Saint Joseph Catholic Church

Israeli police prevented Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, O.F.M., from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate Palm Sunday Mass. Following international condemnation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he would permit Cardinal Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, to enter the church.

COMECE stated that it is “particularly alarmed by the potential consequences of the adopted position for the dignity and fundamental rights of vulnerable persons. Measures that facilitate returns, expand detention, or externalize responsibilities to third countries raise serious questions about the effective safeguarding of human rights and respect for the dignity of every human person.”

Addressing a UN meeting, Archbishop Caccia said that “at first glance, racism appears to persist in manifesting itself as discrimination founded on erroneous assumptions of racial superiority. However, at a more profound level, this pervasive scourge is operating through more subtle and complex mechanisms that often evade immediate recognition.”

Citing Pope Leo, Archbishop Caccia warned that AI systems can reflect the biases of those who construct them.

Archbishop Caccia’s mandate as Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations officially ceased on March 7. However, no replacement has been named, and he has continued to represent the Holy See at the UN.

Renaître will come into existence on September 1, following the expiration of the mandate of the Independent National Authority for Recognition and Reparation. The bishops’ conference explained that “personalized support is set up by people specifically trained by the national authority ... The support will make it possible to find restorative approaches with the person recognized as a victim.”

Under Renaître, the local bishop will send a “letter of acknowledgment of the violence suffered” upon the canonical or civil conviction of the accused. In other cases, such as when the accused priest is deceased, the bishop will acknowledge the suffering that has been experienced.

17.8% of the world’s people are Catholic, a figure that remained steady in 2024, according to statistics published in the new editions of the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (2024 edition) and Annuario Pontificio (2026 edition).

The 13-year decline in the number of major seminarians worldwide accelerated during 2024, the last full year of Pope Francis’s pontificate, according to statistics published in the new editions of the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (2024 edition) and Annuario Pontificio (2026 edition).