Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople during an audience at the Patriarchal headquarters in Istanbul with the German Association of the Holy Land, March 12, 2025. / Credit: Martin Rothweiler/EWTN Germany

CNA Newsroom, Mar 15, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople on Wednesday offered a hopeful historical assessment of the traditional 1054 date for the “Great Schism” between Rome and Constantinople, suggesting that tensions developed gradually over time and “are not insurmountable.”

“Of course, problems have accumulated over a thousand years. But we are full of hope that they will be resolved in a few years,” the patriarch emphasized during an audience in Istanbul on March 12 with a pilgrimage group from the German Association of the Holy Land.

The honorary head of worldwide Orthodoxy made these comments in the presence of Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Emeritus Gregory III Laham, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner.

The pilgrimage preceded the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea held in 325 A.D.

Rather than a sudden break in 1054 — the traditional date of the separation between the Orthodox and Catholic churches — Patriarch Bartholomew suggested these tensions gradually strengthened over time.

The potential for a historic breakthrough in ecumenical relations has been building for some time. In January, during vespers concluding the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Pope Francis highlighted the “providential” timing of Easter falling on the same date in both the Gregorian and Julian calendars this year.

“Let us rediscover the common roots of the faith,” the pontiff urged. “Let us preserve unity!”

Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, has long supported efforts toward a common Easter date. In 2021, Koch welcomed a suggestion that the year 2025 would be an ideal time to introduce a calendar reform allowing both Eastern and Western Christians to celebrate Easter together.

“It will not be easy to agree on a common Easter date, but it is worth working for it,” Koch stated at the time, adding that the initiative was “very dear to Pope Francis and also to the Coptic Pope Tawadros.”

Calendar considerations

The First Council of Nicaea, held in 325, decided that Easter would be celebrated on the first Sunday after the full moon following the beginning of spring, making the earliest possible date March 22 and the latest possible April 25.

Today, Orthodox Christians use the Julian calendar to calculate the Easter date instead of the Gregorian calendar, which was introduced in 1582 and is used by most of the world. The Julian calendar calculates a slightly longer year and is currently 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar, resulting in different dates for Easter celebrations most years.

One possible obstacle to a universal agreement could be ongoing tensions between different churches. In 2018, the Russian Orthodox Church severed ties to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople after Patriarch Bartholomew confirmed his intention to recognize the independence of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.

During a meeting with the International Theological Commission at the Vatican in November 2024, Pope Francis confirmed his intention to travel to Turkey in May 2025 to mark this significant anniversary.

“I plan to go there,” Pope Francis stated, noting that the Council of Nicaea “constitutes a milestone in the journey of the Church and also of all humanity, because faith in Jesus, the Son of God made flesh for us and for our salvation, was formulated and professed as a light that illuminates the meaning of reality and the destiny of all history.”

However, the pope’s health situation may affect the planned pilgrimage to modern-day Turkey, as his ongoing hospitalization has raised questions about his ability to undertake the journey.

Bishop Evelio Menjivar speaks with “EWTN News in Depth” on Friday, March 14, 2025. / Credit: “EWTN News in Depth”

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 15, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

Evelio Menjivar came to the United States as an undocumented immigrant in 1990. Today he serves as an auxiliary bishop of Washington, D.C., and is the first Salvadoran U.S. bishop in an archdiocese that is home to over 200,000 of his former countrymen.

In an interview with “EWTN News in Depth,” Menjivar shared his conviction that immigrants “make the United States a great nation” and “make society better.” 

After years of “blue-collar jobs,” upon his arrival to the U.S., Menjivar felt a calling to the priesthood and was ordained in 2004. He served as a parish priest in Washington for almost two decades until Pope Francis appointed him auxiliary bishop in 2022.

“I came here when I was 20 with a great desire to work hard, to go to school, to contribute to the well-being of this great nation that became my home country,” Menjivar told Montse Alvarado, EWTN News president and COO.

Menjivar said he attempted to enter the country three times before making it to Los Angeles. He explained: “I don’t feel proud that I crossed the border without documents.”

“But it is a testimony that many people cross the border with good intentions,” he said.

“Most immigrants come here because they do not find any other option in their countries and they put their own lives at risk. But once we enter here, we contribute with our own talents, with our own energy,” he told Alvarado.

