Saint Joseph Catholic Church

Pope Leo XIV has issued his first Lenten message, entitled “Listening and Fasting: Lent as a Time of Conversion.”

“I had the opportunity to speak with him, and I can say in the conversation, you could see that this was a matter of great concern for him,” said Archbishop Sample.

Archbishop Sample, who chairs the US bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, also discussed the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in his archdiocese.

Agents “began showing up outside of churches and places of worship,” causing “a great deal of doubt and fear and anxiety among our people—people afraid to go to Mass,” the prelate told Catholic News Service, adding, “There has to be a more just, more humane, just a better way to go about this.”

“I know that Archbishop Hicks and I share a deep and abiding commitment to the dignity of every human being and look forward to working together to create a more just and compassionate city where every New Yorker can thrive,” Mayor Mamdani tweeted.

“Professor Ostermann’s extensive public advocacy of abortion rights and her disparaging and inflammatory remarks about those who uphold the dignity of human life from the moment of conception to natural death go against a core principle of justice that is central to Notre Dame’s Catholic identity and mission,” said Bishop Rhoades.

Other bishops have also criticized the appointment.

The Society of St. Pius X issued a statement following the February 12 meeting of its superior general, Father Davide Pagliarani, with Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF statement, English translation, CWN analysis).

“Among other topics, Leo XIV and Noel Díaz discussed migration in the United States and around the world, and the need to increasingly promote knowledge of the Word of God among the faithful,” according to Vatican News, the news agency of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication.

ESNE, a Catholic media network, is based in California and broadcasts in the United States, Latin America, and Spain.

The diocese announced that Pope Leo “will arrive at 4:00 PM and will immediately meet the catechism children and young people, a total of about 400 children, who will welcome him in the field behind the church. It will then be the turn of the elderly, the sick, the poor and Caritas volunteers (400 people in all), who will be waiting for him in the gym. Then at 5:00 PM, Pope Leo will preside over Holy Mass.”

The parish is entrusted to the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (Pallottines).

Cardinal Bo told Vatican media that the Southeast Asian nation is “going through a ‘polycrisis’: an economic crisis, with rising prices; a crisis due to the loss of job opportunities; a social crisis, with more than 3.5 million displaced persons and young people fleeing abroad; a crisis of basic health care; and a crisis of education, with a generation that has lost five years of schooling.”

Msgr. Juan Antonio Cruz Serrano, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the Organization of American States, also emphasized the importance of respect for religious freedom and the right to life from conception to natural death, according to Vatican News, the news agency of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication.

In reporting on the diplomat’s remarks, Vatican News inaccurately referred to Msgr. Cruz Serrano as an archbishop. As the Annuario Pontificio notes, Msgr. Cruz Serrano is a priest incardinated in the Diocese of Almería, Spain. Pope Francis named the priest a monsignor in 2017, but he has not been named a bishop.