Saint Joseph Catholic Church

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The Holy See Press Office announced that Pope Leo XIV spoke by telephone on April 29 with António Costa, president of the European Council.

According to the statement, the parties discussed the Middle East, “with particular attention given to the West Bank in the State of Palestine and the situation of Christians in southern Lebanon,” and the Pope’s recent apostolic journey to Africa, “emphasizing the importance of interreligious dialogue, the promotion of peace and support for the continent’s most disadvantaged communities.”

Father Grzegorz Gawel, a Polish Carmelite friar imprisoned in Belarus, was among ten persons released in a ten-person prisoner exchange.

Father Gawel was detained in 2025 on espionage charges, according to Reform.news, which covers events in Belarus.

The 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.

A missionary priest in Bangladesh was attacked during the nighttime robbery of his parish in Dhaka, the nation’s capital and largest city.

Father Subash Gomes, O.M.I., was hospitalized, and his passport stolen.

The South Asian nation of 170 million (map)--the world’s eighth most populous—is 89% Muslim and 9% Hindu.

The Minerva Dialogues, an annual meeting organized by the Dicastery for Culture and Education, have built bridges between the Church and Silicon Valley over the past decade, The Atlantic reported.

“Last year, the influential futurist Jaron Lanier attended a Vatican conference on AI even though he disagrees with the Church on plenty of other issues,” according to the report. Lanier “left the discussion thinking that the Catholic understanding of the human person is ‘vastly, vastly, vastly more sane and reasonable’ than that of his Silicon Valley peers.”

The Diocese of St. Cloud has embarked upon the “most drastic reduction of Catholic parishes ever seen in Minnesota,” The Minnesota Star Tribune reported.

“Right now, all of our 131 parishes have Mass every weekend,” said Brenda Kresky, director of diocesan pastoral planning. “We’re reducing that by [about] a third and saying, even if you remain open, you won’t have Mass on the weekend.”

“We are resurrection people,” she added. “You have to go through Good Friday to get to the resurrection. You don’t get to skip Good Friday.”

The Diocese of St. Cloud has 131 parishes, 49 diocesan priests active in the diocese, 87 total diocesan priests, and 73 religious priests in the diocese, according to the 2025 edition of The Official Catholic Directory.

The officers of the Episcopal Conference of Colombia issued a statement decrying pre-election violence there.

“Any armed action that attacks the civilian population constitutes a grave offense against God and a rupture of the moral and social order,” said Archbishop Francisco Javier Múnera Correa, Archbishop Gabriel Ángel Villa Vahos, and Bishop Germán Medina Acosta. “Human life is sacred and must be protected under all circumstances.”

The prelates added, “In the name of God, we exhort those who promote and carry out violent actions to exercise restraint, to immediately cease every act that threatens life, to comply with the principles of international humanitarian law, and to treat the population with humanity.”

The bishop of Oakland, California, announced the closing of twelve parishes and a Korean pastoral center.

“I deeply understand the sacrifice this will require,” Bishop Michael Barber, S.J., wrote in his statement, entitled “Aligning our reality with our mission.”

“We cannot allow nostalgia and sentimentality to hold back the message of the Gospel,” he continued. “While we love our local church building, the church has never been solely a building ... The faith of our people will continue, just in a different place and with new people.”

The Diocese of Oakland has 82 parishes, 153 diocesan priests active in the diocese, 218 total diocesan priests, and 179 religious priests in the diocese, according to the 2025 edition of The Official Catholic Directory.

In a talk delivered at a Vatican conference on marriage formation, Cardinal Kevin Farrell spoke of steep declines in the number of infant baptisms and weddings worldwide over a 30-year period.

“The transmission of faith within families is weaker now than in the past,” said Cardinal Farrell, the prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life. “According to the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae 2021, between 1991 and 2021, the number of baptisms administered worldwide to children under the age of seven declined by 31.1%, and Catholic marriages by 48%.”

“Faced with these figures, we must not lose heart; rather, we must remain fully aware of them so as to transform this situation into an opportunity for ecclesial renewal,” he added.

The Diocese of Namur, Belgium, confirmed that the Vatican imposed disciplinary measures on a retired bishop in 2021 for mishandling an abuse case.

Bishop Rémy Vancottem, who governed the diocese from 2010 to 2019, is not permitted to celebrate Mass publicly or to participate in bodies of the episcopal conference.

The diocese statement followed the publication of an article in Humo, a Dutch-Belgian magazine.