He described the violence and chaos that led him to flee El Salvador for the United States.

“I was growing up during the civil war that started in … 1977,” Menjivar said. “We were forced to abandon our village in 1982. We relocated to another town in the same area, but the whole area was abandoned, left with nobody.”

“So the war was there,” he said. “That was the situation that I grew up in, and then in 1990 is when I left El Salvador, and the war continued for two more years.”

“Religious sisters, even American sisters, were killed. Many priests were killed. Catechists were killed. It was a situation of war that pushed me and pushed so many immigrants to leave their countries,” the bishop explained.

Menjivar said immigration is a “journey marked by a lot of uncertainty, fear, but also with hope.” 

During Menjivar’s episcopal ordination Cardinal Wilton Gregory, then-archbishop of Washington, commended Menjivar’s dedication to those who work unfair wages to make a day’s living. 

“Cardinal Gregory said very beautifully in the homily that I should never forget my roots,” Menjivar said. “And that way people, immigrants, anybody, will be able to be more open to share their own stories, knowing that I’m going to understand them.”

“As most immigrants do, I did janitorial work, I did construction, painting, youth ministry, you name it, all kinds of blue-collar jobs. And so that helped me to understand labor, hard labor, to learn to work hard.”

He said he is “very proud” of the work he did when he arrived in the U.S. and believes it is a “gift to be able to understand the hardships that people go through.”

EWTN’s Alvarado and Menjivar discussed a letter he and his brother bishops received from Pope Francis asking them to always remember human dignity when addressing immigration in the political climate today.

“The pope emphasizes the importance, the need, to defend the dignity of human beings, of immigrants,” Menjivar said. “His message is a message of concern … for the well-being of everybody.”

When asked about the lack of Hispanic bishops in the U.S. Church in light of how many Hispanic Catholics there are in the country, Menjivar said he is seeing progress in that direction, adding that he believes it’s very important that “shepherds understand their flock.”

“Yes, there are not many Hispanic bishops, but the number [is] increasing. There are more and more, especially during the last years with Pope Francis.”

“One of the things that we need to do as a Church is to promote more vocations to the priesthood. We need more Hispanic priests, that’s for sure. We need more deacons, we need more religious sisters and brothers to serve the Church.” 

Asked to comment on how he responds to people in his community who fear deportation during this uncertain time, Menjivar said that while many “are expressing fear and anxiety” they are turning to the Church and to their faith for consolation. 

“Thanks be to God, we have people that are very hopeful,” he said. “And they know that this is the moment when they need the Church the most. That they need to come as a community to pray.”

“People don’t know what is going to happen to them. But one of the beautiful things that we are seeing here is that people, they continue going to church and celebrating their faith.”

Menjivar said he never lost faith on his journey to the U.S. and has been able to continue on that path that led him to become a bishop because he knows “there [are] always people praying for us. There is always a light that is lit.”

An Easter Vigil procession at St. Dominic Parish in San Francisco. / Credit: St. Dominic Parish/Lorelei Low

CNA Staff, Mar 15, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Five years ago this week, public health orders issued amid the uncertainty of the novel coronavirus turned Mass schedules across the country and the world upside down. 

In those early days following the WHO’s March 11, 2020, declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic, the bishops of every U.S. diocese issued some form of dispensation, suspending the obligation that Catholics must attend Sunday Mass in person. 

Thousands of parishes and ministries scrambled to develop plans to offer livestreamed Masses, deliver the sacraments in a “socially distanced” manner, and live out the Church’s life as best they could under extraordinary circumstances. Public Masses at most parishes were suspended entirely for a time, and those that were able to reopen were subject, in many areas, to distancing requirements and numerical or percentage-based attendance caps.

As Catholics nationwide adapted to the changes — not knowing how long this new reality might last — observers feared that many Catholics, barred from their parishes for so long and now accustomed to attending from the comfort of home, might not return after the parish doors reopened. 

A study from the Pew Research Center found that most Catholics continued participating in Mass throughout the pandemic — but many were only able to do so virtually. In November 2022, when the survey was done, only about 4 in 10 U.S. Catholics said they attended Mass in person as often as they did before the pandemic.

