St. Mary's of the Lake Roman Catholic Church

WASHINGTON – Upon the news from the Holy See announcing the passing of Pope Francis on April 21, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued the following statement in remembrance:

Pope Francis will long be remembered for his outreach to those on the margins of the Church and of society. He renewed for us the mission to bring the Gospel out to the ends of the earth and offer divine mercy to all. He has also taken advantage of the present Jubilee to call us to a profound hope: one that is not an empty or naïve hope, but one grounded in the promise of Almighty God to be with us always. 

Even with his roots in the Piedmont region of Italy, the first Pope from our American Continent was marked by his experience as a Jesuit and a shepherd in Buenos Aires. He brought that experience and vision with him to his ministry for the universal Church.

Recently, he expressed anew prayerful hope in his letter of support to the Bishops of this country in our attempts to respond to the face of Christ in the migrant, poor, and unborn. In fact, he has always used the strongest and clearest expressions in the defense of the dignity of the human person from conception to natural death.

I last saw him at the Jubilee Mass for the Armed Forces, Police, and Security Personnel. Despite the challenges of his health, he was with us and even used a slight gesture to salute the group of bishops who concelebrated the Mass before he boarded the vehicle to return to Santa Marta.

The passage from this life of the Bishop of Rome calls us to pray for his eternal rest and to continue on our path to a deeper union with the Lord Jesus. We remember his leadership in inspiring nations, organizations, and individuals to a renewed commitment to care for each other and our common home. 

The Bishops of the United States unite in prayer with Catholics here and around the world and all people of good will in gratitude for the life of our revered shepherd. We mourn the passing of our Holy Father and beg Saint Joseph to accompany him. Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord.

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis, who died April 21 at the age of at age 88, gave new energy to millions of Catholics -- and caused concern for some -- as he transformed the image of the papacy into a pastoral ministry based on personal encounters and strong convictions about poverty, mission and dialogue.

U.S. Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, chamberlain of the Holy Roman Church, announced that Pope Francis had died at 7:35 a.m.

"His whole life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and his church," Cardinal Farrell said in a video announcement broadcast from the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where Pope Francis lived. 

His gestures -- from tenderly embracing the sick to repeatedly visiting prisoners -- touched millions of hearts. But controversy raged over his denunciations of the excesses of unbridled capitalism, his warnings about the human contributions to climate change and his insistence on accompanying, not judging, gay people.

With bronchitis and difficulty breathing, Pope Francis was admitted to Rome's Gemelli hospital Feb. 14. He was diagnosed with double pneumonia and a complex infection. He had returned to the Vatican March 23 to continue his convalescence.

God's mercy was a constant theme in Pope Francis' preaching and was so central to his vision of what the church's ministry must embody that he proclaimed an extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy for Dec. 8, 2015-Nov. 20, 2016.

Elected March 13, 2013, Pope Francis was the first pope in history to come from the Southern Hemisphere, the first non-European to be elected in almost 1,300 years and the first Jesuit to serve as successor to St. Peter.

In the first three years of his papacy, he published three major documents: "Evangelii Gaudium" ("The Joy of the Gospel"), a detailed vision of the program for his papacy and his vision for the church -- particularly the church's outreach and its response to challenges posed by secular culture; "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home," on the environment; and "Amoris Laetitia" ("The Joy of Love"), his reflections on the discussions of the synods of bishops on the family in 2014 and 2015. 

Holiness was the topic of his March 2018 apostolic exhortation, "Gaudete et Exsultate" ("Rejoice and Be Glad") in which he insisted being holy is not boring or impossible, and that it grows through small, daily gestures and acts of loving kindness.

Following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Pope Francis was an untiring voice for peace, urging an end to armed conflict, supporting dialogue and encouraging reconciliation. The pope described Russia's invasion of Ukraine as "madness" and called on the world's bishops to join him in consecrating Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. When Hamas militants attacked communities in Israel, killing scores of people and taking more than 200 people hostage in late 2023, and Israel retaliated by attacking Gaza, Pope Francis made repeated appeals for the return of hostages, a ceasefire to deliver humanitarian aid, and a real commitment to a negotiated peace. 

Promoting peace, solidarity and respect for the Earth, the pope insisted people needed to recognize each other as brothers and sisters and issued an encyclical about that, "Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship." He signed the text at the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi on the saint's feast day, Oct. 4, 2020.

