Iranian and US negotiators have arrived in Pakistan ahead of peace talks.

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Pope Leo XIV will make an Apostolic visit to Algeria on Monday April 13th. In the following Interview, Fr. Vincent Kyererezi, a member of the Missionaries of Africa and Vicar General of the diocese of Laghouat-Ghardaïa, explains the importance of the visit and the role of the Church in the predominantly Moslem Algerian society.

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Foundress of the Sisters of Charity, the Grey Nuns of Canada. St. Marguerite D'Youville was born at Varennes, Quebec, on October 15, Marie Marguerite Dufrost de La Jemmerais. She studied under the Ursulines, married Francois D'Youville in 1722, and became a widow in 1730. She worked to support herself and her three children, devoted much of her time to the Confraternity of the Holy Family in charitable activities. In 1737, with three companions, she founded the Grey Nuns when they took their ...

Michael de Sanctis was born in Catalonia, Spain around 1591. At the age of six he informed his parents that he was going to be a monk. Moreover, he imitated St. Francis of Assisi to such a great extent that he had to be restrained. After the death of his parents, Michael served as an apprentice to a merchant. However, he continued to lead a life of exemplary fervor and devotion, and in 1603, he joined the Trinitarian Friars at Barcelona, taking his vows at St. Lambert's monastery in Saragosa in ...

WASHINGTON – The Catholic faithful who give to the annual Catholic Home Missions Appeal are imitating Jesus, who “spent little time in cities but built his ministry in fishing villages and rural areas,” said Bishop Chad W. Zielinski, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee on Catholic Home Missions.

The appeal supports nearly 75 Latin Rite dioceses and Eastern Catholic eparchies in the United States and its current and former territories that cannot sustain ministry without outside help due to limited financial resources, small or widely dispersed Catholic populations, or both. They are typically in rural regions or small cities with seasonal employment.

Many dioceses will take the collection in their parishes on April 25-26, though some dioceses choose a different date. Those who wish to support the appeal with an online gift can donate at www.igivecatholic.org/story/USCCB-CHM.

“The work of the Catholic Home Missions Appeal reflects Jesus’s encounter with the ‘woman at the well,’ whom Eastern Christians call St. Photina,” said Bishop Zielinski, referencing the Samaritan woman at the well. “She was an outcast in a community that was considered heretical and that many of Jesus’ followers avoided. After talking with him, Photina evangelized her neighbors (John 4).”

“Most of our mission dioceses are in remote, rural areas, or communities with economic and social challenges. Yet they are filled with people like St. Photina, who thirst for the Gospel and are eager to spread its life-changing message,” Bishop Zielinski said.

Recently, the Catholic Home Missions Appeal provided more than $8.1 million in assistance to mission dioceses. The array of needs the grants addressed ranged from fuel for the seaplanes that priests fly to island villages in Alaska to developing Spanish-language ministries in dioceses with growing Latino immigrant populations. Among the grant recipients:

• The Diocese of Steubenville strengthened its ministries to vulnerable expectant mothers by engaging its parishes in the USCCB’s “Walking with Moms in Need” initiative. 
• The Diocese of Dodge City expanded its Spanish-language ministry by increasing the availability Spanish-language print resources, diocesan marriage retreats, and bilingual diocesan personnel.  
• The Diocese of Belleville supported a full-time college minister who is forming students to be church leaders and has inspired new vocations to the priesthood.
• The Diocese of Samoa-Pago Pago serves the people of American Samoa’s seven islands through its five Catholic schools that provide educational opportunities in a territory where unemployment rates and living costs are high.

“Your generosity shows Catholics in remote areas that the Church stands with them, and that Jesus is calling them to embrace his mercy and share his message as St. Photina did,” Bishop Zielinski said.

Information about the Catholic Home Missions Appeal may be found at: www.usccb.org/committees/catholic-home-missions.

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WASHINGTON - “As the United States seeks a negotiated end to the war in Iran, I call on President Trump and the international community to ensure that the people of Lebanon receive greater access to humanitarian assistance, including food and medical supplies, especially in the south,” said Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace.  

Bishop Zaidan continued:

“I am grateful for the ceasefire between the United States, Israel, and Iran, and pray for all sides to engage in effective dialogue to end this devastating war. I am disappointed, however, to learn that the agreement does not cover Lebanon, and thus falls short of encompassing the entire region where the conflict has been raging. I acknowledge that the people of Israel have the right to live in peace, as well as the innocent Lebanese civilians who are currently suffering from lack of food, medical supplies, and from paralyzing fear. Distressingly, over one million people, including 370,000 children, have been displaced by the fighting, in what is becoming one of Lebanon’s most acute internal displacement crises in recent history.  

