Archbishop William E. Lori of of the Diocese of Baltimore has decided to lower the age of confirmation to 9 years old in a move designed to strengthen the formation of Catholic youth by increasing family involvement.

Amid growing disaffiliation from the US Church, Catholic leaders across the country are striving to better catechise young people by lowering confirmation age requirements, reports the Catholic News Agency (CNA).

The move by Archbishop Lori is part of a trend emerging in other dioceses across the country. The dioceses of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Salt Lake City both lowered confirmation age requirements in December 2024. Other archdioceses including Seattle, Boston and Denver have lowered their confirmation ages in recent years as well.

As the March issue of the Catholic Herald went to press it was not clear when Pope Francis would be leaving the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, or indeed in what condition; it was a sobering lesson for anyone who has relied on his robustness over the last few years, and his tendency to bounce back from the ailments with which he has been beset.

The Pope remains very poorly indeed, and the bizarre updates detailing papal breakfasts and intimate medical procedures have been unsettling, to say the least. It is twenty years since a pope died in office, and the Church is out of practice.

ROME – Pope Francis Wednesday today had a good day, the Vatican has reported, which included calling the Catholic parish in Gaza and stepping up respiratory and mobility exercises.

In a March 5 statement, the Vatican said Pope Francis “remained stable” throughout the day and had no episodes of respiratory difficulty or failure.

During the day, he received high-flow oxygen through the nose as planned, and use of non-invasive ventilation will be used during the night, as has been the case for the past two days, after experiencing a respiratory spasm.

The bishops of the European Union have rallied in support of the Ukrainian people and have urged European institutions to do the same.

Their comments, which appear to give a somewhat mixed message regarding the need for negotiations to achieve peace while at the same time indicating their approval of plans by EU political leaders to massively increase military spending, come after the US government announced it plans to halt military support to Ukraine following an explosive meeting at the Oval Office between the respective leaders of the US and Ukraine. 

A recent study by the Pew Research Center on religion in the US shows that the precipitous decline in the Catholic share of the population that was experienced in the early 2000s through to the early 2010s has more or less levelled off over the last decade.

However, that seemingly “good news” is offset by the fact that the proportion of Hispanic Catholics, often seen as a bulwark for maintaining Catholic numbers in the US, has reduced far more than was expected.

In 2014, Catholics made up 21 per cent of the US population. In 2023-24, Catholics still make up 19 per cent of the population. But while the percentage of the White, Black and Asian adults in the United States who identify as Catholic has remained relatively steady since 2007, the percentage of Hispanic adults who identify as Catholic has steeply declined.

Archbishop Timothy Broglio has called for “courageous negotiations” to secure peace in Ukraine in an echo of sentiments previously expressed by Pope Francis.

The comments by the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) come in a new Lenten reflection, which marks a first for the archbishop, published just a few days after a tense interaction between President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 

When US Vice President JD Vance stood up at the Munich security conference and told European elites that the internal threats to Western values alarmed him more than external menaces, he voiced concerns held by many citizens across European.

Yes, falling under the iron rule of China or Russia is a fearful prospect; but more urgent is the erosion of individual freedom right now at the hands of the very European governments supposedly responsible for protecting it.

It is all very well knowing what we are defending ourselves from, warned Vance, but do we know what we are defending ourselves for? The latter is well worth pondering this Shrove Tuesday and as we embark into Lent.

Despite his longest hospitalisation to date, due to a complex respiratory infection and double pneumonia with an unclear prognosis, Pope Francis has still managed to project the message that he remains in charge even from his hospital room.

With no “vice-pope” to pick up the slack, the centre of government for the Catholic Church the past two weeks has no longer been the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City, but the papal suite on the 10th floor of Gemelli Hospital in Rome.

Since the beginning of his papacy, Pope Francis has gained a reputation for unpredictability and impulsiveness and a style of papacy that has confounded close aides and top officials, leaving almost everyone perpetually unclear what course of action he will taken on a given matter, and when.

In my February column for the magazine – written prior to the inauguration of President Trump and Vice President Vance – I wondered if the political and cultural tide may be turning in the United States. I offered a tentative “maybe”, based upon an analysis of voter responses to big-ticket issues in the campaign, such as abortion and transgender ideology. As I write these words a few frenetic weeks into the new administration, I have modified my answer to a resounding, “yes”. A seismic shift in political and legal institutions is occurring that may have enduring cultural effects.

After the White House bust-up between US President Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, voices against the second administration of the controversial US leader have continued to rise.

People across the spectrum of opinion have, as has happened before repeatedly, been comparing Trump to Adolf Hitler, especially on social media. When this happens, it’s worth bearing in mind a theory first articulated by American lawyer, author and pioneering theorist of the internet meme, Michael Godwin.

Godwin’s Law states: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.” Comparing someone to a villain who must be on almost everyone’s short list of history’s worst is cheap and easy, even and especially when it is done in earnest.