Indeed, from the start of the COVID pandemic lockdowns in the U.S. to the declared end of the pandemic in May 2023, in-person Mass attendance averaged just 15% — a dismal figure, but not markedly lower than the 24% it was before. (The Catholic Church teaches that Catholics are obligated to attend Mass in person every Sunday, except for a serious reason such as illness or if they’ve been dispensed from their obligation by their pastor or bishop.)

Some bishops lifted the dispensations they had issued as early as late 2020, while a few held out until 2022. In lifting the dispensations they issued amid the lockdowns, many U.S. bishops implored Catholics to return to Mass in person. 

While Mass attendance today among Catholics in the U.S. remains much lower than among Catholics in other countries, recent data has suggested that U.S. in-person Mass attendance levels have quietly returned to where they were in 2019 after years of uncertainty over whether they would ever rebound. 

For some thriving parishes in the U.S., the lockdowns — while challenging — presented an opportunity to continue sharing the faith in a creative manner and come out even stronger than they were before. 

Father John Mosimann, pastor at St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Parish in Fredericksburg, Virginia, told CNA that the parish has seen its numbers grow since the pandemic. 

On a typical weekend, Mosimann and his four parochial vicars celebrate 11 total Masses in English, plus another in Spanish at a different parish where they are kick-starting a Spanish Mass ministry. 

All told, roughly 3,800 people attended St. Mary’s weekend Masses on a typical week in 2019. According to headcounts, the parish had already exceeded its pre-pandemic levels by 2023, with around 4,300 attendees on average. The parish, which is about 55 miles south of Washington, D.C., has 6,700 registered families and nearly 100 active ministries. 

During the pandemic, St. Mary’s added extra Masses — since for a time, Masses were limited to a smaller-than-usual number of attendees — and continued hosting adoration. Like so many other parishes, the parish had to quickly adapt to a livestreaming paradigm in order to stay connected with the community.

“I was in the office and I was looking at Facebook and I said, ‘What if I hit this button and go live, what would happen?’” Mosimann remembers thinking as the lockdowns began.

“And so I started streaming on Facebook Live and everybody started jumping in … ’What’s going on, Father? What’s going to happen?’ And I didn’t have answers, because I wasn’t that great a prophet. But we did immediately start streaming.”

He said parishioners were grateful for the effort the priests made to stay in touch, despite the occasional technical challenge — a problem far from unique to St. Mary’s. 

“If you want perfect sound and you want a studio, go to EWTN. They’ve got professional equipment. If you want to see your priests, come talk to us,” Mosimann said he told his parishioners. 

“We’re not going to be anxious over having studio quality, because what’s important is for us to be connected to you. People responded to that. People were very grateful for that. It was very frequently cited by parishioners, how grateful they were for our staying in touch with them during that difficult moment.”

The last of Virginia’s capacity-restricting public health orders on venues was lifted in late May 2021, and Bishop Michael Burbidge of the local Diocese of Arlington in the following month lifted the dispensation he had issued, inviting Catholics to return to Mass throughout the diocese. So far, as in most U.S. dioceses, Mass attendance overall in Arlington has risen significantly but has not quite returned to pre-pandemic levels. 

Since the pandemic’s end, Mosimann said his focus has been on encouraging parishioners to use their time and talents generously to help rebuild and grow the parish community. 

For Mosimann, the pandemic experience was proof that by remaining faithful even through troubling and difficult times, God can and does bring good out of bad situations through his grace. 

“[We] did everything we could to provide the sacraments to God’s people and to make it available as much as possible with all the restrictions. That should be the goal of every parish, every day, whether there’s a pandemic or not,” Mosimann said. 

‘We are proud to be who we are’

Father Michael Hurley, OP, pastor of St. Dominic Parish in San Francisco, said his parish, which offers what he believes is the largest young adult presence in the entire archdiocese, regularly sees attendance numbers today that are similar to pre-pandemic levels. 

The parish was able to safely provide the sacraments to those in need during the pandemic and had, providentially, already set up livestreaming for Masses shortly before the start of the pandemic. To this day the parish maintains a healthy online base of Dominican laypeople who tune in for Masses and prayer. 

