Category Archives: World News

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Pope Leo XIV stands before the blessing and inauguration of the Tower of Jesus Christ at the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia during Pope Leo XIV’s apostolic journey in Barcelona, Spain, June 10, 2026. (OSV News photo/Simone Risoluti, Vatican News)

NATION
ORLANDO, Fla. (OSV News) – In preparation for the 500th anniversary of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s appearance to St. Juan Diego in five years, the dioceses of the U.S. will be participating in the Intercontinental Guadalupan Novena. Bishop Oscar Cantú of San Jose, California, chairman of the bishops’ Subcommittee on Hispanic/Latino Affairs, addressed his fellow bishops June 11 during their spring plenary, sharing that one theologian had referred to Our Lady of Guadalupe as the “Queen of Marian Apparitions.” Franciscan Father Stefano Cecchin, president of the Pontifical International Marian Academy, told the bishop during a conference in Mexico City earlier this year that other apparitions talked about the rosary, repentance or unity of the family. “But the message in Guadalupe included an entire array of theological messages that included ecclesiology, Christology, the role of the laity, the role of the hierarchy, enculturation,” Bishop Cantú recalled Father Cecchin telling him. Four years ago, the Mexican Episcopal Conference began a “Novena of Years” in anticipation of the quincentennial, and they have invited all dioceses throughout the Americas to join them for the remaining five years leading to the quincentennial.
SAN ANTONIO (OSV News) – As the NBA Finals spotlight the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks, an unexpected group has captured national attention: the Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco in San Antonio. Dubbed the “Spurs Nuns,” the sisters have gone viral during the Spurs’ playoff run, appearing courtside, offering prayers and enthusiastically cheering for their hometown team. But Sister Bernadette Mota says the attention remains secondary to the community’s mission. Speaking with OSV News, she emphasized that the sisters’ primary calling is serving young people and those in need, not basketball fame. For the Salesian Sisters, as national media attention to them has grown, they have welcomed the spotlight, seeing it as an opportunity to highlight their ministries and the needs of the young people they serve.

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV told Catholic university leaders on June 3 that they have a responsibility to instill in their students a passion for “not only intellectual truth, but the truth that is Christ himself.” Speaking with university presidents, rectors, senior administrators and faculty leaders from U.S. colleges who are currently taking part in the 2026 Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities Rome Seminar, the pope underlined that the importance of forming students in “the sound doctrine entrusted to the Church that will serve as a true and lasting foundation not only for their lives, but the future of the nation.” “Unless Catholic education instills in students a true passion for the truth – and not only intellectual truth, but the truth that is Christ himself – we can hardly expect people to be willing to put forth the effort required to recognize truth and adapt one’s life accordingly,” he said. Pope Leo also highlighted two major challenges facing Catholic education: the fragmentation of knowledge and the growing influence of artificial intelligence, pointing to lessons from his recent encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.”
VATICAN CITY (OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV on June 1 praised Venerable Fulton J. Sheen as “a light of faith, hope, and love” whose pioneering radio and television broadcasts brought the Gospel to millions of Americans, including the pope himself as a child. Speaking to members of the Pontifical Mission Societies at the Vatican, Pope Leo said it was providential that Archbishop Sheen will be beatified Sept. 24 in St. Louis during the centennial year of the mission societies he once led. “I myself am a witness of his evangelization when I was growing up,” the pope said. “Archbishop Sheen was a light of faith, hope, and love that shone through the radio and television media for decades,” Pope Leo said. “His broadcasts touched millions with the hope of the Gospel and his initiatives and efforts resulted in enormous spiritual and material aid to the Churches in areas of first evangelization,” he added. Born in Illinois in 1895, Sheen became one of the most influential Catholic communicators in U.S. history through NBC radio’s “The Catholic Hour” and the television program “Life Is Worth Living.” He also spent 16 years leading the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, one of the four Pontifical Mission Societies, raising significant support for missions worldwide.

WORLD
BARCELONA, Spain (OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV blessed the newly completed Tower of Jesus Christ at Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica June 10, inaugurating the crowning spire that makes the iconic church the tallest Catholic church the world and urging people to lift their gaze to Christ “who alone reveals to us the truth about God and the truth about ourselves.” Pope Leo offered Mass inside the basilica and formally inaugurated the Tower of Jesus Christ, which stands at more than 564 feet, before a crowd of thousands gathered inside and around the Sagrada Familia. “By looking at Christ, we can see the world with renewed eyes: the tower of the cross then becomes a banner of charity, for God loves us in this way, transforming an instrument of death into a sign of hope,” the pope said. Spain’s King Felipe VI welcomed the pope upon his arrival at the basilica. Before Mass, Pope Leo descended to the basilica’s crypt to pray at the tomb of Antoni Gaudí, the visionary Catalan architect who devoted 43 years of his life to the design and construction of the basilica before his death in 1926 at age 73. The papal Mass fell on the 100th anniversary of Gaudí’s death. Known as “God’s architect,” Gaudí’s cause for canonization advanced last year when Pope Francis declared him venerable in April 2025. Pope Leo paid tribute to the visionary builder in his homily, reflecting on Gaudí’s intent to narrate the mysteries of Christ’s life through stone and light.
PARIS (OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming visit to France is taking shape, with French Church leaders releasing new details about the Sept. 25–28 apostolic journey and expressing hopes that it will inspire the same enthusiasm seen during the pope’s recent visit to Spain. The trip will begin in Paris, where Pope Leo is scheduled to pray vespers at Notre Dame Cathedral, marking the first papal visit since the cathedral reopened following the 2019 fire. He will also visit UNESCO and join a large youth prayer vigil before celebrating an outdoor Mass in the French capital. The pope will then travel to the Marian shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, where he will celebrate Mass near the grotto where Our Lady appeared to St. Bernadette. The visit will conclude in Metz, a city linked to Franco-German reconciliation and the legacy of Robert Schuman, the founding father of the European Union. French bishops say the visit is above all a spiritual opportunity for renewal and missionary outreach. Final details of the papal itinerary are expected from the Holy See in the coming weeks.

From conflict zones to ancient Christian sites, Pope Leo XIV brings message of peace, hope to Africa

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By OSV News
Pope Leo XIV concluded his first trip to Africa April 23, capping a four-country visit marked by urgent calls for peace, direct engagement with conflict zones and a backdrop of international political tension.

Traveling April 13–23 through Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, the pope met civil and religious leaders, celebrated public Masses and encouraged Catholics to remain steadfast witnesses to the Gospel.

His visit brought him into regions scarred by violence, including Cameroon’s separatist conflict, while also addressing inequality and corruption in Angola, promoting interreligious dialogue in Algeria and a just society in Equatorial Guinea.

PLeo XIV looks on as dancers perform as he attends a meeting with young people and families at Bata Stadium in Equatorial Guinea April 22, 2026. (OSV News photo/Guglielmo Mangiapane, Reuters)

– Algeria –
Pope Leo’s 11-day trip began with an unexpected controversy after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized him in a late-night April 12 post on Truth Social.

Trump called the pope “weak on crime” and “terrible for foreign policy,” accusing him of believing “it’s OK for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” The remarks followed the pope’s criticism of the Iran war and his repeated calls for peace.

Journalists aboard the papal flight quickly pressed for a response.

“I have no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor of speaking out loudly of the message of the Gospel, which is what I believe I am here to do,” Pope Leo said.

