (CNS)
  The Vatican has released a schedule for Holy Week and Easter, without listing the celebrants for major liturgical events. In a reflection of uncertainty about the recovery of Pope Francis, the schedule indicates that the usual events of Holy Week and Easter will be presided over by prelates of the “Papal Chapel”—a group that includes the cardinals residing in Rome as well as the Pontiff. The schedule includes most of the usual liturgies of Holy Week and Easter. But the list does not include the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday. In recent years Pope Francis has chosen to preside at that ceremony—which includes the washing of feet—somewhere outside the Vatican. The schedule released by the Vatican also includes the Mass for the 2nd Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, which will also see the canonization of Blessed Carlo Acutis, on April 27. It is not yet clear whether the Pope’s recovery will enable him to attend that event.
• Over 300,000 Germans left the Catholic Church in 2024 (Katholisch)
  The German bishops’ conference has reported that 321,611 people formally removed their registration as Catholics in 2024, as the number of Catholics in the German population dropped below 20 million. The exodus was actually less severe than in the previous two years. In 2023, more than 400,000 Catholics dropped their registration; in 2022 the figure peaked at 520,000. Germany’s “church tax” imposes a surtax on the levies of those who declare a religious affiliation. The funds from that surtax are turned over to the denomination, providing the main source of the enormous wealth of the Catholic Church in Germany. Inactive Catholics therefore have an incentive for declaring their departure, to avoid the surtax.
• Abuse victims' group charges top Vatican cardinals negligent (SNAP)
  The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) has charged that several prominent leaders of the Roman Curia have failed to investigate charges of clerical abuse. In a lengthy open letter to Pope Francis, SNAP says that the provisions of Vos Estis—the Vatican document designed to hold bishops accountable for their handling of abuse complaints—has failed. Peter Isely, speaking for SNAP, said that Vos Estis “allows bishops who have covered up abuse to investigate bishops who have covered up abuse.” SNAP lodged complaints against Cardinals Peter Erdo, Kevin Farrell, Victor Fernandez, Mario Grech, Robert Prevost, and Luis Tagle—all prefects of Vatican dicasteries.
• Holy Land vicar deplores scope of child casualties in Gaza (L'Osservatore Romano)
  Father Ibrahim Faltas, OFM, vicar of the Franciscan province in the Holy Land, said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper that “the sheer number of children killed in Gaza is horrifying.” “Families in Gaza are typically large, and the population is very young,” said the vicar of the Custody of the Holy Land, when asked why “no other war has seen such a high percentage” of child casualties. “The killing of innocent children, who are blameless and incapable of causing harm, is a stain humanity will never be able to erase from its history,” he said. “Estimates suggest that around 20,000 children have been orphaned,” Father Faltas added. “One of the great tragedies of this war is that we’re unable to help: humanitarian aid can’t get through ... It’s devastating to be so close, yet so powerless.”
• Share the faith with the spiritually poor, Vatican City official says in Tokyo (Fides)
  Speaking at Shinseikaikan, a Catholic student center in Tokyo, the secretary general of the Governatorate of Vatican City State said that “it is important to share material goods with the poor, because in this way we can give each other the necessities of life and preserve our fundamental dignity as human beings created in the image of God.” “However, we must not forget to share the richness of faith with the spiritually poor,” Archbishop Emilio Nappa continued. “I firmly believe that special attention must continue to be paid to this aspect of the commitment to Shinseikaikan.” He added: Do not forget to teach the Church’s social teaching, both through the catechesis you live in your lives and in the catechesis you address in the classrooms to catechumens and the faithful. Your witness helps us walk the path of forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace. It is an important message of great persuasive power.
• Vatican diplomat renews call to eradicate modern slavery (Vatican News)
  The Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the Organization of American States called for “unanimous” efforts to eradicate modern-day slavery. “If we close our eyes and ears to this phenomenon today, we, too, will be complicit in it,” Msgr. Juan Antonio Cruz Serrano said on March 25, the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. (Vatican News, the news agency of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, inaccurately referred to Msgr. Cruz Serrano as an archbishop in its article. The Spanish priest is not a bishop.)
• Nuncio hails Jordan's work on behalf of peace (AsiaNews)
  Archbishop Giovanni Pietro Dal Toso, the apostolic nuncio to Jordan, praised the nation’s government for its efforts to contain the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and “find a solution, together with other Arab countries.” “Jordan is trying not only to mediate, but also to promote real help to the Palestinians,” he told AsiaNews, the agency of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions. The nuncio’s remarks follow a January visit to the nation by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Pope’s Secretary of State, during which he praised the nation’s king for promoting interfaith harmony and welcoming refugees.