Hurley said he personally never worried during lockdown about people not returning to Mass, instead trusting that Catholics would return when they could. He said his main concern was keeping the church building open safely during the pandemic — in a state with some of the strictest lockdown measures in the country — to maintain sacramental support. 

California finally lifted all capacity restrictions on religious gatherings in April 2021 after previously implementing a near-total ban on indoor services that was contested all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Though the demographics of St. Dominic Parish has changed somewhat, in-person worshippers, many of whom work in the Bay Area’s high-tech sector, have returned in large numbers. 

“The Lord is always searching for the strays, right? ... All you have to do is open the doors and do what you’re doing, and people will come,” Hurley told CNA. 

That said, Hurley said he believes St. Dominic’s beautiful church building, welcoming atmosphere, and a strong sense of identity — as a Dominican-led parish that aims to “radiate the joy of the Gospel in the heart of the city” — helps to make it an attractive place for Catholics, especially young adults. They also keep the church building open for personal prayer throughout the day, a rarity in a city that occasionally struggles with crime. 

“We are proud to be who we are as Catholics, and for us as clergy, as Dominicans. And that makes a huge difference,” Hurley said.

null / Credit: Freedom Studio/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 14, 2025 / 17:40 pm (CNA).

Here are some of the major stories about the Church around the world that you may have missed this week:

3 Christian converts sentenced to over 40 years in prison by Islamic Republic of Iran

Three Christian converts in Iran have been sentenced to over 40 years in prison collectively, Article18, a London-based nonprofit dedicated to protecting and promoting religious freedom in the Islamic country, has reported.

The Iranian Revolutionary Court collectively sentenced Abbas Soori, Mehran Shamloui, and Narges Nasri, a 37-year-old woman who is pregnant with her first child, to more than 40 years in prison for charges described as “propaganda activities contrary to Islamic law.” 

Catholic nonprofits speak out against climate credit scheme targeting Indigenous Tanzanian community 

The International Cooperation for Development Solidarity (CIDSE) is speaking out on behalf of the Tanzanian Maasi community after a recently published study found the native community had been coerced into allowing carbon credit projects on their land, threatening their livelihoods. 

The CIDSE told ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, that the Maasi communities were pressured into signing unfair contracts that forced them out of their traditional grazing lands. The CIDSE condemned the dubious contracts, which it said “undermine Indigenous rights.” 

Diocese of Guinea-Bissau celebrates appointment of new bishop

The Catholic community in Guinea-Bissau is celebrating this week after the appointment of Monsignor Victor Luís Quematcha as local ordinary of the Bissau-Guinea Episcopal See on March 8, ACI Africa reported. The appointment comes almost exactly four years after the passing of Bishop Pedro Carlos Zilli in March 2021. 

Holy pilgrimage honors 10th anniversary of Coptic Martyrs in Egypt

Marking the 10th anniversary of the martyrdom of 20 Egyptian Copts and a young Ghanaian in Libya, the Apostolic Vicariate of the Latins in Egypt organized a holy pilgrimage with over 300 people to the Egyptian city of Samalut. 

Coinciding with the Jubilee of Hope, the pilgrimage took place under the patronage and participation of Bishop Claudio Lurati of Alexandria and his vicar, Monsignor Antoine Tawfik, ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, reported. 

Nigerian bishops’ conference: Unemployed youth are ‘ticking time bomb’

The president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria issued a warning this week about increased rates of joblessness among the country’s youth as violence and criminal activity continues to surge across Africa’s largest nation-state.

Archbishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji called the crisis a “ticking time bomb” for Nigeria’s youth and called for federal and state governments to take action to address unemployment among young people or risk “losing the battle against insecurity and violent crime.”

Religious freedom win: Pakistani Christian girl free from forced marriage, conversion

Pakistani courts have granted an annulment to Shahidi Bibi, allowing her to return to her father’s house and her faith, according to her legal team at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International. Bibi was forced by her mother to marry her stepfather’s brother, a Muslim man, when she was just 11 years old. During the marriage, she gave birth to two children and was falsely legally registered as “Muslim” on her identification documents. 

Cases of violence against Christians in India on the rise, report finds

According to a March 10 report from The Evangelical Fellowship of India’s Religious Liberty Commission (EFIRLC), 640 incidents of violent attacks against Christians occurred in 2024, an increase of 39 cases compared with 2023, and 147 cases recorded in 2014. 

