Saint Joseph Catholic Church

commentary

Almost one in three pregnancies in the United Kingdom now ends in abortion, according to recently released statistics.

“Last month, after a mysterious eighteen-month delay, the U.K. government finally published the 2023 abortion figures for England and Wales,” Philippa Stroud, a member of the House of Lords, wrote in an article. “When adding in the numbers for the rest of the U.K., the figures revealed over 299,000 abortions took place across Britain in a single year, a new record.”

The Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, is preparing to receive 282 converts into the Church at Easter, up 47% from last year, and the highest number since 2014.

In 2021, 138 converts were received into the Church in the eastern Ohio diocese.

The US bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty issued its 2026 annual report, “The State of Religious Liberty in the United States.”

The report, released on February 17, identified “six areas of critical concern—threats and opportunities—for religious liberty in 2026”:

• Political and anti-religious violence
• Unjust terms and conditions on federal grants, and unreliability of government
• Access to sacraments for ICE detainees and immigration enforcement at houses of worship
• School choice and the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit
• Repeal of provisions that prevent religious organizations from participating in government programs
• Further repudiation of gender ideology

Msgr. Renzo Pegoraro, appointed president of the Pontifical Academy for Life last May, defended the academy’s focus on universal health care at its 2026 plenary assembly.

“The theme chosen for this year, Healthcare for All: Sustainability and Equity,” is consistent with “the work undertaken in recent years: the defense of life cannot be limited to the fundamental responsibilities that arise at its beginning and end, but requires an active and proactive presence, from prevention to treatment,” Msgr. Pegoraro said yesterday, in a text published by the Vatican newspaper.

“We live in a challenging historical moment, characterized by inequalities that are not diminished but are instead exacerbated by wars, environmental crises, and the growing difficulty of maintaining the level of essential services even in the most fortunate countries,” he added. “Sustainability and equity are not just two slogans. They are realities that must be carefully and precisely understood if we truly want no one to be excluded.”

Father Francesco Ielpo, OFM, the custos (Franciscan provincial) of the Holy Land, hailed the rebirth of faith in Syria, and especially in the nation’s Idlib Governorate.

Father Ielpo, who visited Syria from February 9-13, told Vatican News that “the greatest tragedy [Idlib families] say they have experienced is the forced expulsion of young people after the arrival of the jihadists. The elderly who remained confided in me: we were convinced we would die without seeing our children again. Instead, the fact that they returned was an indescribable joy for them.”

In Syria, churches “are filling up especially with young people,” he continued. “There are also children in catechism who want to start over. In short, on the one hand, there is a crisis that is also economic, with the cost of basic necessities having increased significantly, and on the other, there is the sense that a rebirth is underway.”

From February 22 to March 22, the remains of St. Francis will be exposed for veneration in the lower church of the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi.

Pope Leo has proclaimed a Year of Saint Francis in commemoration of the 800th anniversary of the saint’s death. Vatican News, the news agency of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, reported that the saint’s relics have not previously been exposed.

The Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) announced a Eucharistic chain of prayer for peace in the Holy Land, Ukraine, and around the world.

Bishops of each nation are assigned a different day during Lent to celebrate Masses for this intention, beginning on February 18 in Albania and concluding on April 2 in Hungary.

In a visit to the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital, the Secretary of State of His Holiness praised financial and organ donation.

Financial giving is “a silent yet immensely powerful language through which men and women express the best of themselves,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin said on February 17, as he recalled the widow’s mite.

In praising organ donation, Cardinal Parolin said that “human life is relationship and communion; in a donated body there beats a love that does not surrender to death.”

The head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church said that Ukraine is “currently experiencing a moment of true conversion,” a “moment of finding God and drawing closer to Him.”

Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, who has led the church since 2011, made his remarks in a lengthy recent interview with Ukrinform, the Ukrainian National News Agency. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has published an English translation of the interview.

Major Archbishop Shevchuk also praised Pope Leo’s approach to the war there, in comparison with Pope Francis’s, and added that many Ukrainians believe that the war will end if Pope Leo visits the nation.