The Church of St. Luke

Roughly 5,000 fans recently filled the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, for ChosenCon.

While migration into Mexico from the south and from Mexico to the U.S. has significantly decreased, it hasn’t completely stopped, and challenges still remain for Catholic migrant shelters there.

While migration into Mexico from the south and from Mexico to the U.S. has significantly decreased, it hasn’t completely stopped, and challenges still remain for Catholic migrant shelters there.

A nonprofit hopes to generate enough small donations to construct a papal tiara for Pope Leo XIV as a gift from American Catholics.

A nonprofit hopes to generate enough small donations to construct a papal tiara for Pope Leo XIV as a gift from American Catholics.

The USCCB president called for the protection of innocent lives and asked for the intercession of Mary, Queen of Peace, in his statement Sunday.

ROME (CNS) -- Life is a journey that requires trust and reliance on Jesus, who sometimes asks his disciples to leave everything behind, Pope Leo XIV said.

While it may be tempting to flee from the uncertainty of heading into the unknown, it is precisely in this "dizzying vertigo" that people of faith will find God's promise of unexpected greatness, he said in a homily during a Mass celebrated at a small parish in Rome March 1.

While it is normal to try to have everything under control, he said, "we miss the opportunity to discover the true treasure, the precious pearl, as the Gospel teaches us, which God has surprisingly hidden in our field."

Pope Leo was visiting the Church of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the working-class neighborhood of Quarticciolo for the second Sunday of Lent as part of a series of parish visits in the run-up to Easter. 

The neighborhood has experienced an increase in crime and drug-dealing. The church and local community, however, have been active in building initiatives to create job opportunities and strengthen essential services and solidarity. 

"You are signs of hope," he told the parishioners in his homily.

Faced with so many complex problems, he said, "you are entrusted with the pedagogy of the gaze of faith, which transfigures everything with hope, putting passion, sharing and creativity into circulation as a cure for the many wounds of this neighborhood."

It is easy to become discouraged and doubt efforts make any sense when so many things are not right in the world, he said. "Instead, it is precisely in the face of the mystery of evil that we must bear witness to our identity as Christians, as people who want to make the Kingdom of God perceptible in the places and times in which we live."

Life, he said, "is a journey that requires trust; it requires reliance on the Word of God, who calls us and sometimes asks us to leave everything behind."

For example, he said, Abraham's journey began with the loss of his homeland, but he was led to a new land with many descendants and "where everything becomes a blessing."

"If we allow ourselves to be called by faith to walk the path, to risk new decisions in life and love, we, too, will cease to fear losing something, because we will feel ourselves growing in a wealth that no one can steal," the pope said. 

Another example, he said, is Jesus' "Eucharistic gesture," that is, his willingness to offer his body as bread to eat and to live and die to give life.

In fact, Sunday is a chance to take a moment during the journey to gather together around Jesus, who "encourages us not to stop and not to change direction" and to know there is "no more precious treasure than to live in order to give life!"

"Listen to Jesus!" Pope Leo said. "He travels with us, even today, to teach us in this city the logic of unconditional love, of abandoning every defense that becomes an offense."

"Let us enter into his light to become light of the world, beginning with the neighborhood where we live," he said, because "the whole life of the parish and its groups exists for this: it is a service to light, a service to joy." 

Pope Leo is the third pope -- after St. John XXIII in 1963 and St. John Paul II in 1980 -- to visit the church, which is overseen by the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, also known as the Dehonians.

During the late afternoon visit, the pope met with children and young people active in the Jesuits' MAGIS program. The young adults gave the pope a soccer ball and the black and gold jersey of their local soccer team, the Lions.

The pope also met with vulnerable members of the community, including the elderly, the ill and parents whose children's drug addictions led them to incarceration. He also spoke with members of the parish's pastoral council and priests.

WASHINGTON - As reports emerge regarding the escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, urgently called upon the United States, Iran, and the broader international community to return to dialogue and pursue every avenue toward a just and lasting peace.

Echoing the heartfelt appeal of Pope Leo XIV to halt the spiral of violence before it becomes “an unbridgeable chasm,” Archbishop Coakley emphasized the critical need for restraint and for all parties to take concrete steps to end the conflict, work for peace and protect innocent lives. His full statement follows:

“The growing conflict risks spiraling into a wider regional war. As the Holy Father has warned, we are faced with the possibility of a tragedy of immense proportions. My brother bishops and I unite our voice with our Holy Father and make the heartfelt appeal to all parties involved for diplomacy to regain its proper role. We ask for a halt to the spiral of violence, and a return to multilateral diplomatic engagement that seeks to uphold the ‘well-being of peoples, who yearn for peaceful existence founded on justice.’ All nations, international bodies, and partners committed to peace must exert every effort to prevent further escalation.

“At this critical moment, I invite Catholics and all people of goodwill to continue our ardent prayers for peace in the Middle East, for the safety of our troops and the innocent, that leaders may seek dialogue over destruction, and pursue the common good over the tragedy of war. We implore the intercession of our Blessed Mother, Mary, Queen of Peace, to pray for our troubled world and for a lasting peace.”

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Echoing what seems to be a growing phenomenon, Bishop Niall Coll said young Catholics in Ireland are looking for clarity, coherence, and tradition in their search for truth.

Newly ordained Father Erlin Pérez Vásquez shares his journey to the priesthood and the incredible blessings he received along the way.