“We are not politicians,” he added. “We are not looking to make foreign policy … but I do believe in the message of the Gospel: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ is the message that the world needs to hear today.”

The remarks sparked backlash from religious and political leaders, but the pope declined to escalate tensions.

“I don’t want to get into a debate,” he said, emphasizing that his mission is to proclaim peace.

“I don’t think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing.”

Despite the dispute, Pope Leo struck a positive tone before landing, saying he was “very happy to visit the land of St. Augustine again.”

In Algiers, he visited the Great Mosque, calling the encounter a sign “that we can learn to respect one another, live in harmony and build a world of peace.”

Later, at the Basilica of Our Lady of Africa overlooking the Mediterranean, he honored Algeria’s Christian martyrs and highlighted interreligious dialogue in the Muslim-majority nation.

The basilica, he said, is a “sign of our desire for peace and unity,” symbolizing “a Church of living stones, where communion between Christians and Muslims takes shape.”

On April 14, the pope traveled to Annaba, near the ruins of ancient Hippo Regius, where St. Augustine spent his final years. The visit held personal significance; Pope Leo has often described himself as “a son of Augustine.”

Celebrating Mass at the Basilica of St. Augustine, he urged Christians to follow the saint’s example, “fervently seeking the truth and serving Christ with ardent faith.”

“Be heirs to this tradition, bearing witness through fraternal charity … as a hope of salvation for the world,” he said.

Addressing Algeria’s small Christian community, he praised their quiet witness.

“Your presence in this country is like incense,” he said. “A glowing grain that spreads fragrance because it gives glory to the Lord and joy and comfort to so many.”

– Cameroon –
During his flight to Cameroon, Pope Leo reflected on Algeria as “a special blessing,” noting that St. Augustine’s life offers a vision of unity and respect across differences.

That message carried into Cameroon, a country scarred by separatist violence. Addressing authorities in Yaoundé, the pope acknowledged the suffering caused by conflict in the English-speaking northwest and southwest regions.

Since 2017, fighting between separatist militias and government forces has killed more than 6,500 people and displaced over 500,000.

“Lives have been lost, families displaced, children deprived of schooling and young people no longer see a future,” he said. “Behind the numbers are the faces, stories and shattered hopes of real people.”

Days before his arrival, separatist groups declared a three-day ceasefire to allow safe travel during the visit.

The highlight of the April 15–18 stop was the pope’s visit to Bamenda, in the heart of the conflict zone. Addressing Catholics at St. Joseph’s Cathedral, the pope was met with enthusiasm after declaring, “I am here to proclaim peace.”

After hearing testimony from local residents – including a chief imam who described a deadly attack on a mosque – the pope strongly condemned violence carried out in God’s name.

“But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain,” he said, warning against dragging what is sacred “into darkness and filth.”

Celebrating Mass for 20,000 people at Bamenda’s airport, he urged hope rooted in faith.

“This is the moment to change, to transform the story of this country,” he said. “The time has come, today and not tomorrow.”

He called on Cameroonians to “restore the mosaic of unity” by embracing the country’s diversity.

On April 17, he celebrated Mass in Douala for an estimated 120,000 faithful, urging Africans to share God’s love by feeding the hungry and offering spiritual nourishment.

Though the visit brought hope, media coverage continued to frame the trip through the lens of tensions with Trump – something the pope later addressed directly.

– Angola –
While the pope’s warning to those who use God to justify violence resonated with suffering Cameroonians in Bamenda, several media outlets ran headlines insinuating that Pope Leo was making an indirect dig at Trump.

En route to Angola, Pope Leo clarified that his remarks in Cameroon had been prepared weeks earlier and were not directed at the U.S. president.

“My speeches were written well before the president ever commented,” he said. “It is not in my interest to debate,” adding “there has been a certain narrative that has not been accurate in all its aspects.”

Arriving in Luanda, he shifted focus to Angola’s challenges and the Church’s role in offering hope. Home to more than 20 million Catholics, Angola has deep Christian roots but continues to struggle with inequality, corruption and the legacy of a civil war that claimed up to 800,000 lives.

Addressing government leaders, the pope urged them to prioritize the common good.

“Place the common good before every particular interest,” he said. “Never confuse your own part with the whole.”

He warned that the people have suffered when power is abused.

“They bear the scars not only of material exploitation, but also of the presumption of imposing an idea upon others,” he said.

On April 19, Pope Leo celebrated Mass for about 100,000 faithful in Kilamba. Reflecting on the Gospel story of the road to Emmaus, he cautioned against despair in societies marked by prolonged suffering.

“When one is long immersed in a history characterized by pain, one can risk losing hope and remaining paralyzed by discouragement,” he said.

Afterward, he traveled to the Sanctuary of Mama Muxima, southern Africa’s most visited Catholic shrine, where tens of thousands had gathered – many camping for days in intense heat.

Calling the shrine a place where “the heart of the Church” is alive, he noted its enduring role in Angola’s spiritual life.

“For centuries, many have prayed here in joy and sorrow,” he said. “Mama Muxima has quietly kept the heart of the Church alive and beating.”

On April 20, the pope flew east to Saurimo, near Angola’s largest diamond mine. There, he visited a nursing home housing 74 elderly residents, many rejected by their families due to superstitious beliefs.

“The care of the weakest is a sign of the quality of a nation’s social life,” he said. “The elderly must not only be assisted, but listened to, because they preserve the wisdom of a people.”

Celebrating Mass for tens of thousands, he also addressed exploitation linked to the diamond industry.

“How often the hope of many is frustrated by violence, exploited by the overbearing and defrauded by the rich,” he said.

“We were not born to become slaves,” he added. “Every form of oppression, violence and dishonesty negates the resurrection of Christ, the supreme gift of our freedom.”

– Equatorial Guinea –
The final leg of Pope Leo’s 11-day journey took him to Equatorial Guinea. Upon landing on the island of Malabo, the pope was welcomed by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has ruled the oil-rich Central African nation since seizing power in a 1979 coup and is widely regarded as one of the world’s most authoritarian leaders.

Pope Leo XIV prays in front of a statue of Mary and the Christ Child as he celebrates the final Mass of his apostolic journey to Africa at Malabo Stadium in Equatorial Guinea April 23, 2026. (OSV News photo/Matteo Pernaselci, Vatican Media)

Nevertheless, in his address to the country’s civil authorities, the pope appealed for justice and ethical governance in a country long criticized for corruption and human rights abuses.

Drawing from St. Augustine’s classic work “The City of God,” Pope Leo noted that the “city of God” is characterized by love, especially for the poor, while the “earthly city … is centered upon the proud love of self, on the lust for power and worldly glory that leads to destruction.”

“Every human being can benefit from the ancient realization of living on earth as a pilgrim,” he said. “It is essential to discern the difference between that which lasts and that which passes, remaining free from the pursuit of unjust wealth and the illusion of dominion.”

Celebrating Mass April 22 at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in the eastern city of Mongomo, the second-largest Catholic Church in Africa, the pope renewed his call to the country’s leaders and citizens to prioritize the common good.

“May the Lord help you to become a society in which everyone, each according to their respective responsibilities, works ever more fully to serve the common good rather than private interests, bridging the gap between the privileged and the disadvantaged,” he said.