Pope Francis spent much of the first nine years of his pontificate pursuing two ambitious projects: revitalizing the church's efforts at evangelization -- constantly urging outreach rather than a preoccupation with internal church affairs -- and reforming the central administration of the Vatican, emphasizing its role of assisting bishops around the world rather than dictating policy to them.

On March 19, 2022, the ninth anniversary of the inauguration of his papacy, he finally promulgated "Praedicate Evangelium" ("Preach the Gospel"), his complete restructuring of the Roma Curia, highlighting its mission to serve the church's evangelization efforts at all levels.

His simple lifestyle, which included his decision not to live in the Apostolic Palace and his choice of riding around Rome in a small Fiat or Ford instead of a Mercedes sedan, sent a message of austerity to Vatican officials and clergy throughout the church. He reinforced the message with frequent admonitions about the Gospel demands and evangelical witness of poverty and simplicity. 

Although he repeatedly said he did not like to travel, he made 47 foreign trips, taking his message of Gospel joy to North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital city, Dec. 17, 1936. He earned a chemical technician's diploma from his high school and entered the Jesuit novitiate in March 1958. After studying liberal arts in Santiago, Chile, he returned to Argentina and earned his licentiate in philosophy from the Colegio San Jose in San Miguel.

He was ordained a priest Dec. 13, 1969, and after his perpetual profession as a Jesuit in 1973, he became master of novices at the Seminary of Villa Barilari in San Miguel. Later that same year, he was appointed superior of the Jesuit province of Argentina, a role in which by his own account he proved a divisive figure because of an "authoritarian and quick manner of making decisions."

In May 1992, Father Bergoglio was named an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires. He was appointed coadjutor archbishop five years later and became archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998; Pope John Paul II named him to the College of Cardinals in 2001.

As leader of an archdiocese with more than 2.5 million Catholics, Cardinal Bergoglio strove to be close to the people. He rode the bus, visited the poor, lived in a simple apartment and cooked his own meals.

His international reputation was enhanced by his work at the 2007 assembly of the Latin American bishops' council, CELAM, and particularly by his role as head of the committee that drafted the gathering's final document on reforming and reinvigorating the church's evangelizing efforts on the continent.

Cardinal Bergoglio was a known and respected figure within the College of Cardinals, so much so that no one disputed a respected Italian journal's report that he received the second-highest number of votes on all four ballots cast in the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI.

Eight years later, Pope Benedict retired. At the cardinals' meetings prior to the 2013 conclave to elect his successor, the need to reform the Vatican bureaucracy was a common theme of concern.

Addressing the gathering, Cardinal Bergoglio warned against "self-referentiality and a kind of theological narcissism" in the church and argued the next pope "must be a man who, from the contemplation and adoration of Jesus Christ, helps the church to go out to the existential peripheries" to spread the Gospel.

His election March 13 came on the second day of the conclave, on its fifth ballot. He chose the name Francis to honor St. Francis of Assisi, "the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation," he said.

"Go out" was Pope Francis' constant plea to every Catholic, from curial cardinals to the people in the pews. More than once, he told people that while the Bible presents Jesus as knocking at the door of people's hearts to get in, today Jesus is knocking at the doors of parish churches trying to get out and among the people.

But he faced criticism for what many saw as a lack of consistency in dealing forcefully with the clerical sexual abuse crisis, especially when it came to holding bishops accountable for handling allegations and removing priests credibly accused of abuse.

And while his pontificate marked major progress in the Vatican's attempts to reach an agreement with China's communist government on the appointment of Catholic bishops, a provisional accord signed in September 2018, and renewed in 2020, 2022 and 2024, was denounced by critics as a betrayal of Catholics who risked their lives for refusing any cooperation with the communists.

Like his predecessors, Pope Francis was a strong defender of the sacredness of human life. Meeting Catholic physicians in November 2014, for example, he insisted that in "the light of faith and the light of correct reason, human life is always sacred and always of 'quality.' There is no human life that is more sacred than another" and no "human life qualitatively more significant than another."

For Pope Francis, helping the defenseless also meant paying special attention to prisoners, victims of war and, particularly, Christians and other religious minorities persecuted for their faith.

When Islamic State forces and other terrorist groups began specifically targeting Christians and other religious minorities in Syria and Iraq, and later in North Africa, Pope Francis demanded the international community act.

