For this year’s International Women’s Day, the global Catholic charity organization Caritas Internationalis has published a new booklet exploring the spiritual foundation of women’s leadership and giving voice to female protagonists around the world.
In remarks at the start of a visit to the United States, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, thanked church leaders for their support and expressed his belief that continued solidarity can carry Ukraine to victory over Russia.
Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, Sister Lucia Murashko has remained in Zaporizhzhia, a Ukrainian city about 40 miles from the front lines. Facing multiple opportunities, and even encouragement to leave, she said she stayed to respond to what God told her to do.
International Women’s Day, celebrated March 8 and honoring the achievements of women, is a national holiday in many countries.
Pope Francis’ calendar for Holy Week and Easter is just as full as in previous years despite a mild illness which has caused him to cancel meetings in the days leading up to the release of his liturgical calendar for March.
The day after Pope Francis paid a brief visit to Rome’s Gemelli Isola Hospital for “diagnostic tests,” he had a full morning of audiences, including a meeting with bishops from Italy’s Emilia Romagna region making their “ad limina” visits to the Vatican.
Arriving in a wheelchair instead of walking with his cane, Pope Francis began his weekly general audience by telling visitors and pilgrims, “I’m still a bit sick,” so an aide would read his prepared text.
During the evening Mass on Feb. 24, Father Felice Palamara, a parish priest in Cessaniti, a village in south Italy, found himself once again targeted by the ‘Ndrangheta, a notorious criminal organization operating primarily in Calabria, the southern region of Italy often referred to as the “toe.”
As the wave of violence torments gang-decimated Haiti, six male religious, a lay teacher and a priest were kidnapped in two separate incidents Feb. 23 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital.
At least 15 people were killed in an attack by gunmen on Catholics gathered for Sunday Mass in a Burkina Faso village Feb. 25, according to multiple news reports.