In his final Mass in Malabo Stadium April 23, Pope Leo offered a word of hope to the country’s Catholics, urging them to seek strength, justice and hope from the Gospel and the sacraments.

Encouraging the faithful to “joyfully proclaim” that “Christ is everything for us,” Pope Leo reminded Christians that in Jesus, “we find the fullness of life and meaning.”

“Our problems do not disappear in the Lord’s presence, but they are illuminated,” he said. “Just as every cross finds redemption in Jesus, so too the story of our lives finds its meaning in the Gospel.”

As the Mass concluded, the pope bid farewell to the African continent, saying that his visit was “an invaluable treasure of faith, hope, and charity.”

Highlighting the continent’s significance, the pope said that “today, Africa is called to contribute significantly to the holiness and missionary character of the Christian people.”

“I entrust this intention to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, to whom I commend myself wholeheartedly, as well as your families, your communities, your nation, and all the peoples of Africa,” the pope said.

Briefs

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Pope Leo XIV greets people as he arrives at the Pontifical Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii near Naples, Italy, before celebrating Mass in the piazza outside May 8, 2026, on the first anniversary of his election as the first American pontiff. He visited 400 sick and disabled people inside the shrine. (OSV News photo/Mario Tomassetti, Vatican Media)

NATION
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – President Donald Trump on May 5 continued his series of social media and verbal attacks on Pope Leo XIV, accusing him in a radio interview of “endangering” Catholics through his opposition to the Iran war. Trump claimed in an interview that aired May 5 with Hugh Hewitt, a conservative talk radio host, that “the pope would rather talk about the fact that it’s okay for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” Trump has repeatedly claimed that the U.S.-born Pope Leo supports Iran having nuclear weapons; however, the pontiff never made any such statement and has consistently called for the rejection of nuclear weapons. The president accused the pontiff of “endangering a lot of Catholics and a lot of people” by opposing the war with Iran. Pope Leo has been a staunch critic of war generally, including those initiated by the U.S. and Israel against Iran on Feb. 28. In comments May 5 to journalists in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Pope Leo said that ever since his election, “I said, ‘Peace be with you,’ and the Church’s mission is to preach the Gospel, to preach peace.” He said, “If anyone wishes to criticize me for proclaiming the Gospel, let them do so with the truth. The Church has spoken out for years against all nuclear weapons, so there is no doubt about this, and I simply hope to be heard for the sake of the Word of God.”

CHICAGO (OSV News) – A lighthearted story about a customer service call from Pope Leo XIV is drawing widespread attention and offering many Catholics a glimpse of the pope’s ordinary side. Augustinian Father Tom McCarthy, the incoming provincial superior of the Midwest Augustinians, said he has been surprised by the reaction since sharing the anecdote at an April 29 gathering for fathers and sons at Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Naperville, outside Chicago. According to Father McCarthy, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost – now Pope Leo XIV – called his Chicago bank several months after his election to update his phone number and account information. After answering multiple security questions, the pope was reportedly told the changes could not be made unless he appeared at the bank in person. Father McCarthy said Pope Leo explained that would be difficult because he was “out of town.” When he finally added, “Would it matter if I tell you I’m Pope Leo?” the customer service representative hung up on him. The issue was later resolved after a fellow Augustinian contacted the bank president, who agreed to make the change rather than risk losing “the account of the pope.”

VATICAN
POMPEII, Italy (OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV marked the first anniversary of his election May 8 with a pilgrimage to the Marian Shrine of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary in Pompeii, entrusting his pontificate to the Virgin Mary. Celebrating Mass before an estimated 20,000 people, the pope recalled that his election in 2025 coincided with the feast of Our Lady of Pompeii. “I therefore had to come here to place my ministry under the protection of the Blessed Virgin,” he said. The Augustinian pope’s first year included international trips, canonizations and Jubilee events. In his homily, Pope Leo spoke at length about the importance of the rosary and urged Catholics to place their hope in Christ. “Brothers and sisters, no earthly power will save the world, but only the divine power of love,” he said. Pope Leo also honored St. Bartolo Longo, the former Satanist turned saint who founded the Marian shrine and its charitable works for orphans and prisoners’ children. The pope closed with a renewed appeal for peace amid ongoing global conflicts. He was scheduled to continue his pastoral visit with a trip to the nearby city of Naples before returning to Rome by helicopter in the evening.

The site of Marian apparitions in 1877 in Gietrzwald, Poland, is seen in a 2022 photo. Two young visionaries reported the Virgin Mary appeared to them some 160 times over the course of two months. The Marian sanctuary in the Polish village of Gietrzwald is the only Vatican-recognized apparition site in the country. (OSV News photo/Paulina Guzik)

WORLD
WARSAW, Poland (OSV News) – A Marian sanctuary in Gietrzwald – often called the “Polish Lourdes” – could soon draw global attention, as Pope Leo XIV has been invited to visit the site where the Virgin Mary reportedly appeared about 160 times. As the Church enters May, the Marian month, preparations are underway for the 150th anniversary of the 1877 apparitions. Polish bishops and President Karol Nawrocki have extended the papal invitation, raising hopes of a major pilgrimage moment. The apparitions, experienced by two young girls, are among the most intense in Church history – and Poland’s only Vatican-recognized Marian apparition site. Unlike Lourdes or Fatima, they included extended conversations with Mary. “That’s a unique aspect,” filmmaker Jan Sobierajski said. The message from Mary centered on prayer and conversion: “Pray the rosary every day,” Sister Anna Wojciechowska said, adding Mary’s assurance: “Do not be afraid, for I will always be with you.” The story of Gietrzwald is inseparable from the two young visionaries at its center: Barbara Samulowska and Justyna Szafrynska. Both were children – Samulowska was just 12 years old – when they reported seeing the Virgin Mary. In March, the Church recognized the heroic virtues of Sister Barbara, granting her the title venerable and advancing her sainthood cause.

DEBEL, Lebanon (OSV News) – A photo showing an Israeli soldier appearing to desecrate a statue of the Virgin Mary in Lebanon has sparked renewed outrage over anti-Christian incidents tied to the ongoing regional conflict. The image, shared online May 6, appears to show an Israel Defense Forces soldier holding a cigarette to the mouth of a Marian statue. IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani condemned the act, saying the soldier’s behavior “completely deviates from the values expected” of military personnel. He said the incident, reportedly photographed weeks earlier in the Lebanese village of Debel, is under investigation. The controversy follows another recent incident in the same area in which a soldier was photographed striking a statue of Jesus with the blunt side of an axe. Poland’s foreign ministry sharply criticized the latest episode, saying such actions offend Christians’ religious sentiments and undermine peace efforts in the Middle East. The incident also comes days after an Israeli settler was charged in the assault of a French nun near the Cenacle in Jerusalem, traditionally revered as the site of the Last Supper.