He frequently cited figures that the number of Christian martyrs is greater today than in the first centuries of Christianity, and he insisted the international community cannot "look the other way."

Pope Francis has died at 88

Pope Francis died April 21, 2025, at the age of 88. He had served as pope for just over 12 years.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The hope Christians have is not a sign of avoiding reality but of trusting in the power of God to defeat sin and death as the resurrection of Jesus clearly shows, Pope Francis wrote in his Easter message.

"All those who put their hope in God place their feeble hands in his strong and mighty hand; they let themselves be raised up and set out on a journey," said the message, read before Pope Francis gave his Easter blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world) April 20. 

The pope's voice was weak, as it has been since he was released from the hospital March 23, and he barely raised his arms as he made the sign of the cross, but the tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square were appreciative and clapped loudly after saying, "Amen."

"Together with the risen Jesus," he wrote in his message, those who trust in God "become pilgrims of hope, witnesses of the victory of love and of the disarmed power of life."

The 88-year-old pope, who is still recovering from pneumonia, was not present at the Easter morning Mass in St. Peter's Square but arrived shortly after noon to give the solemn blessing. 

U.S. Vice President JD Vance and his family did not attend the Mass either, but Vance arrived at the Vatican at about 11:30 a.m. for a private meeting with Pope Francis in the papal residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae. The Vatican said the meeting lasted just a few minutes and allowed the two to exchange Easter greetings.

Vance had met April 19 with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, and with Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, the Vatican foreign minister. The Vatican said they discussed efforts to defend religious freedom as well as the international situation, especially regarding countries affected by war, political tensions and difficult humanitarian situations, with particular attention to migrants, refugees and prisoners."

Security in and around St. Peter's Square was tight. Just outside the square, an Italian army officer manned a large anti-drone gun, which he said uses electromagnetic pulses to disable the drone operator's ability to control it. 

With his voice still weak, Pope Francis wished everyone a Happy Easter and then asked his master of liturgical ceremonies, Archbishop Diego Ravelli, to read his message, which insisted that "Easter is the celebration of life!"

"God created us for life and wants the human family to rise again," he wrote. "In his eyes, every life is precious! The life of a child in the mother's womb, as well as the lives of the elderly and the sick, who in more and more countries are looked upon as people to be discarded."

Pope Francis condemned the "great thirst for death" seen in violence and wars around the world and in the "contempt" people, including government leaders, direct toward "the vulnerable, the marginalized and migrants!"

As is traditional for the message, the pope also prayed for peace in war-torn nations, mentioning by name: Israel, Palestine, Ukraine, Yemen, Sudan, South Sudan, Congo and Myanmar.

Pope Francis condemned "the growing climate of antisemitism throughout the world." But he also called attention to "the people of Gaza, and its Christian community in particular, where the terrible conflict continues to cause death and destruction and to create a dramatic and deplorable humanitarian situation."

"I appeal to the warring parties: call a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace," the papal message said. 

Pope Francis had chosen Cardinal Angelo Comastri, retired archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica, to be his delegate to preside over the morning Mass and read his homily.

Some 50,000 tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, roses and other flowers and bushes decorated the steps leading up to St. Peter's Basilica while garlands framed the main entrance to the atrium of the basilica and adorned the central balcony.

Because Easter fell on the same day on the Julian and Gregorian calendars, meaning Catholic and Orthodox were celebrating on the same day, the Vatican added Byzantine "stichera" or hymns and "stichos" or Psalm verses after the chanting of the Gospel in Latin and in Greek.

The homily the pope prepared focused on the Easter Gospel's description of Mary Magdalene running to tells the disciples that Jesus had risen and Peter and John running to verify the news.

Running, the pope wrote, "expresses the desire, the yearning of the heart, the inner attitude of those who set out to search for Jesus."

And because he has risen from the dead, people must look for Jesus in someplace other than the tomb, the pope's text said.

"We must take action, set out to look for him: look for him in life, look for him in the faces of our brothers and sisters," he said. "We must look for him without ceasing. Because if he has risen from the dead, then he is present everywhere, he dwells among us, he hides himself and reveals himself even today in the sisters and brothers we meet along the way, in the most ordinary and unpredictable situations of our lives." 

