Saint Joseph Catholic Church

The Focolare Movement‘s general assembly reelected Margaret Karram, its leader since 2021, to a second five-year term as president.

Bishop Antoni Dziemianko of Pinsk described the “forced departure” of Fathers Paweł Kruczek and Adam Straczyński as “very painful.”

Belarus, an Eastern European nation of 9.5 million (map), is 82% Christian (63% Orthodox, 17% Catholic). An autocratic president, Alexander Lukashenko, has led the nation since 1994.

The exorcists, according to a statement issued by the association, discussed “the painful and increasingly widespread situation of people seriously disturbed by the extraordinary action of the devil as a result of frequenting occult sects,” as well as “the great suffering that the extraordinary action of the devil entails for those who suffer it and the Church’s commitment to eliminate or at least to alleviate, in the name of Christ, this suffering, through the sacramental of exorcism.”

They also spoke about the importance of educating seminarians, “in the light of the Gospel and the ecclesiastical Magisterium, on the real existence and nature of the demonic world and on the way in which the Church faces extraordinary diabolical action”; “the need for one or more exorcist priests to be present in every diocese in the world”; and “the modalities of collaboration between exorcists and doctors/ psychiatrists/ psychologists.”

The exorcists added that they “learned with joy that the Holy Father in the past knew and esteemed Father Gabriele Amorth,” the association’s founder.

“There is also concern about Holy Week,” Bishop Aldo Berardi, O.SS.T., the vicar apostolic of Northern Arabia, told Agenzia Fides, the news agency of the Pontifical Mission Societies. “We have not yet received any instructions [from civil authorities] as to whether celebrations can be held or whether access will have to be restricted.”

“His Holiness encourages the participants to consider how mathematicians can be hopeful signs to the wider world,” Cardinal Parolin wrote in his March 13 message. “In this regard, an especially fruitful area of research is the use of algorithms, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence.”

“Such a task requires not just intellectual effort and ingenuity but an integral growth of the whole person, in order to encompass the moral dimension of these emerging technologies,” Cardinal Parolin added, as he recalled the Pontiff’s “own time as a teacher of mathematics and physics.”

Father Roberto Pasolini, the Preacher of the Papal Household, devoted his second weekly Lenten sermon to “Fraternity: The grace and responsibility of fraternal communion” (full text).