Briefs

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A view of Earth, partially hidden by the moon, is photographed through the Orion spacecraft window at 6:40 p.m. EDT (22:40 GMT) April 6, 2026, just four minutes before the Orion spacecraft and its crew went behind the moon and lost contact with Earth for 40 minutes before emerging on the other side during the Artemis II crew’s flyby of the moon. (OSV News photo/NASA handout via Reuters)

NATION
HOUSTON (OSV News) – As the astronauts of NASA’s first crewed lunar flyby in half a century reached their closest approach to the moon, the team’s pilot reminded the Earth of Jesus Christ’s command to love both God and neighbor. “As we get close to the nearest point to the moon and farthest point from Earth, … I would like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries there on Earth, and that’s love,” said astronaut Victor Glover, pilot of the Artemis II mission, speaking to ground control April 6 from aboard NASA’s Orion spacecraft Integrity. “Christ said, in response to what was the greatest command, that it was to love God with all you are,” said Glover. “And he also, being a great teacher, said the second is equal to it. And that is to love your neighbor as yourself.” The call for unity by Glover, who has spoken publicly about his Christian faith, took on an immediate urgency as the crew faced a 40-minute communication lapse with ground control April 6, when the spacecraft passed behind the moon, blocking signals. Moments before the loss of signal – which ended as scheduled, with the crew safely emerging on a homeward bound trajectory – Glover said, “As we prepare to go out of radio communication … to all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you from the moon.”

VATICAN
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (OSV News) – Pope Leo XIV asked all people of goodwill to search always for peace and not violence, in a tacit rebuke of President Donald Trump’s threat that a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran does not make a deal by 8 p.m. EDT on April 7. Without naming Trump, Pope Leo called the threat “truly unacceptable,” addressing it as a moral question that affects the good of an entire people. He added that he wanted to remind all involved that “attacks on civilian infrastructure is against international law.” Such attacks, he added, are a sign of “the hatred, the division and the destruction that the human being is capable of.” “And we all want to work for peace, people want peace,” Pope Leo said. “I would invite the citizens of all the countries involved to contact the authorities, political leaders, congressmen, to, ask them, tell them to work for peace and to reject war.” Earlier April 7, in a post on his social media website, Truth Social, Trump said, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” Pope Leo said that due to the Iran war, which “many people have said is an unjust war,” there is “a worldwide economic crisis, energy crisis,” and a “situation in the Middle East of great instability, which is only provoking more hatred throughout the world.” He said, “Let’s talk, let’s look for solutions in a peaceful way.”

WORLD
LOURDES, France (OSV News) – After 17 years at the helm of Lourdes’ medical investigations, Italian American physician Alessandro de Franciscis retired as head of the sanctuary’s Office of Medical Observations. He will be succeeded by Italian surgeon Giada Monami, who will become the first woman to hold the post. Appointed in 2009 as the first non-French chief physician, de Franciscis oversaw the rigorous evaluation of reported healings at the Marian shrine. “Our role as doctors is solely to determine whether a person has been cured, and whether that cure is unexplained given the current state of scientific knowledge,” he said, noting that the Church alone judges miracles. Since 1883, tens of thousands of healings have been reported at Lourdes, but only a fraction undergo detailed review. Strict criteria require verified diagnosis, sudden and lasting recovery, and extensive follow-up. Of roughly 8,000 recorded cases since 1858, just 72 have been recognized as miracles. De Franciscis, the bureau’s 15th physician, said five miracles were confirmed during his tenure.

Sorrow, shock, prayer for Catholics in Middle East as US and Israel strike Iran, igniting war

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By Gina Christian
(OSV News) – Catholics across the Middle East are reeling with shock and sorrow, and responding with prayer, amid joint strikes Israeli and U.S. forces launched on Iran Feb. 28, plunging the region into war.

The U.S. and Israel revealed that Iran’s supreme leader, 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is among the country’s senior leaders killed in the initial assault, which targeted Tehran and cities across Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump described the attacks as part of “major combat operations” to overthrow Iran’s regime in order to “defend the American people.”

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz announced the Feb. 28 “preemptive strike” against Iran, with a state of emergency declared across Israel.

Iran has retaliated with counterstrikes, targeting Israel and several U.S.-interest locations across a number of Middle East nations.

Casualties on all sides – including countries caught in the crossfire – are still being assessed amid the ongoing exchanges.

Iran’s foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, claimed that a girls’ school in Minab was bombed in the U.S.-Israeli air assault and showed a photo.

“Dozens of innocent children have been murdered at this site alone,” he said. “These crimes against the Iranian People will not go unanswered.”

U.N. Secretary General António Guterres begged “all parties to return immediately to the negotiating table,” warning “the alternative is a potential wider conflict with grave consequences for civilians and regional stability.”

On March 1, Pope Leo XVI spoke out in the Sunday Angelus at St. Peter’s Square telling the warring parties they had a “moral responsibility” to end the fighting and return to diplomacy before the violence led to an “irreparable abyss.”

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, warned, “We are faced with the possibility of a tragedy of immense proportions.”

Bishop Aldo Berardi, apostolic vicar of northern Arabia issued a Feb. 28 statement on Facebook, urging the faithful “to remain calm, united in prayer, and attentive to the safety of everyone.”

“Please follow carefully the instructions of civil authorities and take all necessary precautions,” said Bishop Berardi.

“Let us remain united in faith and charity, caring especially for the elderly, the sick, and the vulnerable,” said Bishop Berardi. “May Our Lady of Arabia, our mother, watch over us all.”

Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar M. Warda of Irbil, Iraq, told OSV News March 2 he “could see the whole scene” of nearby missile attacks by Iran on a U.S. military base near the Irbil airport.

“The missiles … the noise and the bombing,” he said. “You can imagine the fear and horror.”

“Prayer is the only hope we have,” he said.

In Israel, Benedictine Father Nikodemus Schnabel – abbot of Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion in the heart of Jerusalem and of Tabgha, the community’s priory on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee – sheltered with some 60 pilgrims at Tabgha, the revered site of Jesus Christ’s multiplication of the loaves and fishes.

“It was always in the air that … something could happen,” he explained.

He said their international group had been in the shelter for two hours, describing the time – which video obtained by OSV News showed the pilgrims praying and singing – as unifying amid the attacks.

“It was a good experience. We don’t know each other, but then we sing songs in different languages. We pray together,” he explained.

He said the experience was an example of Benedictine hospitality.

“Very often I say, ‘I want that our two monasteries are two islands of hope in an ocean of suffering,’” said Father Schnabel. “And this was exactly the feeling. We were also today an island of hope in an ocean of suffering.”

Jesuit Father John Paul, rector of the Tantur Ecumenical Institute – located between Bethlehem and Jerusalem – told OSV News he believed “Jerusalem is not a target area.”

The priest, whose institute is staffed by both Palestinians and Israelis, pointed to the sorrow evoked by the strikes, which follow the Israel-Hamas war and ongoing tensions between Israel and Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

“Overall, with local Palestinians” there is “a feeling of real sadness – my guess is with Israelis as well,” said Father John Paul.

Father Schnabel said the pilgrims at Tagbha were praying for all affected.

“We pray for the others … So let’s pray for the people in Iran. Let’s pray for the people in Israel. Let’s pray for the people in Palestine. Let’s pray for the people in the region who are facing this situation,” he said.

(Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Paulina Guzik, international editor of OSV News, contributed to this report.)