Jesus "is alive and is with us always, shedding the tears of those who suffer and adding to the beauty of life through the small acts of love carried out by each of us," Pope Francis wrote.

After the Mass, the Easter blessing, Pope Francis got in the popemobile and rode around St. Peter's Square, waving to the crowd and blessing babies.

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Pope Francis: Happy Easter!

A look at Pope Francis' Easter Sunday.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As the lights of St. Peter's Basilica were extinguished and silence settled through the sprawling interior, a single flame -- the paschal candle -- pierced through the gloom, representing the light of the risen Christ which "quietly shines forth, even though we are in darkness," Pope Francis said.

Before the wounds of selfishness and violence present throughout the world, "the promise of new life and a world finally set free awaits us; and a new beginning, however impossible it might seem, can take us by surprise, for Christ has triumphed over death," he wrote in his prepared homily for the Easter Vigil at the Vatican April 19.

The pope, still recovering from respiratory infections, did not attend the Mass but he made an appearance in the basilica earlier in the day to pray, and upon exiting, he greeted a group of pilgrims from Pittsburgh present there. His homily at the Easter Vigil was read by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals.

The vigil began in the atrium of the basilica with the blessing of the fire and lighting of the paschal candle. A deacon carried the candle into the darkened church, chanting "lumen Christi" ("the light of Christ") three times, to which the congregation responded, "Deo gratias" ("thanks be to God"). As the flame was shared among the faithful, candles throughout the basilica were lit and the lights gradually rose.

After the clergy -- 34 cardinals, 24 bishops and 260 concelebrating priests -- processed to the altar, the Exsultet, the solemn Easter proclamation, was sung by Deacon Nicholas Monnin, a seminarian from the Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend studying at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

In the Exsultet, the deacon invited all of creation to rejoice in the light of Christ, a theme echoed in the pope’s homily.

"The light of the Resurrection illumines our path one step at a time; quietly, it breaks through the darkness of history and shines in our hearts, calling for the response of a humble faith, devoid of all triumphalism," Pope Francis wrote.

The pope acknowledged that the Resurrection does not erase the suffering of the world but enters into it. "We cannot celebrate Easter without continuing to deal with the nights that dwell in our hearts and the shadows of death that so often loom over our world," he said in his written message.

"Christ indeed conquered sin and destroyed death," he wrote. "Yet in our earthly history the power of his Resurrection is still being brought to fulfilment. And that fulfilment, like a small seed of light, has been entrusted to us, to protect it and to make it grow."

During the Mass, Cardinal Re baptized three catechumens: two Italians and one Albanian. He also confirmed them and gave them their first Communion.

In his homily, the pope emphasized that the Resurrection is not a private consolation but a call to witness for all Christians.

Through small, everyday actions and decisions inspired by the Gospel "our whole life can be a presence of hope," he wrote. "We want to be that presence for those who lack faith in the Lord, for those who have lost their way, for those who have given up or are weighed down by life; for those who are alone or overwhelmed by their sufferings; for all the poor and oppressed in our world; for the many women who are humiliated and killed; for the unborn and for children who are mistreated; and for the victims of war."

"In the risen Jesus," the pope added, "we have the certainty that our personal history and that of our human family, albeit still immersed in a dark night where lights seem distant and dim, are nonetheless in God’s hands."

The Holy Year 2025, Pope Francis said, is a time for renewed faith and action for Christians. "We should feel strongly within us the summons to let the hope of Easter blossom in our lives and in the world!"

"Let us make room for the light of the risen Lord," he wrote, "and we will become builders of hope for the world."

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Against the backdrop of deep differences with the Trump administration over migration and foreign aid as well as concerns for Ukraine and for Gaza, the Vatican secretary of state welcomed U.S. Vice President JD Vance to the Vatican.

Vance met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, and with Archbishop Paul R. Gallagher, the Vatican foreign minister, April 19 in the Apostolic Palace.

A Vatican statement said areas of agreement, such as the defense of religious freedom, as well as the areas of tension with the Trump administration were discussed. 

"There was an exchange of opinions on the international situation, especially regarding countries affected by war, political tensions and difficult humanitarian situations, with particular attention to migrants, refugees and prisoners," the Vatican statement said.

While "other issues of mutual interest were also discussed," the Vatican said that "hope was expressed for serene collaboration between the State and the Catholic Church in the United States, whose valuable service to the most vulnerable people was acknowledged."

