OSV News

The collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, 2024, left an indelible mark on countless lives — from grieving families to stranded seafarers and displaced workers.

Catholic groups that minister to migrants and refugees are expressing concern over President Donald Trump's order to revoke the parole program that allows legal migrants from several Latin American and Caribbean countries to connect with sponsoring family members and work in the United States.

A March 24 prayer vigil at Sacred Heart Church in El Paso, which capped a rally and march that began in the city's downtown San Jacinto Plaza, drew hundreds of participants, including immigration advocates, Catholic and interfaith clergy, religious and lay faithful.

Masses were celebrated around the country March 23 as Catholics prayed for the victims of the attack, which claimed eight lives and left five injured, in the city of Salamanca in western Guanajuato state March 16.

The same day Pope Francis was discharged from Rome's Gemelli hospital after a five-week stay for treatment for double pneumonia, a group of Vatican doctors took their Lenten alms initiative a step further and helped provide medical care to a group of migrants.

Long before Catholic writer Flannery O'Connor raised her famous peacocks as an adult in rural Georgia, she kept canaries and chickens at 207 E. Charlton St., her childhood home in Savannah. A century later, it is a museum dedicated to her literary genius and fascinating personality, with big plans to mark the 100th anniversary of O'Connor's birth.

As is typical for this time of the year, college basketball enthusiasts smile more broadly, exhibit a bit more bounce in their step, and maybe even hold the door for complete strangers.
 

Journalists dismissed by the Trump administration's gutting of the federally funded Voice of America broadcaster "will not be silenced," said Metropolitan Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Archeparchy of Philadelphia.

Two Philippine priests who work with those affected by their country's deadly anti-drug campaign under then-President Rodrigo Duterte are closely monitoring developments in the former president's March 11 arrest and detention at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. They are following the news with elation and cautious hope he will be brought to justice.

Thousands of migrants are heading back to South America after new U.S. immigration policies, including the cancellation of the CBP One program, have made it harder for them to seek asylum in the U.S.

Discipline and deliciousness aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, said certified executive chef Jim Churches, president of the American Culinary Federation's Michigan Chefs de Cuisine Association and a member of St. Patrick Parish in Brighton, Michigan.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed since March 6 as Syria's security forces battled armed supporters of former Syria president Bashar Assad.

Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, is spearheading a march and vigil to protest the Trump administration's plans for mass deportations on the feast of St. Óscar Romero. Seitz will be joined by Cardinal Fabbio Baggio of Bassano del Grappa, Italy, the undersecretary of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, as well as bishops from the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

The U.S. Department of Education said March 11 it planned to cut about 50% of its workforce. Such cuts could also impact Catholic education, experts told OSV News.

The Mexican bishops' conference reiterated a call for unity as the country deals with threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, who promises to impose 25% tariffs on Mexican exports if migrants continue crossing the U.S. border and fentanyl is not stamped out.

"I hope that today, Ukraine can give America hope to not be afraid," said Metropolitan Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia. "Say what you have to say. Say what is true. Witness. Make a stand for the immigrants, for the poor, for the unjustly fired."

In February, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order pledging his administration's support for in vitro fertilization, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic Medical Association and other groups issued statements opposing the move, highlighting the many ethical problems with IVF.
 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said March 10 that just 18% of programs of the now-shuttered U.S. Agency for International Development will remain intact, and those will now fall under his purview at the State Department.

Poland's day of prayer for victims of clerical sexual abuse, scheduled each year for the first Friday in Lent, was overshadowed March 7 by a controversial opinion from the legal council of the Polish bishops' conference regarding an independent commission for the investigation of abuse cases that has been under development for the past two years.

As South Carolina prepared to carry out the first execution by firing squad in the U.S. since 2010, Catholic activists against the death penalty had sought clemency from that state's governor.