Briefs

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NATION
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (OSV News) – St. Mary Parish School in Sacramento averted a possible mass shooting during an Ash Wednesday school liturgy, thanks to the quick intervention of an off-duty law enforcement officer and school parent who detained an armed former student attempting to enter the church. The suspect, 20-year-old Brian Richard Girardot Jr., now faces a federal charge of possessing a firearm within a school zone. School principal Amy Hale credits parent volunteers serving as safety monitors for preventing what could have been a tragedy. The Feb. 18 incident comes some six months after the deadly shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis during a school liturgy. A police search of Girardot’s car and home turned up several more weapons and a profanity-laced suicide note that named three relatives as the reason for his potential attack. “Thanks to the vigilance and professionalism of our parent volunteers, our children remained safely inside the church for the duration of Mass and a potential crisis was averted,” Hale said in a Feb. 18 statement posted to the school’s Facebook page. “No students came into contact with the man, and were unaware of the situation happening outside. After Mass the children were escorted back to class.”

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – A number of violent extremist groups, led by minors and young adults, are increasingly targeting kids online – in some cases, with deadly results. And as federal officials, counterterrorism experts and child advocates sound the alarm, parents need to take action amid the “growing problem,” a scholar at a Catholic university told OSV News. “There is a naive view of the dangers that are currently online,” said Mary Graw Leary, professor of law at the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America. Leary, a former federal prosecutor and an expert on technology and victimization, said that despite ongoing efforts to protect children and youth in the digital space, “we see law enforcement issuing more and more warnings” – especially about 764, a loosely affiliated network of online communities that prey on vulnerable youth. The group coerces them to produce sexually explicit material, and then blackmailing them to harm themselves as well as others, even beloved family pets. Deemed a terrorist organization by Canada, 764 is gaining increased scrutiny by U.S. federal and state authorities. Leary said that while children and vulnerable persons have throughout history been at risk of abuse and exploitation, groups such as 764 show that “the internet provides access to large groups of victims” for predators. Leary said the internet and such deviant subgroups “provide affinity and normalization” for the worst of human behavior. “We’ve got people supporting each other’s perverse, violent proclivities in a way that we didn’t see before,” she said. “These channels are fueling this in a way that didn’t exist.”

VATICAN
ROME (CNS) – Pope Leo XIV will travel to six countries over the next four months, including a 10-day tour of Africa and trips to Monaco and Spain, the Vatican announced Feb. 25. His first stop will be Monaco on March 28 – the first papal visit there in the modern era. Then, from April 13 to 23, he’ll travel to Algeria, Cameroon, Angola and Equatorial Guinea, marking his first visit to Africa as pope. The Vatican said peace and care for the poor will be key themes of the trip. In Algeria, he hopes to visit sites linked to St. Augustine and to “continue the conversation of dialogue, of building bridges between the Christian world and the Muslim world.” And, in Cameroon, he’ll enter a region scarred by separatist violence. In June, Pope Leo heads to Spain, where he is expected to inaugurate the tallest tower of Barcelona’s Sagrada Família and visit the Canary Islands. With expected stops in Tenerife and Gran Canaria, the Canary Islands visit could draw attention to the migration issue. The Atlantic archipelago, situated off the northwest coast of Africa, is one of Europe’s main entry points for migrants crossing from Africa.

ROME (OSV News) – A Synod on Synodality study group has recommended the creation of a new “Pontifical Commission for Digital Culture and New Technologies” in the first of 15 synod study group reports expected in the coming weeks. The Vatican published the first two final reports from its Synod on Synodality study groups on March 3. The first report contains recommendations on navigating the Church’s presence in digital spaces. The second report focuses on guidelines for the formation of future priests and includes a call for more women to play a role in aiding the formation of seminarians for the priesthood. The report also lists 26 real world examples of “best practices” from seminaries around the world. Among those highlighted: a program in eight U.S. dioceses focused on healing wounds caused by the excessive use of technology and family breakdown, centered on an eight-day silent retreat and a small-group chastity program; and a Nigerian seminary that requires seminarians to perform all maintenance work and cleaning of their seminary building to “experience the dignity of human labor.” The General Secretariat of the Synod will publish 13 more study group final reports, according to its website.

This is a poster from “No Priests Left,” a short-film documentary series produced by “A Faith Under Siege” that documents the persecution of Catholics in Russian-occupied Ukraine. (OSV News photo/courtesy A Faith Under Siege)

WORLD
WASHINGTON (OSV News) – As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine reaches the four-year mark, the recently released documentary “No Priests Left,” available on YouTube, shows the ravages of the aggression on Ukraine’s Catholic communities. In the occupied regions, Russian officials have driven out all Catholic clergy. Torture, imprisonment, and killing of clergy by Russian forces has been documented, with some 700 houses of worship damaged or destroyed. Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest Father Oleksandr Bohomaz, who appears in the film, described the repression of the Church in eastern Ukraine after Russian forces launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. “Priests and pastors were arrested. They were interrogated. They were beaten. They were held in … torture chambers,” said Father Bohomaz, who was forcibly deported from Russian-occupied Melitopol in December 2022. Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia, who appears in the film, told OSV News that “global, particularly American, awareness, prayer and action are crucial” to prevent further atrocities. He encouraged “all bishops and priests” to show “No Priests Left” to the faithful. Everyone who does see the film “cannot but be mobilized to prayer and action,” he said. Archbishop Gudziak stressed that it was crucial “as human beings and as Christians” for people of goodwill “to see what has happened, to realize the biblical nature of this war, and to do everything we can spiritually, socially, or politically to help the innocent victims.”

Miami clergy, staff accompany aid to Cuba for ongoing recovery from Hurricane Melissa

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By Tom Tracy / Florida Catholic , OSV News

MIAMI (OSV News) — Representatives and clergy of the Archdiocese of Miami recently accompanied a series of ongoing humanitarian relief shipments to Cuba following last year’s Hurricane Melissa.

The new airlifts of foodstuffs and hygiene supplies were approved by the U.S. and Cuban governments this year and amount to some $3 million in aid to mostly eastern Cuban communities impacted by the Category 5 hurricane in 2025.

The hurricane made landfall on Oct. 28 in Jamaica as a Category 5 storm before passing over the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba. Dozens were killed, mostly in Jamaica and Haiti.

But Cuba’s weakening economic situation prompted action from a small group of donors through Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami.

A man throws trash on a street in downtown Havana Feb. 15, 2026. Amid fuel shortages, garbage is not picked up in Cuba’s capital. Representatives and clergy of the Archdiocese of Miami accompanied a series of ongoing humanitarian relief shipments to Cuba Jan. 28, following last year’s hurricane. (OSV News photo/Norlys Perez, Reuters)

Those local efforts at the end of last year were extended in 2026 through a $3 million governmental partnership with Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. Church’s overseas relief and development agency. The partnership marks a return of the Baltimore-based agency to Cuba for the first time in a decade.

The Catholic Church in Cuba, through its regional dioceses, has been entrusted with overseeing the distribution of the aid to ensure that it benefits those most in need in the communist nation, according to Peter Routsis-Arroyo, CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami.

“Caritas Cuba along with priests, staff and volunteers from the parishes in the four dioceses impacted by Hurricane Melisssa continue to distribute the humanitarian assistance provided by CRS using a needs-based criteria,” Routsis-Arroyo said.

“The newest obstacle is the fuel shortage that will make the distribution more challenging,” he said Feb. 21. “It is also making garbage pickup throughout the region almost nonexistent which could lead to the spread of more diseases.”

In November, Routsis-Arroyo and two other archdiocesan representatives traveled to Cuba to accompany the third of four shipments, which departed from Miami International Airport and arrived at Antonio Maceo International Airport in Santiago, Cuba.