The vice president arrived at the Vatican with his wife, Usha, and three children: Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel. Cardinal Parolin greeted all of them before holding talks with Vance and his entourage. 

After their meeting, the Vance family was given a tour of the Apostolic Palace and the Sistine Chapel.

"Oh, wow, look how beautiful this is," Vance could be heard saying on a Vatican video clip as he got out of the elevator when he arrived in the building. He also could be heard saying he was proud of his children because "they mostly held it together" during the long Vatican Good Friday liturgy.

Vance was in Rome for talks with the Italian government and, with his family, was visiting tourist sites in the city and participating in Holy Week and Easter services. The Vance family attended the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion in St. Peter's Basilica April 18 and was expected to attend Easter morning Mass in St. Peter's Square April 20.

A quick encounter with Pope Francis was possible Easter morning but was not scheduled officially as the pope continues to recover after a long hospitalization. 

The pope, in a letter to U.S. bishops in early February, strongly supported their traditional assistance to migrants and refugees and criticized threats and policies of "mass deportations" announced by Trump and vigorously defended by Vance. 

Pope Francis had described Trump's immigration policy as a "major crisis."

Every nation has the right to defend itself and keep its communities safe "from those who have committed violent or serious crimes while in the country or prior to arrival," the pope had written. However, "the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness."

In a January interview, Vance, who joined the Catholic Church in 2019, questioned the motives of the U.S. bishops' criticism of Trump's immigration policies, suggesting their objection to the suspension of a federal refugee resettlement program had to do with "their bottom line."

The pope and the U.S. bishops noted that helping the stranger is a Gospel tenet and, the bishops said, their work with refugees cost more than the government grants covered.

Pope Francis' February letter also responded to an assertion Vance made in a Fox News interview about the Catholic concept of "ordo amoris" (the order of love or charity).

The concept, Vance said, teaches that "you love your family, and then you love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens in your own country. And then after that, you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world."

However, the pope said, "Christian love is not a concentric expansion of interests that little by little extend to other persons and groups. In other words: the human person is not a mere individual, relatively expansive, with some philanthropic feelings!"

In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica April 18, Cardinal Parolin said the Vatican supported approaching global problems with "multilateralism and a policy based on cooperation among states, international law and diplomacy, rather than on opposition and the logic of power."

Asked about the Trump administration's growing frustration at not ending Russia's war on Ukraine, a frustration that seems focused on Ukraine's unwillingness to cede territory, Cardinal Parolin responded, "As Pope Francis has repeatedly reminded us, peace cannot be imposed, it is built patiently, day after day, through dialogue and mutual respect."

At the same time, the cardinal said, "anything that promotes a just and lasting peace is to be considered helpful."

Cardinal Parolin also was asked about Israel's continuing bombardment of Gaza and Trump's remarks that Palestinians whose homes have been destroyed in Gaza should be resettled elsewhere and the territory turned into a "Riviera."

"For the Holy See," the cardinal said, "the principles of the social doctrine of the church remain clear: Self-defense is lawful, but it can never imply the total or partial annihilation of another people or the denial of their right to live in their own land."

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JD Vance meets with Vatican secretary of state

U.S. Vice President JD Vance met with the Vatican Secretary of State April 19.

ROME (CNS) -- Today's "builders of Babel" are constructing a hell on earth, rejecting everyone they decide are "losers," Pope Francis wrote in the meditations for the Way of the Cross.

"Your way, Jesus, is the way of the Beatitudes. It does not crush, but cultivates, repairs and protects," the pope wrote for the nighttime ceremony April 18 in Rome's Colosseum.

"Today's builders of Babel tell us that there is no room for losers, and that those who fall along the way are losers. Theirs is the construction site of hell," he wrote. "God's economy, on the other hand, does not kill, discard or crush. It is lowly, faithful to the earth."

Each year, the pope usually chooses a different person or group of people to write the series of prayers and reflections that are read aloud for each of the 14 stations, which commemorate Christ's condemnation, his carrying the cross to Golgotha, his crucifixion and his burial. However, the pope himself wrote the commentaries and prayers for the Holy Year this year like he did for last year's Year of Prayer. 

For the third year in a row, Pope Francis was scheduled to follow the nighttime Way of the Cross service from his Vatican residence for health reasons as an expected 25,000 people gathered outside the ancient amphitheater.

