Americans are talking about confidential communications this week, after cabinet secretaries, the vice president, and other senior Trump administration officials came under fire for including a journalist in a group chat that debated, planned, and provided updates on a March 15 bombing run against Houthi targets in Yemen.

The number of Catholics and permanent deacons in the world rose in 2023, while the number of seminarians, priests, men and women in religious orders, and baptisms all declined, according to Vatican statistics. However, the Vatican’s Statistical Yearbook of the Church said, 9.1 million people received their first Communion in 2023, up from 8.68 million people the previous year, and almost 7.7 million people were confirmed, up from 7.4 million people in 2022.

An estimated one-fifth of adults around the world have left the faith group in which they were raised — with Christianity and Buddhism experiencing especially large losses from this “religious switching,” a new study reveals. The figures — compiled by the Pew Research Center following surveys of nearly 80,000 people in 36 countries...

The selection of former president of Ireland Mary McAleese as the commencement speaker for the Saint Mary's College class of 2025 was announced to students via email March 6. Since then, both Belles for Life and The Loretto Trust have made statements calling for McAleese's offer to be rescinded, with the former calling her invitation “a grave scandal to the Catholic faith.”

Mel Gibson’s sequel to “The Passion of the Christ” — “The Resurrection of the Christ” — is set to begin production in Italy this August, according to Manuela Cacciamani, CEO of Rome’s Cinecittà Studios.

She’s not to everyone’s taste. Tuesday was the 100th birthday of the writer Flannery O’Connor. She’s got her own volume in the Library of America series, the writer’s equivalent of the Hall of Fame, but you’re more likely to read her in a classroom than a book club. Her stories appeared not only in the more literary magazines...

Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney this week credited the apparently miraculous survival of an Arizona toddler to the intercession of Cardinal George Pell. According to the newspaper The Australian, Fisher said at a book event on March 26 that he had learned that an 18-month-old boy had been discharged from a hospital in Phoenix after going 52 minutes without breathing following a fall into a pool.

Today is the last solemnity in the Lenten season until we get to the Solemnity of All Solemnities on April 20. Still, today’s solemnity sets the course for what we will celebrate on Easter Sunday. It is a day when the Church gathers to pray and remember when Christ became incarnate within the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is this day when the Angel Gabriel appears to Our Lady and although confused at first by the angel’s announcement, she boldly proclaims her Fiat – her yes, be it done unto me according to thy word.

As hundreds of Missionaries of Mercy gathered in Rome this weekend, Pope Francis commended their distinctive ministry of forgiveness and reconciliation that continues to flourish worldwide.Approximately 500 priests are participating in a special jubilee dedicated to their role as part of the broader 2025 Jubilee of Hope.

Pope Francis on Monday appointed Bishop Michael McGovern of Belleville, Illinois, to lead the Archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska, after he accepted the resignation of Omaha Archbishop George Lucas.McGovern, 60, has led the Diocese of Belleville since April 2020. The Chicago native will be installed as archbishop of Omaha in the Cathedral of St. Cecilia on May 7.