On Jan. 28, Father Jose Espino, rector of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in Miami, and Sister Eva Perez-Puelles from the Daughters of Charity in Miami accompanied a new airlift of aid to Santiago, Cuba. Father Elvis Gonzalez, pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Miami and Father Esney Munoz Diaz, of the same parish, oversaw an air delivery the following day to the Holguín region.

“They are met by a bishop or a representative from Caritas Cuba, making sure these supplies get into the correct hands,” Routsis-Arroyo said, adding that the Jan. 28 flight included 648 food kits, along with 510 hygiene kits, for example.

“Caritas Cuba needs-based criteria for dispensing the aid, with single mothers, senior citizens and people with disabilities and reduced mobility taking priority,” he added, noting that a hurricane appeal in the Miami Archdiocese last year provided an initial $400,000 in hurricane relief to the island following Hurricane Melissa.

“The difference now is that this new aid is part of the $3 million the U.S. government allowed to be used as part of a pledge to help Cuba,” Routsis-Arroyo said, noting that he met on Jan. 28 with Miami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski to discuss the operation.

“We (in the Miami Archdiocese) are trying to help and complement those efforts, we will continue our own relationships and efforts with Cuba.”

This is not the first time aid has been sent to Cuba. Archbishop Wenski explained to the Florida Catholic in December that it is “something that we’ve been doing for a long time.” “In the last five years, we’ve probably sent 45 containers to Cuba to help dioceses and religious communities in their work with the poor, especially elderly people,” he said.

Archbishop Wenski also organized a campaign in 1996, when he was the director of Catholic Charities of Miami, to collect food after Hurricane Lili struck Cuba. “We were able to send that food on two plane loads,” he said.

That shipment was made possible thanks to the relationship he had developed with the director of Caritas Cuba.

Santiago in the eastern part of Cuba is where the hurricane had the greatest impact. The humanitarian relief effort in Cuba aims to assist people in the Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba and the Guantanamo-Baracoa, Holguín and Bayamo-Manzanillo dioceses.

The U.S. State Department has said the food kits include supplies such as rice, beans, oil and sugar. The assistance will also include water purification tablets and storage containers, as well as household essentials like pots and pans, along with sheets, blankets and solar lanterns.
Last year, the Trump administration moved to dissolve the U.S. Agency for International Development, placing some of its remaining functions under the purview of the State Department.

Cuts to funding for the government’s now-shuttered humanitarian aid agency in countries all over the globe included funding for some efforts by Catholic and other faith-based humanitarian groups including CRS.

Robyn Fieser, media relations manager for CRS, said in a statement, “Following Hurricane Melissa, we are supporting the delivery of emergency supplies to families in Cuba with funding from the U.S. government, working in coordination with the Catholic Church, a longstanding and trusted partner in reaching communities during times of crisis.”

Archbishop Wenski said this new project with Cuba serves as an opportunity for the U.S. government to rebuild some of its coordination with CRS. “I think (U.S. Secretary of State) Marco Rubio was very wise in rebuilding that relationship,” the archbishop told the Florida Catholic, the archdiocesan news outlet.

“CRS is back helping Cuba and hopefully this opens funds and provides assistance to Cubans, because that is the only thing that is reaching Cubans right now,” the archbishop added.

How the Triduum can strengthen your love for the Eucharist

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By Christopher Carstens

(OSV News) — Is the Eucharist alive in your life? If not, would you like it to be?

The celebrations of the sacred Paschal Triduum are a great place to start.

Holy Thursday

The Paschal Triduum begins with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday launches the Paschal Triduum. “Paschal” derives from the Hebrew word pascha, to “pass over” or “pass through.” “Triduum” means “three days,” or at least 72 hours — from the evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper to vespers on Easter Sunday. Together, the Paschal Triduum’s liturgies present the three days of Jesus’ salvific work of reconnecting — or bridging — heaven and earth so that we, the baptized, might pass over to heaven with him.

The work of bridge-building is pontifical. A “pontifex” is one who builds a bridge. A priest in ancient, pre-Christian Rome was called a pontifex since he stood in the breach that separated gods from men and attempted to effect a reconciliation between them. But these priests (like many other pre-Christian priests) were only shadows and anticipations of the Pontifex Maximus — Christ — that greatest of all bridge builders to come. Holy Thursday commences Jesus’ great bridge-building project.

Normally, the chrism Mass is celebrated in dioceses around the world on this day. In addition to blessing the holy oils and consecrating the sacred chrism, this Mass gathers priests — both ordained and baptized — around the high priest par excellence, the diocesan bishop. Following his homily, the bishop asks all of the faithful to pray for their priests, but not before these men renew their own priestly promises. His invitation to do so describes Holy Thursday as “the anniversary of that day when Christ our Lord conferred his priesthood on his apostles and on us.”

Holy Thursday, as his words indicate, is an anniversary of the priesthood, for on this day in the Upper Room, the priesthood of the New Covenant — that of Jesus and of his apostles — was actualized.

But, if the priesthood is born on Holy Thursday, so is its “twin” — the Eucharist. Also called the “natalis calicis” or “birthday of the chalice,” Holy Thursday supplies the material that priests need in order to build bridges: the offering, oblation or sacrifice. Priests need sacrifices — and sacrifices need priests: You can’t have one without the other.

The first reading from the Mass of the Lord’s Supper recounts God’s instructions to Moses and the Israelites about that first Passover offering: Unleavened bread is eaten along with a year-old, unblemished lamb whose blood, marking the houses, ransoms their firstborn sons. Each ancient detail finds fulfillment in Christ: the true bread from heaven, the Lamb of God, the Father’s only begotten Son. When the Church celebrates Mass today — when it obeys Christ’s command to “do this in memory of me” — that same Son, the Lamb, lives under the appearances of bread and wine.

The Church offers us another Eucharistic insight about the sacrifice during its preparation of the gifts and altar at this evening Mass. First, in one of the only occasions when the Missal names (and prints) a particular song for the offertory procession, the Church puts on our singing lips the “Ubi Caritas”: “Where charity and love prevail.” The verses of this eighth-century hymn sing of the unity in love that should characterize Christian believers: “let us strive to keep our minds free of division; may there be an end to malice, strife and quarrels, and let Christ our God be dwelling here among us.” Our offering, then, is not merely to supply material for the Eucharistic Body of Christ, but it is meant to unify “in charity and love” the mystical body of Christ.

To emphasize the connection between Eucharist and Church, the offertory procession on this night allows “gifts for the poor (to) be presented with the bread and wine.” What’s more, on this “birthday of the chalice,” the Church suggests that “during Communion, the priest entrusts the Eucharist from the table of the altar to deacons or acolytes or other extraordinary ministers, so that afterwards it may be brought to the sick who are to receive holy Communion at home.” In short, the body of Christ that is the sacrament gives life to the body of Christ, which is also the Church.

What, then, does Holy Thursday teach us — and form within us — about the Blessed Sacrament? That the Eucharistic mystery gives life and purpose not only to the priesthood but to the entire Church and its members.

Father Gerard Quirke, a priest of the Archdiocese of Tuam, raises the chalice during Easter Mass at Rock overlooking Keem Bay on Ireland’s Achill Island April 4, 2021. (OSV News photo/Seán Molloy, courtesy Irish Catholic)

Friday of the Passion of the Lord

Good Friday also teaches Eucharistic lessons, albeit in a different way than Holy Thursday’s Mass of the Lord’s Supper — or any other Mass. In fact, there is no Mass at all to be found on Good Friday but, rather, a liturgy commemorating Christ’s passion and cross.