“Attacks on Christians take various forms, including physical assaults, disruptions of prayer meetings, church vandalism, social boycotts, denial of community resources, and targeted arrests under anti-conversion laws,” the report states, adding: “Reports indicate that on average, four to five churches and pastors face attacks daily, with incidents nearly doubling every Sunday.”

Entrance to the Izaguirre ranch. / Credit: Courtesy of the Office of the Prosecutor of the State of Jalisco

Puebla, Mexico, Mar 14, 2025 / 17:10 pm (CNA).

The Catholic Church in Mexico expressed its “profound indignation and grief” following the discovery of an organized crime training and extermination camp on a ranch in Jalisco state where clandestine crematoriums were found.

The site was located on the Izaguirre ranch in the Teuchitlán administrative district, about 40 miles from Guadalajara, the state capital, by the Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco group (Searching Warriors of Jalisco), an organization of families of disappeared persons searching for clandestine graves in the hope of finding the remains of their loved ones.

In Latin America, “disappeared” is often used as an adjective and a verb. “He was disappeared” means the person was abducted and is most likely dead. 

According to the Jalisco state attorney general’s office, so far “six lots of bones have been discovered  in four locations on the property” that would correspond to more than 200 victims.

The site was already known to authorities since the National Guard carried out an operation on Sept. 18, 2024, during which 10 people were arrested, according to the attorney general’s office.

At the site, they found a tactical training area and a physical conditioning area as well as clothing and gear that would have been worn by both the criminals and their victims.

One of the ‘cruelest expressions of evil’

In its March 12 statement, the Mexican Bishops’ Conference (CEM, by its Spanish acronym) described the discovery as “one of the cruelest expressions of evil and human wretchedness that we have witnessed in our country.”

The Mexican bishops noted that these acts “directly attack the sacred dignity of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God.”

The prelates also criticized the official figures provided by Mexican authorities regarding violence. “We express our surprise that first-degree murders are supposedly down 15%, but they are trying to hide the fact that disappearances are up 40%. Unfortunately, the majority of these victims are our young people,” the CEM pointed out.

According to the website of Mexico’s Ministry of the Interior, whose data covers the period from Dec. 31, 1952, to March 14 of this year, there are 124,179 missing and unaccounted-for persons in the country, with Jalisco being the state with the highest number of cases.

The bishops called on authorities to implement effective policies to prevent “these atrocious crimes and ensure their non-repetition” while demanding that they stop “evading their responsibility or trying to hide this reality” of violence in the country.

A day after the CEM statement, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum referred to the bishops’ claim at a March 13 press conference and said their information was erroneous.

“We will keep you informed. But the episcopate does not have the correct information, and we are happy to ask the Ministry of the Interior to contact them to explain that this is not the case,” she said.

Remembering the disappeared during Lent

The Mexican bishops also called on Catholics to take advantage of this Lenten season to “pray earnestly for the disappeared, accompany the victims, and contribute to the reconstruction of the social fabric.”

They also pledged to “be a voice for those without a voice and to collaborate tirelessly in building a country where justice, truth, and unrestricted respect for human dignity prevail.”

In response to the gruesome discovery, several events will be held to pray and express solidarity with the victims and their families:

• Mass for the disappeared: The auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Mexico City, Francisco Javier Acero, will offer a Mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Mexico City at 3 p.m. local time on March 15 in honor of the disappeared persons and in support of their families.

• Vigil and national mourning: The same day at 5 p.m. local time the Conference of Major Superiors of Religious of Mexico (CIRM) will hold a vigil on the esplanade of Mexico City’s Zócalo (large central square) in front of the cathedral. “With 400 shoes and 400 candles, let us remember those who have been victims of violence and forced disappearance. Let us join in raising our voices and showing our solidarity as a Church and as a society,” CIRM said in its appeal to the community.

• Day of prayer and consolation: On March 16 in the town of Teuchitlán in Jalisco state, a pilgrimage and Mass will be held for the victims of violence and their families.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Cubans in Havana protest and cry for freedom on July 11, 2021. / Credit: Domitille P/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 14, 2025 / 16:40 pm (CNA).

