Saint Joseph Catholic Church

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Auxiliary Bishop Marc Trudeau of Los Angeles celebrated a Mass of reparation at Holy Innocents School in Long Beach, California, on February 3, a day after school officials discovered that the school had been ransacked and the tabernacle desecrated.

The priests of the parish also led a Eucharistic procession in the streets surrounding the school.

Pope Leo sent a message to the Latin-rite Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CBCI) as it held a one-day meeting on February 3.

Pope Leo “said the Latin Church in India is called to remain a living sign of Christian love,” according to the CBCI’s summary of the message. “Such love, he noted, breaks down barriers, brings people closer, unites strangers and reconciles enemies.”

Matteo Bruni, the director of the Holy See Press Office, told the National Catholic Register that “contacts between the Society of Saint Pius X and the Holy See are ongoing, with the aim of avoiding rifts or unilateral solutions to the issues that have arisen.”

Bruni made his statement on February 3, the day after the Society announced its plans to ordain new bishops on July 1 without Vatican approval.

The New York Times has published a laudatory profile of Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto, Nigeria, who ministers in an overwhelmingly Muslim region of Africa’s most populous nation.

“For months the bishop has been trying to tone down the fiery talk from Washington and certain quarters of Nigeria of what they called a Christian genocide in the country,” the Times reported. “Rather, he and many other Nigerians say, it is a complicated cycle of violence in a nation of some 240 million people that is evenly split between Muslims and Christians, and is victimizing both communities.”

While the prelate sees “clear signs” of the persecution of Christians, “the bishop points out that the targets of violence in Nigeria are not just Christians,” the report continued.

The Times reported that Bishop Kukah was “relieved” that the December US strikes on Islamic State militants in Nigeria targeted the “criminals causing the real problems in Nigeria”: that is, the “Islamist extremists in their hide-outs.”

At a February 3 appellate hearing in the Vatican’s “trial of the century,” a defense attorney argued that four secret decrees issued by Pope Francis granted “surreal carte blanche” to prosecutors and that the decrees’ secrecy was reminiscent of a fascist state.

“According to the defendants, those papal decrees undermined the rule of law in the Vatican City state because they were tailored to the individuals involved in the London investment,” RNS reported. Defense attorneys also “reiterated long-standing objections that evidence collected during the investigation was not fully disclosed.”

The Vatican has announced that a commemorative medal for the first year of Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate will go on sale on February 5.

The medal (image), the work of Amalia Mistichelli, recalls the 1700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, with Christ Pantocrator in the background, and words from St. John’s Gospel inscribed in Latin: “You, Father, in me, and I in you, that the world may believe.”

Archbishop Diego Ravelli, the Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations, has announced Pope Leo’s calendar of celebrations through Easter.

The calendar includes five pastoral visits to parishes in the Diocese of Rome, the customary procession and Mass of Ash Wednesday, and a full schedule for Holy Week and Easter, including Holy Thursday evening Mass in the Lateran Basilica, after a hiatus under Pope Francis.