When we consider Christ’s cross as a tree, as the tradition does, then Eucharistic truths will bear fruit in our souls. In some fashion, the entire history of salvation tells a story of trees. In the beginning, at the center of Eden’s garden, stood a “tree of life” from which our first parents were welcome to eat from at their pleasure and, by it, come into closer union with God’s own divine life. At the end of time, in heaven, the Lord promises that he will give “the victor” the “right to eat from the tree of life that is in the garden of God” (Rv 2:7). Standing between these two “trees of life” rises the adorable cross of Christ, arms extended back to the beginning and forward to the end, embracing all things beneath its boughs.

Part of the beauty of Good Friday’s Tree of Life is found in its fruit. Jesus himself says as much: Every tree is known by its fruit (cf. Lk 6:44). The saints found much food for thought in such an image.

The eighth-century monk St. Theodore the Studite observes, “The fruit of this tree is not death but life, not darkness but light. This tree does not cast us out of paradise, but opens the way for our return. … A tree once caused our death, but now a tree brings life. Once deceived by a tree, we have now repelled the cunning serpent by a tree. What an astonishing transformation!” The cross of Christ, the true Tree of Life, reverses the world’s downward spiral to death and redirects it to the heights of heaven.

St. Albert the Great would say much the same in the 13th century: Christ “could not have commanded anything more beneficial, for (the Eucharist) is the fruit of the tree of life. Anyone who receives this sacrament with the devotion of sincere faith will never taste death.”

Ever since he first tasted the forbidden fruit, man has had a kind of supernatural eating disorder. Part of his healing will be a spiritual diet of supernatural substance: the body and blood of Christ, served up for us on the cross. Good Friday makes this dimension of the Eucharistic mystery palatable for us.

The Easter Vigil

Surely, there is no more remarkable celebration throughout the entire Church year than the Easter Vigil. The blackness of night, the magnificent illumination of the Easter fire, the grand procession into the church are just a prelude to the poetry of the Exsultet and the long recounting of salvation history in the many readings. But these words, too, lead to the evening’s main event: the initiation of souls into the full communion of the Church.

For some, baptism will be the doorway through which they pass into the Church. For others, a profession of faith and being confirmed by sacred chrism will mark their entry. For both, the first reception of the Eucharist will make their initiation complete.

We saw how Holy Thursday’s Mass of the Lord’s Supper included gifts for the poor along with the bread and wine for the Mass. While the instructions for the offertory procession at the Easter Vigil don’t speak of unique gifts, they do enlist the service of the Church’s newly baptized priests. (Recall that through baptism, all the faithful share in Christ’s priesthood.)

“It is desirable,” the rubric says, “that the bread and wine be brought forward by the newly baptized or, if they are children, by their parents or godparents.” Part of the insight behind this ritual action was seen above: Priests — even among the baptized — offer sacrifices, and sacrifices are given to God through the consecrated hands of priests. But a potentially obscure figure mentioned in the First Eucharistic Prayer — “Abel the Just” — gives us even greater awareness of what’s happening at this moment.

Cain and Abel, the sons of Adam and Eve, both offered gifts to God — Cain, the yield of his harvest, and Abel, a firstling from the flock (cf. Gn 4:4) — but only Abel’s was found acceptable. Why was this the case? We’ve seen before how God’s design favored the firstborn son as well as fruits of the springtime harvest — both of which Cain could claim. Yet there was something more meaningful in Abel’s offering — namely, his best.

Abel is called “the just.” Justice is a virtue that renders another his due. When it comes to what we owe God, there is nothing we can offer to commensurate his greatness and for the good things he has given us — which is everything! “How can I repay the Lord for all the great good done for me?” the psalmist asks (116:12). Answer: We can’t. But we can give our best, because our best is what God deserves as a matter of justice.

St. Cyprian explains: “When Cain and Abel first offered their sacrifices, God considered not so much the gifts as the spirit of the giver: God was pleased with Abel’s offering because he was pleased with his spirit. Thus, Abel the just man, the peacemaker, in his blameless sacrifice taught men that when they offer their gift at the altar they should approach as he did, in the fear of God, simplicity of heart, ruled by justice and peaceful harmony. Since this was the character of Abel’s offering, it was only right that he himself should afterward become a sacrifice.”

Abel thus stands as a model for the neophyte’s first Mass as a Catholic receiving first Communion. Abel also lives on as a reminder to each of us who has been to Mass many times and already received our first Communion. At every Mass, we are called to give to God our best, in simplicity of heart, joining our entire selves to Christ in the Eucharistic sacrifice.

Jesus’ Paschal sacrifice is made really, truly present before our praying eyes on the altar at every Mass. And even after Mass, his body, blood, soul and divinity remain in our midst in the tabernacle. The Triduum attunes us to this reality each year.

(Christopher Carstens is director of the Office for Sacred Worship in the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and the author of “A Devotional Journey into the Easter Mystery.”)

What Palm Sunday means

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By D.D. Emmons , OSV News

(OSV News) — It is a time of despair, perplexity and contradiction. The very people who applaud Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem that morning, shouting out “Hosanna” and words of adoration will, within a week, be crying, “Crucify him.” They will go from acclaiming him as the new King of Israel to urging his life be traded in favor of a convicted criminal; they will first praise him and then mock him. Even friends entering Jerusalem at his side will desert Jesus.

All this discord will take place during one week beginning on what we call Palm Sunday.

Christians carry palm branches in 2017 while walking the traditional path that Jesus took on his last entry into Jerusalem during the Palm Sunday procession on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. (OSV News photo/Debbie Hill)

As we read in the Gospels, Jesus went to Jerusalem to join with throngs of other Jews to celebrate the Passover feast as had been prescribed in the Old Testament books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. According to the Gospel of St. John, Jesus and many of his followers journeyed the less than two miles from Bethany on that Sunday, arriving outside Jerusalem. As was the custom, pilgrims that had already arrived in the city went out to greet newly arriving groups; some had never seen Jesus but had heard about the miracles attributed to him and were caught up in the excitement.

Those arriving with and greeting Jesus were large in number as explained by John’s Gospel: “When the great crowd … heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches and went out to meet him, and cried out: ‘Hosanna! / Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, (even) the king of Israel'” (12:12-13).

This adulation was not lost on the Pharisees who were present. They said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He said in reply, “I tell you, if they keep silent, the stones will cry out” (see Lk 19:39-40). The Pharisees reported the events back to the Jewish high council, the Sanhedrin, which regarded Jesus’ ever growing popularity as a threat to their cozy relationship with the Romans. They were, in fact, planning to murder him.

Previously, Our Lord had deliberately avoided popular acclaim, even fled, but this, upon entering Jerusalem, he accepts. Yet his actions are different than the people expected. He doesn’t present himself as a rival to Caesar; he is not the political messiah or the warrior king the multitude had clamored for. Instead of entering Jerusalem on a war horse or chariot, he enters on a donkey, a sign of peace; and not just any donkey, but one on which no one had ever sat, the prerogative of a king. Seeing him on the donkey, the Jews surging around him recalled the words of the Prophet Zechariah 500 years earlier:

“Exult greatly, O daughter Zion! / Shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem! / Behold: your king is coming to you; /a just savior is he, / Humble, and riding on a donkey, / on a colt, the foal of a donkey. / He shall banish the chariot from Ephraim / and the horse from Jerusalem” (Zec 9:9-10).