Cardinal Baldassare Reina, papal vicar of Rome, was designated to fill in for the pope, presiding over the Good Friday ceremony and offering the final blessing at the end. Representatives of different groups were to take turns carrying a bare wooden cross, including: migrants, young people, people with disabilities, volunteers, charity workers, educators and members of "Ordo Viduarum," a group of widows who serve the church.

The pope's commentaries and prayers this year looked at how "the road to Calvary passes through the streets we tread each day."

Jesus came to change the world and, "for us, that means changing direction, seeing the goodness of your path, letting the memory of your glance transform our hearts," he wrote in his introduction.

"We need only hear his invitation: 'Come! Follow me!' And trust in that gaze of love," and from there "everything blossoms anew," he wrote, and places torn by conflict can move toward reconciliation, and "a heart of stone can turn into a heart of flesh." 

For the first station, "Jesus is condemned to death," the pope highlighted how Jesus respects human freedom and trusts everyone by placing himself "in our hands."

Pilate could have freed Jesus, but "he chose not to," the pope wrote, asking the faithful to reflect on how "we have been prisoners of the roles we choose to continue playing, fearful of the challenge of a change in the direction of our lives."

"We can learn marvelous lessons from this: how to free those unjustly accused, how to acknowledge the complexity of situations, how to protest lethal judgments," the pope wrote, because it is Jesus who is "silently standing before us, in every one of our sisters and brothers exposed to judgment and bigotry."

"Religious disputes, legal quibbles, the so-called common sense that keeps us from getting involved in the fate of others: a thousand reasons drag us to the side of Herod, the priests, Pilate and the crowd. Yet, it could be otherwise," he wrote.

For the second station, "Jesus carries his cross," the pope wrote that the bigger burden is trying to avoid the cross and evade responsibility.

"All we need to do," he wrote, "is to stop running away and to remain in the company of those you have given us, to bind ourselves to them, recognizing that only in this way can we stop being prisoners of ourselves." 

"Selfishness burdens us more than the cross. Indifference burdens us more than sharing," the pope wrote.

For the seventh station, "Jesus falls the second time," the pope underlined how Jesus was not afraid to stumble and fall.

"All those who are embarrassed by this, those who want to appear infallible, who hide their own falls yet refuse to pardon those of others, reject the path that you chose," he wrote.

"In you, all of us were found and brought home, like the one sheep that had gone astray," his meditation said.

"An economy in which the ninety-nine are more important than the one is inhumane. Yet we have built a world that works like that: a world of calculation and algorithms, of cold logic and implacable interests," he wrote.

However, he wrote, "when we turn our hearts to you, who fall and rise again, we experience a change of course and a change of pace. A conversion that restores our joy and brings us safely home."

In his prayer for the 11th station, "Jesus is nailed to the cross," the pope asked that people pray to God to "teach us to love" when "we are bound by unjust laws or decisions," when "we are at odds with those uninterested in truth and justice, and when everyone says, "There is nothing to be done."

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Jesus, who redeemed humanity by giving up his life on the cross, shows that it is not strength that saves the world, but the "weakness" of boundless love, the papal preacher told thousands of people gathered for the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion, including U.S. Vice President JD Vance.

Today's world, which is "marked by the myth of performance and seduced by the idol of individualism, struggles to recognize moments of defeat or passivity as possible places of fulfillment," Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini, preacher of the papal household, said in his homily April 18 in St. Peter's Basilica.

The Good Friday service, which commemorates Christ's passion and death on the cross, was presided over by Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches. But, following tradition, the homily was delivered by the preacher of the papal household.

Pope Francis, who was not present at the service, had asked different cardinals to lead the different liturgical events over Holy Week and Easter as he continues to recover from double pneumonia and a lengthy hospitalization. 

Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, attended the liturgy with his wife, Usha, a practicing Hindu, and his three children after meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni earlier in the day. He was in Rome for private talks with Italian and Vatican officials; he was scheduled to meet with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, April 19.

In a post on X April 18 before the liturgy, the vice president said, "I'm grateful every day for this job, but particularly today where my official duties have brought me to Rome on Good Friday."

"I had a great meeting with Prime Minister Meloni and her team, and will head to church soon with my family in this beautiful city. I wish all Christians all over the world, but particularly those back home in the US, a blessed Good Friday. He died so that we might live," Vance wrote.

