Saint Joseph Catholic Church

The report, released on February 17, identified “six areas of critical concern—threats and opportunities—for religious liberty in 2026”:

• Political and anti-religious violence
• Unjust terms and conditions on federal grants, and unreliability of government
• Access to sacraments for ICE detainees and immigration enforcement at houses of worship
• School choice and the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit
• Repeal of provisions that prevent religious organizations from participating in government programs
• Further repudiation of gender ideology

Pope Leo XIV celebrated the Mass of Ash Wednesday at the Basilica of Saint Sabina late this afternoon, following the customary penitential procession that began at the Church of Saint Anselm (booklet, video).

Father Ielpo, who visited Syria from February 9-13, told Vatican News that “the greatest tragedy [Idlib families] say they have experienced is the forced expulsion of young people after the arrival of the jihadists. The elderly who remained confided in me: we were convinced we would die without seeing our children again. Instead, the fact that they returned was an indescribable joy for them.”

In Syria, churches “are filling up especially with young people,” he continued. “There are also children in catechism who want to start over. In short, on the one hand, there is a crisis that is also economic, with the cost of basic necessities having increased significantly, and on the other, there is the sense that a rebirth is underway.”

Pope Leo has proclaimed a Year of Saint Francis in commemoration of the 800th anniversary of the saint’s death. Vatican News, the news agency of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, reported that the saint’s relics have not previously been exposed.

Financial giving is “a silent yet immensely powerful language through which men and women express the best of themselves,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin said on February 17, as he recalled the widow’s mite.

In praising organ donation, Cardinal Parolin said that “human life is relationship and communion; in a donated body there beats a love that does not surrender to death.”

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa’s brief Lenten letter has five sections: “The Passion of Christ: Path of Conversion and Mercy,” “Prayer: Breath of the Soul,” “Fasting and Charity: Two Wings of the Same Offering,” “The Holy Land: Vocation to Peace and Reconciliation,” and “With our gaze fixed on the Resurrection.”

As expected, the Holy See has declined President Donald Trump’s invitation to join his Board of Peace for Gaza.

Continuing his series of Wednesday general audiences on the Second Vatican Council and its documents, Pope Leo XIV spoke this morning on the theme of “the mystery of the Church, sacrament of the union with God, and the unity of all humanity.”