Saint Joseph Catholic Church

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Pope Leo XIV today received 80 athletes from the Italian teams at the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games (video) and told them that “sport, if lived well, becomes a workshop for a reconciled humanity, where diversity is not a threat but a wealth.”

“Sport contributes to the maturing of our character, requires a steadfast spirituality and is a fruitful form of education,” Pope Leo said. “Through sport, we learn to know our own bodies without idolizing them, to control our emotions, to compete without losing our sense of fraternity, to accept defeat without despair and victory without arrogance.”

The Commission for Justice and Peace of the Episcopal Conference of Rwanda issued a statement marking the 32nd anniversary of the Rwanda genocide.

“The genocide perpetrated against the Tutsi is an indelible stain on humanity and particularly on the Rwandan nation,” the bishops said. “Remembering our painful history is not meant to fuel hatred or revenge but to preserve the memory of those who died and to affirm that death does not erase the deep bonds that unite us.”

The prior general of the Order of Saint Augustine said that the order has experienced a “Leo effect” in 11 months since the election of the Pontiff.

“We’re seeing a growth in interest,” said Father Joseph Farrell, O.S.A. “We hope it continues for a long time.”

The Midwest Augustinians, to which the future Pope Leo belonged, reported a steep rise in vocation inquiries, from the typical 50-60 per year to over 300.

The Free Press reported that Defense Department officials summoned Cardinal Christophe Pierre, then the apostolic nuncio to the United States, to the Pentagon in January and delivered “a bitter lecture warning that the United States has the military power to do whatever it wants.”

Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby reportedly told Cardinal Pierre, “America has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side.”

“I would actually like to talk to Cardinal Cristophe Pierre and, frankly, to our people, to figure out what actually happened,” Vice President JD Vance said in response. “I think it’s always a bad idea to offer an opinion on stories that are unconfirmed and uncorroborated, so I’m not going to do that.”

A spokesman for the Defense Department described the report as “highly exaggerated and distorted” and said that “the meeting between Pentagon and Vatican officials was a respectful and reasonable discussion. We have nothing but the highest regard and welcome continued dialogue with the Holy See.”

The Archdiocese of Kaduna, Nigeria, called on federal and state governments to rescue the Catholic and other Christian worshippers who were kidnapped in Ariko on Easter Sunday.

“The attack in Ariko left five worshippers dead, and about 35 others abducted,” said Father Christian Okewu Emmanuel, the archdiocesan chancellor, according to an Abuja-based newspaper.

“Our hearts are heavy as families grieve the loss of loved ones while others remain in captivity,” he added. “We appeal to the authorities to do all in their power to ensure their safe return.”

A truck driver rammed into an Easter Sunday procession in Mariamabad, Pakistan, killing a teenager and injuring more than 60 people.

The suspect, Muhammad Bilal, remains at large.

In a wide-ranging interview with Dialoghi, a periodical published by the Italian Catholic Action movement, Cardinal Pietro Parolin lamented the drift from diplomacy to force in international relations.

“I am struck by how much determination—I was about to say ease—the war option is presented as decisive, almost inevitable, bending international law to one’s liking,” the Secretary of State of His Holiness said. “The awareness of the value of peace, the awareness of the tragic nature of war, the awareness of the importance of shared rules and of respecting them seems to have disappeared.”

Cardinal Parolin also discussed the European Union, the United Nations, China, Venezuela, and Greenland, as well as the contribution that Christians can make to public life: by their support of “human life and dignity, of religious freedom, of the proposal of correctives to the current economic-financial system in accordance with the principles of the social doctrine of the Church, of the protection of creation.”

Asked about the Trump administration’s professed support of Christian values, Cardinal Parolin said:

We cannot say that we love and defend life and be concerned only with that of the unborn without considering that life is also that of migrants who die at sea, of women and children who have nothing to eat, of peoples devastated by the weapons we produce and sell ... At the same time, those who are concerned about saving whales but justify the silent killing of huge numbers of human beings in the womb fall into the same contradiction.