Saint Joseph Catholic Church

The General Secretariat of the Synod, led by Cardinal Mario Grech, released the third of 15 final reports of the study groups established by Pope Francis during the synod on synodality.

Bishop Shaleta was arrested on March 5 at San Diego International Airport while attempting to leave the country and pleaded not guilty on March 9 to embezzlement and money laundering charges. The Pillar reported last month that the prelate was under Vatican investigation for alleged financial and sexual misconduct and that he had submitted his resignation.

Cardinal Sako, 76, has been the Eastern Catholic church’s Patriarch since 2013. The prelate said that he “freely decided to submit my resignation to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV” so that “I could devote myself quietly to prayer, writing, and simple service.” According to The Pillar, Cardinal Sako had considered transferring Bishop Shaleta to a post in Iraq.

Pope Leo also appointed Iraqi Bishop Saad Sirop, a critic of Cardinal Sako’s governance, as apostolic administrator of the San Diego eparchy. In 2006, then-Father Sirop was abducted by Islamist terrorists; during his 28-day captivity, he was tortured and refused to renounce his faith.

Pope Leo XIV transferred Archbishop Sebastian Shaw, OFM, of Lahore, Pakistan’s most populous archdiocese, to the Apostolic Vicariate of Quetta, the nation’s smallest ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

“Vilnius is the city where, through St. Faustina, the world heard the message of God’s mercy anew,” Archbishop Gintaras Grušas preached on March 11, at a special Mass for peace. “Here the image of the Merciful Jesus was painted. Here the truth was proclaimed again that evil does not have the final word.”

“Prayer for peace may seem too simple,” he continued. “We may be tempted to underestimate it ... Evil is not limitless. Violence is not all-powerful. War is not the ultimate reality. God’s mercy is stronger.”

He added:

Today the world is again wounded. Ukraine suffers. The Holy Land bleeds. Many conflicts remain in the shadows ... [Yet] every heart that calls upon God becomes a place where a limit is set to evil. Peace begins with a heart that allows God to purify it.