St. Maria Goretti Parish

Former prisoners of the German Nazi concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau view what is happening in the world today with concern. They ask themselves whether the most difficult lesson of their lives will continue to offer humanity any wisdom at all, says the Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, in an interview with Vatican News on Holocaust Remembrance Day.

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Eighty-one years after the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp was liberated, we remember the millions of lives lost to the Holocaust and focus on preventing the recurrence—in any form—of this form of “hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice”.

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Following the halt in fighting, aid deliveries have increased. However, 100 children have died and nearly 100,000 remain severely underfed and in need of constant care.

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North Korea fired several suspected short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Tuesday.

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Cardinal Prefect Victor Fernández opens the plenary assembly of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and calls for care and intellectual humility when pronouncing on delicate theological issues.

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Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, presided over Mass at the Cathedral of Copenhagen as the Papal Legate for the celebrations marking the 12th centenary of the start of Saint Ansgar’s mission in Denmark, and recalled the relevance of the Benedictine monk in a world wounded by new forms of slavery and marked by exclusion and indifference.

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Barham Salih, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, tells Vatican News about his meeting with Pope Leo XIV and the challenges the organization faces in assisting refugees across the globe.

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WASHINGTON - On Ash Wednesday, February 18, Catholics in dioceses across the United States are invited to give to the annual Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

This collection, which is in its 35th year, continues its mission of helping churches in nearly 30 countries recover from militantly atheist communist rule, including ministry and relief efforts related to the war against Ukraine.

Bishop Gerald L. Vincke of the Diocese of Salina, chairman of the USCCB’s Subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, witnessed the collection’s work in Ukraine last March. “I visited a shelter for families whose homes were destroyed and an orphanage for children whose parents were killed. Veterans I met with expressed their gratitude for therapy they have been able to receive for their post-traumatic stress,” he said.

“An elderly man who had survived a Siberian gulag told me, ‘What gives me hope is that, in the end, evil does not win.’ He is right – but that requires all of us to follow Christ’s call to build the kingdom of God. Pope John Paul II knew that in 1990 when he urged Catholics in the United States to join the great rebuilding effort in lands newly liberated from communist oppression – lands from which many of our families had immigrated,” continued Bishop Vincke.

The Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe was the U.S. bishops’ response to that call. Many dioceses take up this annual collection on Ash Wednesday, though some dioceses have different dates. The online giving site iGiveCatholic also accepts funds for the program.

In 2024, gifts to the collection funded 547 grants totaling more than $9.5 million. Examples of how donations are used include:

• In Kokshetau, Kazakhstan, sisters of the Community of the Beatitudes expanded their mission of evangelization by establishing a day center for preschool children with Down syndrome and their families.
• In the Slovak Republic, a multi-faceted outreach to vulnerable pregnant women provides material assistance, counseling, training in prevention of abuse, and “Evenings of Mercy” a gathering featuring Mass, confessions, and healing prayers.
• One of the many projects in Ukraine trains lay leaders in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Exarchate of Lutsk to develop new skills in pastoral and social ministry so they can help bring hope and comfort to people who have lost everything.
• A thousand-year-old Benedictine monastery in Hungary is helping clergy and laity discover the teachings of Vatican II on topics ranging from liturgy to interfaith relations.
• In Bulgaria, a village church has been able to engage in digital media evangelization and now offers a post-abortion healing ministry. They were also able to send young pilgrims to the Jubilee in Rome and financed English-immersion studies for a priest in order to reach non-Bulgarians.

“For 35 years, your contributions to the Collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe have made a profound difference. You have rebuilt cathedrals, renewed hope, healed the suffering and brought joy where there had been despair,” Bishop Vincke said. “As these churches continue to heal from old wounds and suffer new ones, it is my hope that you give generously and become part of our ongoing and loving response.”

Additional information on grants and impact is at www.usccb.org/ccee.

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Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle marks 80 years since the establishment of the Diocese of Hong Kong and encourages the more than 400,000 Catholics to “bring hope to society” and become “courageous witnesses of the Lord”.

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A United Nations convoy carrying aid arrives in the Kurdish-majority town of Ain al-Arab in northern Syria as a ceasefire between the Syrian army and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces continues to hold.

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