• Nearly 850 who allege clerical abuse compensated in France since 2022 (La Croix)
  In the past three years, 1,580 people who allege they experienced sexual abuse in the Church have applied for compensation to the French bishops’ National Independent Authority for Recognition and Reparation. The body, which has 22 case workers, has rendered 852 decisions, 99% of which have involved financial compensation. The average compensation in 2024 was $39,350; the maximum possible compensation is $64,800. “Among the applicants, 66% are men, and 34% are women,” according to the report. “The average age is 61,” and “52% of victims were between 11 and 15 years old”—suggesting that the latter half of the 1970s was the epicenter of the clerical abuse scandal in France.
• Kidnapped Nigerian priest is freed; suspects in another's death (Fides)
  Father John Unaechu, who was kidnapped on March 28, has been released, the Oweri archdiocese has announced. And authorities in the Kaduna state have announced the arrest of two people who will be charged with the kidnapping and murder of Father Sylvester Okechukwu last week.
• Pope was near death, doctor confirms (Vatican News)
  Dr. Sergio Alfieri, who headed the medical team treating Pope Francis during his stay at Gemelli Hospital, has confirmed that the Pontiff was near death on February 28, when he experienced two respiratory crises. In fact, Dr. Alfieri told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, reported that the Pope and the medical team seriously considered stopping treatment. He recalled: We had to decide whether to stop and let him go or to push forward with all possible medications and therapies, despite the high risk of damaging other organs. In the end, we chose to fight. Pope Francis himself made the decision to continue treatment, the doctor said. Dr. Alfieri said that Pope Francis will now require medication “for a long time” to complete his recovery, and doctors have advised him to avoid meetings until further notice. He will be given round-the-clock medical care at his Vatican residence, including the continued administration of high-flow oxygen, as well as physical therapy to restore muscles that were weakened by his long hospitalization.
• Trump not speaking at Notre Dame commencement (CNA)
  The University of Notre Dame has regularly invited a newly inaugurated US president to address its commencement ceremonies. But President Trump will not speak at this year’s graduation. The commencement speaker this year will be Admiral Christopher Grady, the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Previous Notre Dame commencement speakers have included Presidents Dwight Eisenhower in 1960, Jimmy Carter in 1977, Ronald Reagan in 1981, George H. W. Bush in 1992, George W. Bush in 2001, and Barack Obama in 2009. President Joe Biden was reportedly invited to speak in 2021, but declined, citing a prior commitment. In 2017, after Trump entered the White House for the first time, Vice President Mike Pence gave the graduation address. Father John Jenkins, who was president of Notre Dame at the time, was quoted as saying that Trump had not been invited because he did not meet “a certain bar in terms of just moral decency.”
• 500 priests expected at Jubilee of Missionaries of Mercy (Vatican News)
  Five hundred of the world’s 1,258 Missionaries of Mercy are expected at the Jubilee of Priests Instituted as Missionaries of Mercy, which will take place at the Vatican from March 28-30 as part of the 2025 jubilee year. During and after the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy (2015-16), the Holy See has granted Missionaries of Mercy the faculties to absolve sins whose absolution is reserved to the Apostolic See (Canons 1370, 1379, 1382, 1384, 1386, 1387).
• President Trump's actions show 'pattern of cruelty,' sisters charge (Sisters of the Holy Cross)
  The Sisters of the Holy Cross, a religious institute headquartered in Notre Dame, Indiana, charged that President Trump’s “executive actions show a pattern of cruelty that shocks the conscience.” Citing the “dismantling of USAID programs,” “abandonment of the refugee resettlement program,” “sudden firings of civil servants,” “targeting of immigrant communities,” and “stepping back from the country’s commitment to the environment,” the sisters stated that “these and other edicts represent a crisis of morality and compel us to speak and say that such actions are not of God ... They are a betrayal of the fundamental teachings of Christ.”
• Papal health update, March 21 (Vatican News)
  Pope Francis no longer requires mechanical ventilation when he sleeps, doctors are reducing the use of high-flow oxygen to assist his breathing, and his condition remains stable, the Vatican press office announced on Friday afternoon. However, the Vatican said, “the doctors have not yet given any indication regarding his discharge from the hospital.” In a more disturbing statement, during an interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica, Cardinal Victor Fernandez, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that “the Pope must learn to speak again.” Pope Francis has not lost the ability to speak; he recorded an audio message to the faithful on March 6. But at that time his voice was weak, his speech unclear, and his breathing labored. Cardinal Fernandez expressed confidence that the Pope would recover and continue his leadership. But when asked whether he would return to action before Easter, the cardinal replied: “I don’t think so.”
• New Vatican document calls on every diocese to develop pro-life plan (CWN)
  The Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life has published a 40-page document calling for organized pro-life initiatives in every diocese.
• Pope returns to residence after 5-week hospitalization (CWN)
  Pope Francis returned to his residence on March 23 following a 38-day stay in Gemelli Hospital.
• 12-year decline in worldwide priestly vocations accelerates (CWN)
  The number of major seminarians worldwide fell from 108,481 in 2022 to 106,495 in 2023, according to statistics published in the new Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (CWN coverage)—a decline of 1.83% in a single year.
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