Saint Joseph Catholic Church

Cardinal Lazarus You Heung-sik and Archbishop Carlo Redaelli began by thanking priests:

First of all, we wish to say to you: thank you! Thank you for your daily fidelity, often silent and hidden. Thank you for your “yes,” renewed each day, even amid hardships, loneliness and misunderstandings. Thank you because, through your ministry, Christ continues to draw near to His people, to heal, to forgive and to nourish them.

The prelates then reflected on sacrifice and service.

“Sacrifice, in its deepest truth, is not first of all renunciation, but gift: it is offering one’s life so that it may be wholly oriented to the love of God and of our brothers and sisters,” they wrote. “We are called to live as men given over, consecrated, who find in the Eucharist the source and summit of our existence. It is at the altar that we allow ourselves to be conformed to Christ, receiving the strength to accompany, to forgive and to console.”

The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem celebrated the Holy Thursday evening Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (video), four days after Israeli police denied him access to the church on Palm Sunday.

Pope Leo XIV presided at the liturgical Celebration of the Passion of the Lord this afternoon in St. Peter’s Basilica before presiding at the Via Crucis at the Colosseum earlier tonight.

Pope Leo XIV discussed the need for diplomacy and the protection of civilians during a telephone conversation this morning with President Isaac Herzog of Israel.

Father Ibrahim Faltas, O.F.M., head of schools of the Custody (Franciscan province) of the Holy Land, wrote that “since February 28, it has not been possible to fully live the poignant liturgical season of Lent due to the war that has spread throughout the Middle East, affecting even Jerusalem ... On the journey that will lead us to Holy Easter 2026, we have encountered violence, death, and sorrow for the suffering of so many brothers and sisters who have been denied so many rights, who have been denied love.”

“Jerusalem experienced Good Friday in a climate marked by war and the resulting restrictions,” Father Alberto Pari, O.F.M., of the Custody said in a statement. “The Holy City, which in these days should have welcomed thousands of faithful from all over the world, appeared silent and guarded. Yet, precisely within this fragility, the prayer of the Church continued to rise with strength, preserving the memory of the Passion of the Lord in the very place where it was accomplished.”

Pope Leo XIV discussed the humanitarian situation in Ukraine during a telephone call this morning with President Volodymyr Zelensky.