“First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye” (Luke 6:42)

In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus uses a vivid image of us having a log in our eye: it seems absurd that someone could not see or feel such a thing. But we are all capable of an even greater absurdity on the spiritual level when we think we know ourselves completely. A blind man would never offer to lead someone else anywhere, but when we direct others spiritually without due preparation ourselves, we are doing worse.

But how can we discover our hidden sins, the “log” in our eye?

At Easter we are asked, as we renew our baptismal promises, whether we renounce Satan: we dutifully reply: “I do.” During the rest of the Church’s year, mentions of Satan at Mass are few and far between – although he appears quite often in St Mark’s Gospel – but perhaps we would benefit from paying more attention to what Jesus Himself tells us about Satan’s role in the universe.

This may help us towards better answers to two troubling questions. First, why, if God is omnipotent, does He permit evil – not only moral evil, but also the evil of physical pain? And secondly, in the light of modern scientific discoveries, no one would sensibly claim that Genesis is to be understood as a science manual giving a literal account of Creation. How, therefore, are we to understand its teaching on the Fall?

US Vice-President JD Vance has responded to Pope Francis’s criticisms of the Trump administration’s immigration policies in a speech at the annual National Catholic Prayer Breakfast held in the US capitol.

While not backing down from his more stringent immigration stance, the US vice-president was conciliatory, commending the Holy Father for his care of his spiritual flock, and praying for his health and recovery following his recent hospitalisation.

“Every day since I heard of Pope Francis’s illness, I say a prayer for the Holy Father because while, yes, I was certainly surprised when he criticised our immigration policy in the way that he has [done so], I also know that the Pope, I believe that the Pope is fundamentally a person who cares about the flock of Christians under his leadership, and he’s a man who cares about the spiritual direction of the faith,” Vance said.

Ukrainian Archbishop Borys Gudziak has spoken out on the tense meeting that occurred between President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Commenting on the meeting that took place in the White House on 28 February during which the three leaders openly clashed, the Ukrainian archbishop highlighted five words: “Unity. Dignity. Resilience. Sacrifice. Gratitude.”

Gudziak, who leads the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia, and is president of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, told Crux in an email: “These are the words that are in my heart on this turbulent day. These words define modern Ukrainian history. They have become even more pronounced over the years of Russian aggression against Ukraine.”

The label (not to mention idea) of “free speech” is really a bit of a misnomer, despite free speech being in the limelight after JD Vance, speaking to the Munich Security Conference on 14 February, said: “Free speech, I fear, is in retreat…”

Speech, of course, is never entirely free as we can never say absolutely anything we like. Traditionally, the line was drawn where speech incited or provoked violence. The Public Order Act 1986, for instance, criminalises the use of “threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour” with the intent to cause others to believe that violence will be used against them.

Pinnacle Peak Pictures, the studio behind The Case for Christ and God’s Not Dead, has released a new film well in time for Easter: The Last Supper. Directed by Mauro Borrelli and filmed in Morocco, it will appear on US screens from March 14. Jamie Ward stars as Jesus, Robert Knepper as Judas, and James Oliver Wheatley as Peter. Other star turns are Charlie MacGechan as John and James Faulkner as a terrifyingly intelligent and cunning Caiaphas.

An 88-year-old Japanese man who at one point was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been presented with a rosary blessed by Pope Francis.

Archbishop Isao Kikuchi of Tokyo recently visited Iwao Hakamada, a former boxer and convert to Catholicism, to make the presentation of the papal gift to the now officially innocent octogenarian.

Following his release from prison in 2014 because of new DNA evidence – after 48 years on death row – Hakamada still wasn’t officially proclaimed innocent until his definitive acquittal a decade later.

Moments after stating that he has no current plans to meet with President Donald Trump, emphasising what he stressed is the intrinsically pastoral, not political, role of the Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Robert McElroy revealed that he recently held a “lengthy” call with former President Joe Biden.

“I’m going to Washington as the Archbishop of Washington, which is a pastoral role,” McElroy said. “That is, my role is the leadership of the Catholic community of Washington and all that brings with it,” he added, noting that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is the Church’s primary government liaison.

Pope Francis has established a commission aimed at boosting donations to the Vatican as it faces a crippling deficit, including a looming crisis in its pension system. The composition of the commission’s membership, and the way it will work, means that prominent female religious figures in the Vatican will play a signifiant role.

The Pope has previously lauded the role of women and the contributions they can make in the Catholic Church, despite being unable to be ordained, and has made a point during his papacy of appointing more women to leadership roles in the Vatican.

As Pope Francis enters his 14th day at Gemelli Hospital, now the longest of his four stays at the polyclinic in Rome, some observers may be tempted to regard the long papal hospitalization as exceptional.

But the current pontiff is still far off the length of hospitalisation experienced by Pope John Paul II, now St. John Paul II.

Indeed, as of this morning, Francis’s stay at Gemelli in terms of longevity ties for fifth place with the same number of days that John Paul II was hospitalised in 1992 for the removal of a benign intestinal tumour in July that year.