Catholic News Service

Pope Francis renewed his call for an Easter truce in Ukraine, as many in the country commemorate Christ's resurrection under the shadow of war.

On April 21, Texas executed a 78-year-old inmate, Carl Buntion, by lethal injection shortly after the governor of Tennessee temporarily blocked the execution of a 72-year-old prisoner, Oscar Smith, citing issues with preparations of the lethal drugs to be used.

Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki said the life and work of Project Rachel founder Vicki Thorn, who died unexpectedly April 20, stand "as a living testimony to an unwavering and unconditional defense of life at all stages, and to the mercy of God's love."

Peru's Catholic bishops published a two-page plea to the country's leaders, urging them to address the current political crisis with "greater responsibility" and take "radical measures" to fight corruption.

The planned second meeting between Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill has been canceled out of concern it could cause "confusion," and there will be no papal visit to Kyiv while war rages, Francis said in an interview with the Argentine daily newspaper La Nación April 21.

A Vatican delegation traveled to Vietnam, hoping to accelerate a process for enhancing diplomatic ties between the Holy See and Vietnam.

Mexican Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, a longtime president of the former Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, died in Rome April 20 at the age of 89.

The local ABC-TV affiliate in Quincy, where Father Augustus Tolton grew up and is buried, reported April 14 that Vatican representatives were in the United States to investigate possible miracles related to the priest's sainthood cause.

Pope Francis and the Vatican are urging world leaders to listen to the people's cry for peace, and they have backed an appeal by the head of the United Nations for an Easter truce in Ukraine.

The fourth commandment does not only imply honoring one's father and mother, but also the respect and care for the dignity of older generations, Pope Francis said.

Catholic priests, nuns and church agencies are providing some relief in East Africa's drought, which scientists and experts describe as the worst in 40 years.

Young people should not allow the darkness of fear to overwhelm them and instead allow the light of Easter to illuminate their lives and give them courage, Pope Francis said.

The allure of power and money can be used to proclaim falsehoods and obscure the joyous announcement of Christ's victory over death, Pope Francis said.

The head of the German bishops' conference responded to an open letter from more than 70 bishops from four continents and expressed surprise at some of what they said — and did not say.

The joy of Jesus' resurrection from the dead gives joy and strength to those who are called to bring peace, reconciliation and justice to the suffering and the downtrodden, Pope Francis said.during the Easter Vigil in St. Peter's Basilica.

More than 10,000 people gathered outside Rome's Colosseum prayed with Pope Francis for peace in the world, while a Ukrainian and a Russian woman held a cross together during the nighttime Way of the Cross April 15.

Jesus invites everyone to repent and to turn swords into plowshares and missiles into factories and homes, the papal preacher said during the Good Friday service at the Vatican.

The Catholic Church in Europe and other places will, as retired Pope Benedict XVI had said, be smaller and less influential, but the church's mission and joy is not to increase numbers but to share the Gospel, Pope Francis told Jesuits in Malta.

Tropical Storm Megi continues to inflict damage in the Visayas and Mindanao regions of the Philippines after making landfall April 10. By April 14, the death toll surpassed 120, with dozens remaining missing.

Pope Francis has appointed Stanley Prusiner, an American neurologist and Nobel Prize laureate in medicine, and Zeresenay Alemseged, an Ethiopian paleoanthropologist who discovered the fossilized remains of the "world's oldest child," to be members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.