Saint Joseph Catholic Church

The Church of Saint-Roch in Paris, where daily Mass is offered in Latin as well as in French, had more adult converts (55) this Easter than any other parish in the city.

“All our newly baptized, except for a few exceptions, are between 20 and 30 years old,” said Father Thierry Laurent, the parish’s pastor.

The National Catholic Register described the parish as “one of the city’s traditional Latin Mass hotspots.” Paris’s second-ranking parish in the number of conversions, Saint-Eugène–Sainte-Cécile, also has Sunday Latin Masses, in both the ordinary and extraordinary forms.

In an interview with Vatican News, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, discussed Pope Leo’s upcoming apostolic journey to Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea, which will begin on April 13.

“The common thread of this apostolic journey lies in the Holy Father’s choice to bring the presence of the Church to places where human suffering is most acute,” said Cardinal Parolin. “Africa is a young continent, rich in faith and vitality, and the Pope’s visit is an act of trust in its future—a future that the Church intends to continue accompanying with dedication and hope.”

Bishop Bulus Dauwa Yohanna of Kontagora, Nigeria, spoke of the Easter attacks that ravaged his diocese—among the series of attacks that took place in the African nation that day.

“The bandits emerged from their hideout within the Borgu Game Reserve in Niger State,” Bishop Yohanna recalled. “Over the following hours, they traveled more than 100 kilometers on a convoy of over 50 motorcycles, stopping along the way to sleep and resupply—all without facing any interference whatsoever from Nigerian security forces.”

After they attacked a village and three settlements, “the Catholic church and the catechist’s home in Debe were razed to the ground; the catechist, his wife, and his family barely managed to escape with their lives, while the Pentecostal pastor of the Redeemed Church, also in Debe, was massacred.”

“The bandits remained in Debe until just two days ago, making it impossible to bury the bodies,” the bishop added. “The death toll is likely at least 24. Meanwhile, there are still approximately 500 people hiding in the parish of Yauri—on the other side of the Niger River—as well as elsewhere within the diocese.”

The prelate also said that since July, Fulani “bandits have seized control of an area spanning over 10,000 square kilometers. Aside from the presence of army and police units in the villages of Babana, Papiri, and Agwara, the entire region remains under the dominion of bandits, rather than that of the Nigerian authorities.”

Pope Leo XIV named Auxiliary Bishop Claudio Pablo Castricone, of Orán, Argentina, as the diocese’s coadjutor bishop. Bishop Castricone will succeed Bishop Luis Scozzina, O.F.M., 74, upon his retirement.

In an unusual move, Pope Francis appointed Castricone as auxiliary bishop of the small diocese in 2023.

From 2013 to 2017, the diocese was governed by Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, who had worked closely with the future Pope Francis at the Argentine Episcopal Conference. In August 2017, Pope Francis accepted Bishop Zanchetta’s resignation for “health reasons”; four months later, the Pope appointed him assessor of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, which manages the Holy See’s real estate and other assets and investments.

It later emerged that diocesan priests had complained to the Vatican that Bishop Zanchetta had pornographic images of youths on his phone; they also alleged financial mismanagement, abuse of power, and the sexual abuse of seminarians. In 2022, an Argentine court convicted Bishop Zanchetta of sexually abusing two seminarians.

The president of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference demanded safety for Christian girls after a court validated the marriage of a 13-year-old Christian girl to a 30-year-old Muslim man.

The girl’s father said that his daughter was abducted, forced to convert to Islam, and did not consent to the marriage. Under Pakistani civil law, the minimum age for marriage is 18, but the court cited Islamic law in validating the marriage.

“The Church is not in favor of marriages involving conversion under such circumstances,” said Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad. “We demand safety for our daughters and will continue to raise our voice for underage brides of any religion.”

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