Earlier this week, Cuba completed the release of 553 prisoners despite the collapse of a deal with the United States, Vatican News reported. 

In January, under the Catholic Church’s mediation, former U.S. President Joe Biden agreed to remove Cuba from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism in exchange for the early release of hundreds of prisoners. 

The deal was made following years of pressure from the U.S., the European Union, the Catholic Church, and human rights organizations urging Cuba to free anti-government protesters jailed after a 2021 demonstration. 

The Biden administration had initially called Cuba to release “political prisoners,” but Cuba less specifically agreed to gradually release “553 people sanctioned for diverse crimes.” 

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said: “As part of the close and fluid relations with the Vatican State, I informed Pope Francis of [the decision to free the prisoners] in the spirit of the 2025 Jubilee.” 

Just days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the new administration overturned the deal. Despite the administration’s reversal, Cuba continued to free prisoners intermittently.

In February, the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, called the continued release of the Cuban prisoners “a sign of great hope” at the start of the holy year and said he hoped for more “gestures of clemency.”

The vice president of Cuba‘s top court, Maricela Soza Ravelo, announced on state television on March 10 that the full release was completed, according to Vatican News. 

Cuba has not reported how many of the 553 releases were linked to the 2021 protests or disclosed a full list of the freed prisoners.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shakes hands with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin during a meeting at the Vatican on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Mar 14, 2025 / 16:10 pm (CNA).

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has provided the Vatican with a list of names of Ukrainians detained by the Russian military, requesting diplomatic mediation to secure their release.

“The Holy See has received a list of Ukrainians being held in Russian prisons and camps. We are counting on the support for their release,” Zelenskyy said in a message shared on social media.

The Ukrainian president indicated that he had a telephone conversation with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See’s secretary of state, in which he also wished Pope Francis, who has been hospitalized for a month in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, “a speedy recovery.”

“I thanked him for his prayers and moral support for our people, as well as for his efforts in facilitating the return of Ukrainian children illegally deported and displaced by Russia,” Zelenskyy said, expressing his gratitude for the prayers for Ukraine and for peace.

The Holy See’s mediation for the release of Ukrainians detained in Russia is nothing new. Ukrainian Redemptorist priests Ivan Levitsky and Bohdan Geleta were detained in Berdyansk by Russian occupation troops in November 2022 and released almost two years later following Vatican mediation.

“The voice of the Holy See is very important on the path to peace. I am grateful for the readiness to make efforts toward our shared goal,” the Ukrainian president noted.

Zelenskyy also referred to his government’s decision to approve the United States’ proposal for a 30-day temporary ceasefire. This compromise was reached two days ago after a meeting lasting more than eight hours between the two countries’ delegations in the Saudi city of Jeddah.

“The exchange of prisoners and an unconditional 30-day full interim ceasefire are the first quick steps that could significantly bring us closer to a just and lasting peace. Ukraine is ready to take these steps because the Ukrainian people want peace more than anyone,” Zelenskyy said in his post on X.

However, despite the progress in the negotiations, Ukraine launched its largest attack on Russia since the start of the war before the agreement was reached. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed it shot down 337 Ukrainian drones over several regions in that attack.

Zelenskyy commented that “meanwhile, the world sees how Russia is deliberately setting conditions that only complicate and drag out the process, as Russia is the only party that wants the war to continue and diplomacy to break down.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (right) welcomies Sovereign Order of Malta Grand Chancellor Riccardo Paternò di Montecupo and the delegation at Baabda's presidential palace on March 14, 2025. / Credit: The Sovereign Order of Malta

ACI MENA, Mar 14, 2025 / 15:40 pm (CNA).

Faithful to its ongoing commitment to supporting Lebanon, a high-level delegation from the Sovereign Order of Malta is currently touring the country. 

The official visit, led by the order’s grand chancellor, Riccardo Paternò di Montecupo, spans three days and will conclude Saturday. 

The delegation’s agenda includes multiple stops aimed at exploring ways to help Lebanon overcome its ongoing crises and support its path toward recovery and reconstruction, relying on the country’s new leadership.

The delegation’s first stop was the presidential palace in Baabda, where Montecupo met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun. He was accompanied by the order’s ambassador to Lebanon, Maria Cortese, Lebanon’s Order of Malta President Marwan Sahnaoui, and advisers François Abi Saab, Eleonore Habsburg, and Martina D’Onofrio.