“As the United States seeks a negotiated end to the war in Iran, I call on President Trump and the international community to ensure that the people of Lebanon receive greater access to humanitarian assistance, including food and medical supplies, especially in the south. Furthermore, as I previously stated, for peace in Lebanon to take root, it is imperative that all parties work toward the full and immediate disarming of Hezbollah, as well as the implementation of the UN resolutions concerning Lebanon. Hopefully, after that, the governments of Israel and Lebanon can sign an agreement for lasting peace.  

“I join our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV’s Easter message of consolation and strength to the people of Lebanon, as they endure this ongoing tragedy: ‘May you, in the midst of feelings of pain, anxiety, and mourning, come to know in your hearts a deeper joy: Jesus has gloriously triumphed over death. It is a joy that comes from heaven and that nothing can take away.’ May Our Lady of Lebanon, Queen of Peace, pray for her children in Lebanon and for the peace of the entire world.”

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Also known as Waltrude or Waudru, she was the daughter of Saints Walbert and Bertilia and sister of St. Aldegunus of Maubeuge. Marrying St. Vincent Madelgarius, she became the mother of saints Landericus, Madalberta, Adeltrudis, and Dentelin. When her husband chose to become a monk about 643 in the monastery of Hautrnont, France, he had founded, she established a convent at Chateaulieu, around which grew up the town of Mons, Belgium.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV welcomed the newly announced ceasefire in the Middle East as “a sign of genuine hope” after what he described as “hours of extreme tension,” while urging a return to negotiations and calling the faithful to prayer.

“Only by returning to negotiations can the war be brought to an end,” he said in remarks in Italian following his April 8 general audience in St. Peter's Square.

His comments came just hours after a two-week ceasefire was reached between Iran and the United States, narrowly averting further escalation. The agreement followed a stark warning from U.S. President Donald Trump late April 7, when he threatened to destroy Iran’s critical infrastructure, saying “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Tehran did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil and gas tankers. The ceasefire was announced roughly two hours before the White House's deadline.

The pope’s appeal for dialogue echoed remarks he made the previous evening at Castel Gandolfo, where he urged leaders to return to the negotiating table even before the ceasefire was announced.

“Today, as we all know, there has also been this threat against the entire people of Iran, and this is truly unacceptable,” he told journalists April 7. “There are certainly issues of international law here, but even more, it is a moral question concerning the good of the people as a whole.”

Expanding on the broader implications of the conflict, he warned of a global economic crisis marked by “great instability,” which he said risks fueling further hatred, and he called on ordinary citizens to contact their political leaders to advocate for peace.

The pope also invited the faithful to join him in a prayer vigil for peace on April 11 in his general audience address. As flowers lined the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica during the Easter season, he used his main talk to reflect on holiness, emphasizing that it is a calling shared by all believers.

"Every baptized person is called to be holy; to live in God's grace, to practice virtue and to become like Christ," he said in his address to English speakers.

Continuing his series on the documents of the Second Vatican Council, he described charity as the foundation of holiness, "the fullness of love towards God and towards one’s neighbor," and said its highest expression is martyrdom, calling it the "supreme witness of faith and charity." He added that the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, sustain believers in this call.

He continued his analysis of the Dogmatic Constitution "Lumen Gentium," specifically, the important role of consecrated life. "Indeed, signs of the Kingdom of God, already present in the mystery of the Church, are those evangelical counsels that shape every experience of consecrated life: poverty, chastity and obedience.

Poverty demonstrates "complete trust" in God -- free of self-interest, obedience follows Christ's "self-giving" offered to God, and chastity is the "gift of a heart that is whole and pure in love, at the service of God and Church." The pope called these virtues a form of "radical discipleship."

"These three virtues are not rules that shackle freedom, but liberating gifts of the Holy Spirit, through which some of the faithful are wholly consecrated to God," he said.

Closing his main address, the pope said that Christ’s sacrifice makes holiness possible even in suffering.

"By contemplating this event, we know that there is no human experience that God does not redeem," he said. "Even suffering, lived in union with the passion of the Lord, becomes a path of holiness."

St. Julie (Julia) Billiart was born in 1751 and died in 1816. As a child, playing "school" was Julie's favorite game. When she was sixteen, to help support her family, she began to teach "for real". She sat on a haystack during the noon recess and told the biblical parables to the workers. Julie carried on this mission of teaching throughout her life, and the Congregation she founded continues her work. Julie was the fifth of seven children. She attended a little one room ...

St. John Baptist de La Salle was born in 1651, in Reims, France. He was the eldest son of wealthy parents. At the age of eleven, La Salle was committed becoming a priest. At the age of sixteen, he was named Canon of Reims Cathedral. At the age of eighteen, he received a master�s degree in classical literature and arts, as well as philosophy. Sadly, La Salle�s parents died within a year of each other in 1671 and 1672. La Salle had to manage his parent�s estate which included educating his ...