Pope Benedict XVI explained these Old Testament words as they related to Jesus: “He is a king who destroys the weapons of war, a king of peace and a king of simplicity, a king of the poor. … Jesus is not building on violence; he is not instigating a military revolt against Rome.”

Riding on the borrowed donkey, Jesus made his humble entrance into the city while the crowds were scattering their garments before him and waving their palm branches. This joyful scene belies the traitorous acts, sorrow and agony that will soon follow, belies that this triumphant hero will be crucified like a criminal.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) offered a homily about Christ’s entry into Jerusalem: “How different the cries, ‘Away with him, away with him, crucify him,’ and then, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, hosanna, in the highest!’ How different the cries are that now are calling him ‘King of Israel’ and then in a few days’ time will be saying, ‘We have no king but Caesar!’ What a contrast between the green branches and the cross, between the flowers and the thorns! Before they were offering their own clothes for him to walk upon, and so soon afterwards they are stripping him of his, and casting lots upon them.”

Palms were symbols of life among the nomadic tribes, who, when crossing the desert, rejoiced at seeing the palm tree as it indicated an oasis with life-giving water was near. Palms have long been a sign of victory, success and glory. Victorious armies or leaders returning from the battlefield or a long military campaign were welcomed by the populace jubilantly waving palm branches. Despite Jesus’ peaceful manner, when the Jews waved the palms at him and spread their clothing over which he rode, they were affording him the honors of a conquering hero and simultaneously defying the Roman occupiers.

On Palm Sunday, we still go out to meet him, carry the blessed palms, joyfully sing out our hosanna and join in his triumphant entrance into Jerusalem. But soon our joy turns to somberness as, clutching our palm, we hear the narrative of Christ’s passion. We realize, once again, that his triumph, his true victory, will come through the cross. We know, as Jesus did, how Holy Week will end. We know that joy will turn to sorrow and back to joy. We know that through the horror of his suffering, followed by the glory of his resurrection, good will trump evil and life will trump death.

The palms we take home and put in a special place serve to remind us that Palm Sunday is not lost to the ages but that by Christ’s victory we, too, can achieve everlasting life.

Soon after the Resurrection, Christians wanted to visit the sites of Christ’s passion and even reenact the incidents that had taken place, such as his entry into Jerusalem. But such activity would not be possible until the fourth century when Constantine became emperor of the Roman Empire and ended all religious persecution. Later in that century, a Spanish pilgrim named Eigera visited Jerusalem. In her diary, she recorded how Christians re-created the events of Holy Week. She wrote that they gathered outside the city on the Sunday before Easter and listened to one of the Gospels telling of Christ’s triumphant entrance into Jerusalem. Then they marched together through the city gates while carrying olive or palm branches. Our Palm Sunday processions are akin to what Eigera witnessed 17 centuries ago.

By the ninth century, the procession with blessed palms had expanded beyond Jerusalem, and during the Middle Ages they became widespread throughout Europe. In the 17th century, Christians were not only processing into church with palms but, during Mass, holding the palms while the Passion was being read.

Through the centuries, Palm Sunday and the procession of people holding palms would be celebrated in a variety of ways. In some locations the Blessed Sacrament was part of the procession, in other places the congregation started in the parish cemetery and then went into the church. Palms were sometimes blessed in one church and the people, carrying the palms, marched to another church for Mass. Most typical was the blessing of the people and the palms at a place outside the church and then processing in. For some time, even through the middle of the 20th century, the priest wore red vestments during the palm blessing and procession and then changed to a violet garment for Mass.

In 1955, the Church standardized and simplified the different entrances used on Palm Sunday: either an organized procession that begins somewhere outside the church, a solemn procession starting inside the church, or no procession at all. An entrance procession beginning at a location outside the church is used only once during the weekend Masses; it is not repeated at every Mass. The church calls this day Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord.

(D.D. Emmons writes from Pennsylvania.)

Briefs

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People pray during a Mass at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis Feb. 1, 2026, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the church being named a minor basilica by Pope Pius XI. Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis was the main celebrant. (OSV News photo/Dave Hrbacek, The Catholic Spirit)

NATION
MINNEAPOLIS (OSV News) – A century ago, Pope Pius XI granted a grand Minneapolis church dedicated to the Immaculate Conception the title of “basilica.” It was the first church in the United States to receive the designation. To mark the anniversary, Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda celebrated a Feb. 1 Mass that included a reading of the 1926 proclamation, a centennial letter from Pope Leo XIV, and the introduction of a processional hymn commissioned for the event. In 1926, the Holy Father conferred on the Pro-Cathedral of St. Mary the title minor basilica “by reason of the piety of its worshippers as well as by the splendor of its ritual and the richness of its adornment,” according to the basilica’s website. Currently there are 94 minor basilicas in the United States and more than 1,700 worldwide, in addition to four major basilicas in Rome and the Vatican. Among the privileges of the basilica designation is an attachment to the papal household and the right to use the papal coat of arms. In 1966, St. Paul VI changed the name of the Archdiocese of St. Paul to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and elevated the Basilica of St. Mary to the archdiocese’s co-cathedral.

VATICAN
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Leo XIV has added the feast day of St. John Henry Newman, who is “a radiant light for the Church on pilgrimage through history,” to the General Roman Calendar so that “his Optional Memorial be celebrated by all on 9 October.” Cardinal Arthur Roche and Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, respectively prefect and secretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, announced the pope’s decision in a decree published by the Vatican Feb. 3. Cardinal Roche said the inclusion of St. Newman in the General Roman Calendar “is intended to present his figure as an outstanding example of the constant search for the truth that enlightens and saves” and to help the faithful contemplate him “as a man led by the ‘kindly light’ of God’s grace to find peace within the Catholic Church.” Bishops’ conferences around the world will need to translate from Latin the prayers issued by the dicastery for Mass on his feast day as well as those used in the Liturgy of the Hours and in the Roman Martyrology, and have the translations confirmed by the dicastery.

WORLD
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (OSV News) – Nicaragua’s Sandinista regime has blocked a Catholic diocese from carrying out door-to-door evangelization, ordering all pastoral activity to remain inside parish grounds. The restriction affected the Diocese of León, where parishioners planned missions on Jan. 24, according to exiled lawyer Martha Patricia Molina, who documents religious persecution in the country. The move is the latest in a sweeping crackdown on the Catholic Church that intensified after the bishops mediated – and later withdrew from – talks following anti-government protests in 2018. Since then, at least 305 clergy and religious, including four bishops, have been forced into exile, and more than 5,000 Catholic charities, schools, and religious groups have lost legal status. While some religious orders have quietly left the country, the government continues to detain clergy and restrict ministry. Church leaders and human rights monitors say recent prisoner releases are strategic gestures, not signs of real religious freedom. Exiled Auxiliary Bishop Silvio José Baez of Managua spoke of freedom and democracy “coming increasingly closer” in Latin America. He said in his Jan. 25 homily at St. Agatha’s parish in Miami that it’s “time to speak to illuminate the darkness of the moment, feed the hope of the people and denounce the oppressive structures that have prevailed until now, but that are about to disappear.”