Catholic News
- Pope stable after setbacks [Wednesday AM update] (CWN)
Wednesday AM: Pope Francis rested comfortably Tuesday night, the Vatican announced. During the night the Pope’s breathing was assisted by “non-invasive mechanical ventilation,” with a mask fixed over his face. In the morning the ventilator was removed; he continued to receive high-flow supplementary oxygen through a nasal tube. - Papal text concludes weekly series on childhood of Jesus (Vatican Press Office)
With a catechetical talk that was scheduled for delivery at a public audience on March 5, Pope Francis concluded a series of meditations on the childhood of Jesus. The papal audience was cancelled because of the Pope’s hospitalization for double pneumonia. But the Vatican press office released the text that he was to have delivered—which had been prepared well in advance. In that text the Pope spoke about the finding of Jesus in the Temple, calling attention to the role of Mary as “a pilgrim of hope,” who becomes “the first of his disciples.” Commenting on how Mary and Joseph worried about the disappearance of Jesus, the Pope wrote: Mary and Joseph do not understand: the mystery of God made child exceeds their intelligence. The parents want to protect that precious son under the wings of their love; instead, Jesus wants to live His vocation as the Son of the Father who is at His service and lives immersed in His Word. - Situation in West Bank has become worse since Gaza ceasefire, Jerusalem Patriarch says (Aid to the Church in Need)
The situation for Christians and others in the West Bank has become worse since the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip (map), the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem said. Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, said that “absolutely, things in [the] West Bank are worse. When the ceasefire started in Gaza, they [Israeli forces] started operations in the West Bank, with hundreds of checkpoints, and operations in Jenin.” “We have seen more annexation of land in the West Bank, as well as the eviction of around 16,000 people from refugee camps in Jenin, with the physical infrastructure being razed, so they have nowhere to return to,” added Sami El-Yousef, CEO of the Latin Patriarchate. “The West Bank is now completely fragmented with 185 gates and over 900 checkpoints, but because of what has been going on in Gaza, none of this gets much international attention.” - Protect future generations from nuclear warfare, Vatican diplomat pleads (Holy See Mission)
Addressing a UN meeting of signatories of the 2017 Treaty on Nuclear Weapons, a leading Vatican diplomat recalled the devastating consequences of the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “It is the collective responsibility of the international community to ensure that the atrocities of the past are not repeated, and that future generations are protected from the catastrophic consequences of nuclear warfare,” said Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations. Archbishop Caccia also spoke of the “worrying resurgence of deterrence-based rhetoric, which in turn has reignited the dangerous specter of nuclear threats.” He warned that “the disarmament architecture is being severely undermined, while military expenditures are rising dramatically ... funds that could instead be used to tackle urgent global challenges, including poverty and hunger.” - Catholic Relief Services: Urge Congress to reverse Trump administration's foreign-aid termination (CWN)
Warning that “the lives of our brothers and sisters hang in the balance,” Catholic Relief Services (CRS) urged the faithful to “tell Congress to urge the administration to halt and reverse all terminations” of foreign aid. - Senate Democrats block bill to prevent boys from competing in girls' sports (CBS News)
Senate Democrats have prevented a vote on the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025, which would have prevented boys who describe themselves as girls from competing in girls’ sports. The legislation, supported by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, was approved by the House of Representatives in a 218-206 vote. Senate rules require 60 votes to bring most measures to a final vote. By a 51-47 margin—nine votes shy of the number needed—senators voted to bring the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act to a final vote. - Nigerian priest killed by kidnappers (CISANews Africa)
Father Sylvester Okechukwu, a priest of the Diocese of Kafanchan, Nigeria, was kidnapped on March 4 and later killed by his abductors. The Kafanchan diocese confirmed on March 5 that Father Okechukwu had been killed. Neither the identity of his assailants nor the motive for the crime are known. The kidnapping occurred just two days after another priest and a seminarian were abducted in Nigeria’s Edo state (see today’s separate CWN headline). Two other priests, kidnapped in Nigeria on February 22, remain missing. - Vatican repeats caution on visions of Maria Valtorta (Katolisch)
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) has reaffirmed that the writings of Maria Valtorta are not recognized by the Church as authentic revelations. Maria Valtorta, an Italian mystic of the 20th century, drew a wide audience with her massive work The God-Man, in which she described visions that she said she had received from Jesus Christ. The DDF, responding to persistent questions about the visions, issued a statement on March 5 saying that the Church “does not recognize their divine inspiration.” The DDF judgment matches a negative verdict that had been issued by the same office—then known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith—in 1985, under the direction of then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. - Archbishop Paglia: Pope's convalescence is reminder everyone deserves proper care (CNS)
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said at a press conference that the care that Pope Francis is receiving is a reminder of the responsibility to provide proper care for the sick and elderly. “What I would hope is that what we do for the Pope we must do for everybody, for all the elderly, for all those who are alone, for all the abandoned,” he said. The Pope, Archbishop Paglia added, “is exercising an extraordinary magisterium on frailty, not with words, but with his body,” and “is reminding every one of us, all people, starting with us elderly, that we are all frail and therefore we must take care of each other.” - Priest, seminarian kidnapped in Nigeria (Fides)
A priest and seminarian were kidnapped from a parish in Nigeria’s Edo State (map) on the night of March 2. “During the attack, one of the kidnappers was killed by the security guards of the Catholic church after a firefight with the perpetrators,” the Fides news agency reported. “Despite the intervention of the security guards, the priest [Father Philip Ekeli] and the seminarian [Peter Andrew] were captured and taken to the bush.” - 20 years after her murder, slain US missionary's legacy endures in Brazil (Vatican News)
Vatican News, the agency of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, has examined the legacy of Sister Dorothy Stang (1931-2005), a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur who was murdered in Brazil. “Our congregation’s charism [is] to live with the poor among the poor,” said Sister Jane Dwyer, who worked alongside her in the Amazon basin. Large landowners, she said, would “would shoot at [the poor] and destroy their houses. Even the police were against us. But the people resisted and with the help of Dorothy, they forced the authorities to recognize their property rights.” - Priest convicted of abuse now faces deportation (WMAR)
A Capuchin priest who is now serving a prison sentence for sexual abuse will be deported when he completes his sentence, having been found guilty of passport fraud. Father Jorge Antonio Velez-Lopez, a native of Colombia, had served in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Maryland, and the Diocese of Alexandria, Louisiana; in 2020 he was charged with molesting a young girl, convicted, and sentenced to a 9-year term. Now a federal judge in Louisiana has found Velez-Lopez guilty of passport fraud, since on a 2013 application for US citizenship he testified under oath that he had never committed a crime—despite the fact that he had already admitted to the abuse that eventually led to his criminal conviction. - Trump issues Ash Wednesday message (White House)
The White House has issued an Ash Wednesday message from President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania. Noting that “tens of millions of American Catholics and other Christians” are marking the beginning of Lent, the message encourages them: “As we solemnly contemplate Jesus Christ’s suffering and death on the cross this Lent, let us prepare our souls for the coming glory of the Easter miracle.” - Vatican newspaper editor lauds The Brutalist (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))
Andrea Monda, the editor-in-chief of the Vatican newspaper, lauded The Brutalist, a 2024 movie, as undoubtedly “the most interesting film currently in theaters.” Weaving quotations from Pope Francis about corruption into his four-paragraph March 4 editorial, Monda wrote that “the main theme of the film is in fact the relationship between beauty and corruption, on how virtue can resist the temptations, seductions, and violence of the world, its brutality.” - More...