During the meeting, Montecupo conveyed congratulations from the order’s grand master, John Dunlap, who expressed his eagerness to welcome Aoun to the order’s headquarters in Rome at the earliest opportunity. He reaffirmed the order’s strong commitment to Lebanon, emphasizing its dedication to the country’s stability and progress. He also mentioned that the order currently runs 60 pastoral, educational, and cultural projects across Lebanon and has signed several agreements to support its humanitarian mission.

Additionally, Montecupo highlighted a conference on Lebanon that was held last February and announced plans for another gathering in Rome on April 10.

Montecupo stressed that maintaining stability is paramount for Lebanon’s economic recovery and affirmed the order’s readiness to provide assistance, emphasizing its long-standing neutrality and independence. “We will spare no effort to support the Lebanese people,” he said.

For his part, Aoun acknowledged the challenges ahead but insisted that rebuilding Lebanon is possible with genuine political will. He underscored the importance of international support, both economically and politically. 

Aoun also referenced previous agreements between the order and Lebanese institutions, including the military, and highlighted the need for continued collaboration, particularly in the wake of destruction caused by the latest Israeli offensive. He commended the order for implementing projects nationwide, “free from political, sectarian, or religious considerations.”

Meetings with Speaker Berri and Prime Minister Salam

The delegation also met with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri at his Ain el-Tineh residence and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam at the Grand Serail. Both meetings addressed Lebanon’s political and economic landscape as well as the order’s ongoing projects.

The Sovereign Order of Malta has been active in Lebanon for over 70 years, focusing on health care, social integration, and agricultural development. This visit serves as a reaffirmation of the order’s unwavering support for the Lebanese people during the ongoing reconstruction phase. In addition to official meetings, the delegation visited several development and humanitarian project sites, including the St. John the Baptist Center in Ain el-Remmaneh and mobile medical units in the western Bekaa region.

The delegation will also inaugurate a new humanitarian agricultural project and meet with Maronite patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi in Bkerke.

This story was first published by ACI MENA, CNA’s Arabic-language news partner, and has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Archbishop Jean-Abdo Arbach. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Aid to the Church in Need

ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 14, 2025 / 15:10 pm (CNA).

The Greek-Catholic archbishop of Homs, Jean-Abdo Arbach, condemned the massacres of civilians that occurred in Syria last weekend — which left at least 1,000 dead — and urged Christians to maintain hope for an end to the violence and a return to unity and reconciliation.

Arbach emphasized the importance of the Christian community for the country’s future, telling the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that “without Christians, there can be no future for Syria” and urged the faithful to remain steadfast despite the trying circumstances.

“Christians are the roots of Syria and Syria is the cradle of Christianity. In Damascus we can still find the places where St. Paul converted to Christianity in the first century. We still have first-century churches and monasteries, and we have kept Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, alive,” the prelate emphasized.

Furthermore, the archbishop urged those responsible to stop the hostilities: “We do not want more bloodshed. We call for unity and reconciliation. After 14 years of war, we do not need another conflict.” 

The attacks, which claimed more than 1,000 lives, have been attributed to militants from the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham group, a coalition of Sunni Islamist insurgent groups that have seized power in the Middle Eastern country by overthrowing the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

“This is very painful. I ask for justice, because murdering women and children is not a good thing for Syria,” the archbishop said.

He also explained that, with the change of regime, Syria has entered a time of “great uncertainty,” with a lack of work and a shortage of food and medicine. “Many people are asking when this will end; they can’t see a future and they want to leave,” he explained.

Arbach told ACN that the situation is so desperate in Homs that he has seen many people wandering the streets in “loneliness, fear, and sadness.” The archbishop also called for an end to the international economic sanctions on Syria, which is severely impacting the country’s already deteriorating situation.

Despite the difficulties, the Catholic Church is redoubling its efforts to address the needs: “We are supporting our faithful in every sense of the word: paying rent; providing medication, food, and clothing; and also sustaining them spiritually so that they feel close to God, to encourage them to remain in their land, in their country, and to preserve Syria’s roots, which are the Christians,” the Greek Catholic prelate noted.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Mailman on the job in Salt Lake City. / Credit: Bobjgalindo, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

National Catholic Register, Mar 14, 2025 / 14:40 pm (CNA).

