Franco Pisano

In the message for the next Youth Day, which this year is at the diocesan level, Francis invites young people to "make themselves heard". You will be able to say to your brother, to your sister: "Arise, you are not alone", and experience that God the Father loves us and Jesus is his hand outstretched to raise us up ".

According to Senator Panfilo Lacson, 2,000 to 3,000 members of China’s People’s Liberation Army may be in the Philippines, information that must still be validated by the country’s intelligence services. Police held Chinese nationals with PLA identity cards among their possessions.

For bishops, the country’s poverty and large population are a source of major concern. “We have sent brochures to priests so that during their Sunday homily, they can explain to people how they can protect themselves,” says a health professional.

Like every year, the Congregation for the Oriental Churches issued its appeal for the Pro-Terra Sancta Collection, which is held on Good Friday to raise money to help the place where Jesus lived. The Congregation also released its report on how aid money was spent last year.

A two-day national conference is underway at the pastoral centre in Bhopal. For Archbishop Leo Cornelio, its “goal is to help people get together to find local solutions and adapt their traditional agricultural methods to climate change and lower land availability and resources.”

After his last release from a Vietnamese jail, the priest has lived in Huế. He is one of many Vietnamese who believe that their government has not taken a firm stance in the controversy with Beijing over the South China Sea.

Early today, the eruption sent a 6,000-metre column of ash into the skies.

It is now possible to see documents and notes from a period that spans the years of World War II and those subsequent to the communist "threat". Particular attention can be expected on the relationship that the Catholic Church had with the Nazi and fascist regimes, especially for the controversial question of the "silence" of Pius XII on the Holocaust.

But he celebrated Mass this morning and at the end, as usual, he greeted participants. The meetings on the agenda at Casa Santa Marta continue regularly.

“If I live only to earn money, to have a good time, to gain a bit of prestige or a promotion in my work, I am living for dust,” said Pope Francis. “Even in the Church, the house of God, we have let so much dust collect, the dust of worldliness. Let us look inside, into our hearts: how many times do we extinguish the fire of God with the ashes of hypocrisy!”

Lent “is the time to turn off the television and open the Bible. It is the time to disconnect from smart phones and connect to the Gospel." "It is time to give up useless words, chatter, rumors, gossip, and give yourself to the Lord . It is the time to devote yourself to a healthy heart ecology. To clean. We live in an environment polluted by too much verbal violence, by many offensive and harmful words, which the network amplifies. Today insults are as commonplace as saying 'hello'. We are inundated with empty words, with advertisements, with subtle messages”.

“Who is the most important in the Church?” asks Francis. “The Pope, the bishops, the monsignors, the cardinals, the parish priests of the most beautiful parish churches, the presidents of lay associations? No! The greatest in the Church are those who become servants of all, those who serve all, not those with more titles.”