NEWS

Ukrainian Catholics in New York celebrated Easter with prayers that Christ's triumph over death will also signify victory over everything evil happening in their home country.

The capsizing of a small boat overloaded with passengers trying to illegally leave Lebanon is "the biggest proof of the terrible crisis" that the country is enduring as it continues to sink economically, said Carmelite Father Michel Abboud, president of Caritas Lebanon.

"It is happening." Three words in a text message from a friend in London alerted Paul Gavrilyuk that Russia's invasion on Ukraine had begun.

Three years after multiple bombings killed more than 260 people on Easter and lingering questions remain about those behind the attacks, Pope Francis appealed to Sri Lankan authorities to shed light on what happened.

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the chairman of its Committee on Migration have voiced their support for the Biden administration's "Uniting for Ukraine" initiative to welcome Ukrainian refugees coming to the United States.

Those who are called to be missionaries of mercy are entrusted with the important task of being the face and the voice of God's love to those in need, Pope Francis said.

I remember attending a workshop given by Father John Kemper in the early 2000s focused on the theme of teaching "Gen Xers." At the time, I was teaching in a seminary and it seemed that often we teachers would enter into conversations about the "young seminarians" and how hard it was for us to understand them. I still have my notes from the talk that day, and the memory I want to share with you is that he told us, "When a student asks a question, it probably is just a question."

In an Easter message to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, Pope Francis prayed that the Holy Spirit would "transform our hearts and make us true peacemakers, especially for war-torn Ukraine."

Pope Francis formalized new appointments to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and named the new secretaries to the restructured Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Pope Francis renewed his call for an Easter truce in Ukraine, as many in the country commemorate Christ's resurrection under the shadow of war.