OSV News

"As Jesus walks the Way of the Cross, we place ourselves behind him, following in his footsteps," Pope Leo XIV said.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, and Fr. Francesco Ielpo, the custos of the Holy Land, were prevented from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher by Israeli police on Palm Sunday, the Latin patriarchate said.

"The joy and the strength of our witness come from redemption, in every place and at every time," he said. 

On March 25 the Archdiocese of Denver welcomed its ninth bishop and sixth archbishop, Archbishop James R. Golka, amid the devoted prayers and ecstatic applause of thousands gathered at the CoBank Arena at the National Western Complex in Denver.

Pope Leo XIV offered prayers and encouragement as Archbishop Sarah Mullally began her ministry as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury and the first woman to lead the Anglican Communion. 

The Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has released a new document describing the "Anglican heritage" of the Catholic Church's personal ordinariates as a permanent reality that makes a "distinctive contribution" to the Church's evangelizing mission.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments March 24 in a case concerning reimplementing a policy that would block asylum-seekers from setting foot on U.S. soil, where federal law would then allow them to seek asylum.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen will be beatified on Sept. 24 in St. Louis, the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints announced March 25.

Those and other insights on the nation's adult Catholics were shared by researcher Mark Gray in a March 23 analysis posted to Nineteen Sixty-four, the blog of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

In a pastoral letter published March 19, Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp wrote that the question is "no longer whether" married men can be ordained, but "when" and "who will do it."

In 2023, following a major television documentary claiming that St. John Paul II had covered up clerical sexual abuse when he was leading the Archdiocese of Kraków, Polish experts rejected the claim and urged that archdiocesan records be opened to allow the full context.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said wartime restrictions have forced the cancellation or postponement of key Holy Week observances, urging the faithful to remain united in prayer despite the inability to gather for traditional celebrations.

Chairmen of several U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops committees wrote in a letter to key House lawmakers that they support a bill that would establish an effort to investigate and document the histories and practices of Indian boarding schools, and their long-term effects on Native American peoples.

The bishops of the Eastern Catholic Churches in the U.S. have issued "a cry for peace and justice," as they are "anguished" by atrocities and suffering in the nations where their respective communities originated.

Catholic dioceses and organizations are canceling events and rethinking initiatives honoring the late civil rights icon César Chávez, following newly reported allegations the activist — who publicly drew on his Catholic faith in his work — sexually abused several women and girls.

Pope Leo XIV declared Fr. Edward Flanagan, the founder of Boys Town, venerable on March 23, recognizing his heroic virtue and moving him one step closer to sainthood.

As the U.S. and Israel-Iran war enters its fourth week, and amid a deep humanitarian crisis throughout the region, Pope Leo XIV appealed during his Sunday Angelus prayer March 22: "Persevere in prayer, so that hostilities may cease and paths of peace may finally open up, based on sincere dialogue and respect for the dignity of every human person."

It seems that there has been a "renewed search for God in a world where many people are longing for hope, love and peace," said Denise Contino, director of the diocese's Department of Catechesis.

Israeli authorities closed Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher as part of wider closures for security concerns, beginning Feb. 28, when Israel and the United States launched attacks against Iran.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., defended the role of religion in public life during comments March 19 at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington.