Saint Joseph Catholic Church

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, O.F.M., said that amid the Iran war, he is in “constant dialogue with the competent authorities” and that churches remain open.

“The traditional Palm Sunday procession, which goes up to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, to Jerusalem is canceled,” he announced. “It will be replaced by a moment of prayer for the city of Jerusalem, at a location to be determined.”

“The Chrism Mass is postponed to a date to be determined, as soon as the situation allows, possibly within the Easter season,” he added. “The Dicastery for Divine Worship has already granted the necessary approval.”

Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Mân, who formed priests in Communist Vietnam after the Vietnam War, died on March 22 at the age of 92.

“The Lord weeps with us, and we with him, for all those innocents lost each year, each month, and each day in our world, each day in our city,” Archbishop Fisher preached during Mass at the cathedral.

Father Daniele Russo, the archdiocesan vocation director, said during the closing address:

To build a culture that is pro-life, it is not enough to renounce the evil of abortion, nor is it enough to pronounce the blessedness of life in the world. Our efforts to rebuild a culture of life must rediscover the blessedness of woman.

Does our culture believe the greatness of woman is found in Our Lady being a handmaid of the Lord, a virgin spouse, a mother of a child made in God’s image? Or have we instead built the dignity of woman on the sands of feminism and sexual revolution?

“My predecessors and the collaborators who accompanied them on their international journeys found in the personnel of Alitalia and ITA not only qualified and experienced professionals, but also people capable of creating a serene, I would say almost family-like, atmosphere, where respect goes hand in hand with devotion,” Pope Leo said on March 23. “Meeting you gives me the chance to express my personal appreciation and gratitude, and that of the Holy See, for this precious service.”

The Pope added:

Aircraft should always be vehicles of peace, never of war! No one should fear that threats of death and destruction will come from the sky.

After the tragic experiences of the twentieth century, aerial bombardment should have been banished forever! Instead, as we know, it still exists, and technological development, which is positive in itself, is being put at the service of war. This is not progress, it is regression!

For the first time since the saint’s death in 1226, the saint’s remains were on public display from February 22 to March 22, during the current Year of Saint Francis. Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, celebrated the closing Mass on March 22.

Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, O.F.M. Conv., the basilica’s archpriest, presided at the rite.

During a March 23 meeting with the prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Pope Leo XIV approved decrees that advanced six beatification causes.

“The meeting was warm and highly constructive. His Holiness underscored the importance he places on preserving the memory of the Holocaust and reaffirmed his commitment to advancing our shared goals,” said Dani Dayan, Yad Vashem’s chairman. “We also addressed the alarming rise in anti-Semitism worldwide and the urgent need for coordinated, decisive action to confront it.”

“To be like children is not to go back, but to guard a key to see the essential of everything, to find surprising answers to even the most difficult questions,” Pope Leo wrote. “Perhaps only by looking at the bewildered eyes of children in the face of the barbarity of war can we be converted.”

“We must not let children come to believe that AI chatbots can be their best friends or the oracle of all knowledge, thereby dulling their intellect and their ability to form relationships, and stifling their creativity and their thinking,” the Pope added. “We must protect their childhood and guide their growth so that they are protagonists of a renewed world.”