In his homily, Father Pasolini said that Jesus, nailed to the cross and stripped of everything, "chooses to give us his life and his Spirit entirely. It is not a passive surrender, but an act of supreme freedom, accepting weakness as the place where love can become full."

"It is not autonomy or great feats that give meaning to life, but the ability to transform limitations into an opportunity for giving. With this gesture, Jesus reveals to us that it is not strength that saves the world, but the weakness of love that holds nothing back and surrenders itself," he said. 

The priest explained the importance of contemplating and venerating the cross during the liturgy as an opportunity to renew one's trust "in the way God chose to save the world" and in recognizing the cross is "the only possible direction of our lives."

"We know well that our strength will not be sufficient to accomplish this journey, but the Holy Spirit, who has already filled our hearts with sweet hope, will come to the aid of our weakness to remind us of the most important thing: Just as we have been loved, so we will be able to love -- friends and even enemies," he said.

"When pain, fatigue, loneliness or fear lay us bare, we are all tempted to shut down, to stiffen up, to feign self-sufficiency," he said. Yet it is during those moments that the truest love becomes possible, when one does not impose oneself, but allows oneself to be helped.

"Asking for what we need, and allowing others to offer it to us, is perhaps one of the highest and most humble forms of love," Father Pasolini said.

"To do so, we need only to abandon all pride, but also all illusions that we can save ourselves with our own strength. And to recognize that we cannot, and, above all, do not want to live all on our own," he said.

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JD Vance visits the Vatican

On Good Friday, U.S. Vice President JD Vance attended the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion in St. Peter's Basilica with his family.

ROME (CNS) -- While he did not celebrate Mass or wash the feet of inmates, Pope Francis made his customary Holy Thursday visit to a detention facility, arriving at Rome's Regina Coeli jail at about 3 p.m. April 17.

The pope was welcomed by Claudia Clementi, the jail's director, and met with about 70 inmates in the building's rotunda, a space where various wings of the jail intersect. The inmates who joined the pope are those who regularly participate in the jail's religious education program, the Vatican press office said.

In 2018 the pope had celebrated the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper at Regina Coeli, which is less than a mile from the Vatican. But his continuing convalescence, after spending more than a month in the hospital, meant there was no Mass or foot washing ritual. 

Pope Francis told the inmates, "Every year I like to do what Jesus did on Holy Thursday, washing feet, in a prison," the Vatican said. "This year I cannot do it, but I can and want to be close to you. I pray for you and your families."

The pope personally greeted each of the people in the rotonda, prayed the Lord's Prayer with them and gave his blessing.

Vatican photos of the visit also show him in the prison yard waving at inmates looking out the barred windows of their cells and waving from the rotonda to inmates pressed together against an iron and glass door hoping to see him.

The Italian Ministry of Justice website said that as of April 16, there were 1,098 men detained in the jail awaiting trial or sentencing. The facility is designed to hold fewer than 700 prisoners.

As he left the prison, sitting in the front passenger seat of a small car, he stopped to speak to reporters and told them, "Every time I enter these doors, I ask myself, 'Why them and not me?'" 

He has explained on several occasions that all people are sinners, himself included, but grace, providence, family upbringing and other factors play a determining role.

Pope Francis, who was elected in 2013, has continued a Holy Thursday practice he began as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina: usually celebrating the Mass of the Lord's Supper at a prison or detention facility and washing the feet of inmates.

In his first year as pope, he set aside the usual papal practice of washing the feet of 12 priests during a public celebration of the Holy Thursday Mass by going to a juvenile detention facility and washing the feet of Catholic and non-Catholic teens. He returned to the same jail in 2023 to wash the feet of young men and women.

In 2014, he washed the feet of people with severe physical handicaps at a rehabilitation center, and in 2016, he celebrated the liturgy and foot-washing ritual at a center for migrants and refugees.

On Holy Thursday in 2020, the COVID lockdown led the pope to celebrate the Mass at the Vatican with a small congregation and omit the optional foot-washing ritual.

Pope Francis also has celebrated the Mass at prisons outside Rome -- in the towns of Paliano, Velletri and Civitavecchia.

After the pope's "private" visit to Regina Coeli, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica, celebrated the basilica's parish Mass of the Lord's Supper.