Democrats worried about what the Trump administration might do to curtail chemical abortions have filed a bill in Congress that would prevent the federal government from stopping the mailing of abortion pills.

The “Stop the Comstock Act” bill, filed Wednesday, would remove language in federal law that prohibits sending items that cause abortion through the mail. It is a re-file of a bill introduced in June 2024, which the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, reported on at the time.

Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minnesota, one of the bill’s sponsors, said she expects the Trump administration to use the Comstock Act to stop access to abortion.

“With Donald Trump in the White House, the threat to women’s reproductive health and freedom is more urgent than ever,” Smith said in a written statement.

Republicans control both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, and it seems unlikely the leadership will schedule a vote on it.

“The bill won’t go anywhere,” said Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee.

“Democrats are hoping this bill will energize a demoralized base, but they are doing so at the cost of women. Mailing abortion pills without an in-person doctor’s appointment can lead to complications such as severe hemorrhaging and, sadly, the possibility that a woman could lose her life,” Tobias told the Register. “Democrats want to make abortion available anywhere, under any circumstances, and at any time in pregnancy, but it’s women and their unborn babies who will suffer.”

Most abortions in the United States now occur not by surgery but through pills. In 2023 about 63% of abortions in the country took place through abortion pills, according to a survey published in March 2024 by the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion and tracks it.

Most chemical abortions in the United States use a two-pill regimen. The first, mifepristone, blocks the hormone progesterone, which is needed for a pregnancy to continue. The second is misoprostol, which the National Institutes of Health says “may be employed to induce labor following intrauterine fetal demise.”

Congress passed the Comstock Act in 1873. The federal statute, which is still on the books, prohibits “sending or receiving by mail … means for procuring abortion.” A related 1909 federal statute prohibits sending “any drug … designed … or intended for … producing abortion” by “common carrier.” 

Neither was enforced after 1973, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared a federal right to abortion in Roe v. Wade.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began allowing abortion pills to be sent through the mail on a temporary basis in April 2021, not long after President Joe Biden took office. In December 2021, the agency made the approval permanent.

But in June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the federal right to abortion when it issued its Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

That led postal officials to ask the U.S. Department of Justice if abortion pills could still be sent through the mail.

The Biden Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel said in December 2022 that mailing abortion pills does not violate federal law “where the sender lacks the intent that the recipient of the drugs will use them unlawfully.”

Trump administration officials have not yet announced whether they intend to apply the Comstock Act to stop the mailing of abortion pills. They also haven’t announced how they plan to regulate abortion pills, which supporters say are safe for women who take them but opponents argue are dangerous.

Critics of abortion pills have criticized the FDA for loosening restrictions on them during the last several years and for not tracking certain types of adverse reactions unless they are deemed serious enough.

That question came up during the confirmation hearing of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“I think it’s immoral to have a policy where patients are not allowed to report adverse events, or doctors are discouraged from doing that,” Kennedy said during a Jan. 29 U.S. Senate confirmation hearing. “President Trump has asked me to study the safety of mifepristone. He has not yet taken a stand on how to regulate it. Whatever he does, I will implement those policies. I will work with this committee to make those policies make sense.”

Last week, Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, declined to take a position on how the agency would deal with the primary abortion drug, mifepristone.

“I have no preconceived plans on mifepristone policy except to take a solid, hard look at the data and to meet with the professional career scientists who have reviewed the data at the FDA and to build an expert coalition to review the ongoing data, which is required to be collected as a part of the REMS program, the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy,” Makary said March 6 during a hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP). “It is pursuant to the REMS, and so if we’re gonna collect data, I believe we should look at it.”

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, later in the hearing said that what she called “medication abortion” has “been approved by the FDA for many, many decades based on mountains of high-quality evidence and expert scientific judgment,” and she tried to get Makary to make a commitment in favor of it.

He didn’t.

Makary, whose nomination was moved forward by the Senate’s HELP Committee on Thursday, said: “You have my commitment to come to follow the independent scientific review process at the FDA, which is a tried-and-true process and that has been around, and so that is my commitment to you, Senator.”

This story was first published by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.