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Reporting by CNS Rome is made possible by the Catholic Communication Campaign. Give to the CCC special collection in your diocese May 10-11 or any time at: https://bit.ly/CCC-give
 

Pope makes surprise visit to jail on Holy Thursday

Pope Francis made a surprise visit to a jail on Holy Thursday, April 17.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Especially in a Jubilee Year, but also every day, priests are called to continual conversion so that they can authentically preach the good news of hope, Pope Francis wrote in the homily he prepared for the Holy Thursday chrism Mass.

"It is God's work, not ours: to bring good news to the poor, freedom to prisoners, sight to the blind and freedom to the oppressed," the pope wrote in his text for the Mass April 17 in St. Peter's Basilica.

Cardinal Domenico Calcagno, retired president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, presided over the Mass and read the homily prepared by Pope Francis, who is still recovering from respiratory infections.

Some 40 cardinals, 40 bishops and 1,800 priests concelebrated the chrism Mass, which is named after the olive oil mixed with balsam that is blessed during the liturgy. 

In the homily Pope Francis prepared, he focused on the connection between the Holy Year 2025 and the Gospel reading, Luke 4:16-21, which recounts how Jesus went into the synagogue in Nazareth, opened the Scriptures and read a "jubilee" proclamation:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord."

As ministers of Christ's continued presence, Pope Francis wrote that "for us priests, the Jubilee Year thus represents a specific summons to a new beginning on our path of conversion. As pilgrims of hope, we are called to leave clericalism behind and to become heralds of hope."

The words of Jesus, he said, must become a reality in the lives of those who are ordained for service.

"The poor before all others, children, adolescents, women, but also any who have been hurt in their experience of the church -- all these have a 'feel' for the presence of the Holy Spirit; they can distinguish him from worldly spirits, they recognize him in the convergence of what we say and what we do," the pope wrote.

Ordained ministry involves effort and, often enough, priests will not see the results of their labors, Pope Francis wrote. But "despair has no place." 

"Every farmer knows seasons when nothing seems to grow," his text said. "There are also times like these in our lives. It is God who gives the growth and who anoints his servants with the oil of gladness."

After the homily, the clergy present renewed the promises made to their bishop at their ordinations and pledged to strive to be more united to Christ, "faithful stewards" of the sacraments and zealous pastors of souls.

Deacons then wheeled large silver urns of oil down the center aisle of St. Peter's Basilica to be blessed by Cardinal Calcagno. The blessed oils will be distributed to Rome parishes and used for the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, ordination and the anointing of the sick in the coming year.

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Reporting by CNS Rome is made possible by the Catholic Communication Campaign. Give to the CCC special collection in your diocese May 10-11 or any time at: https://bit.ly/CCC-give
 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- U.S. Vice President JD Vance will be in Rome April 18 and has meetings planned with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, his office said.

Although the visit had been rumored for weeks and was published on Meloni's official schedule days early, the vice president's office confirmed the trip April 16.

The announcement said Vance "and the second family" will travel to Italy and India April 18-24.

"The vice president will discuss shared economic and geopolitical priorities with leaders in each country," the announcement said.

No mention was made of possible topics of discussion for Vance's meeting with Cardinal Parolin.

The announcement did not provide a detailed schedule, but Vance, who became Catholic in 2019, could attend the Good Friday Liturgy of the Lord's Passion in St. Peter's Basilica April 18 or Easter morning Mass in St. Peter's Square April 20.

The Vatican press office had said April 15 that it had no information to share about Vance's trip, but if the vice president were to participate in one of the liturgies, it would let people know.

Pope Francis, who is recovering from respiratory infections, held a brief private meeting with Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla April 9, but other heads of state who have visited the Vatican since he was released from the hospital met only with Cardinal Parolin and other officials of the Secretariat of State.

At the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington in late February, Vance had said he was "surprised" by Pope Francis' criticism of the Trump administration's immigration policy.

In a letter to the U.S. bishops a few weeks earlier, Pope Francis had praised the bishops for their efforts to assist migrants and refugees and repeated his criticism of the Trump administration's declared plans to institute "mass deportations."

Pope Francis had said, "The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality."

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Reporting by CNS Rome is made possible by the Catholic Communication Campaign. Give to the CCC special collection in your diocese May 10-11 or any time at: https://bit.ly/CCC-give