On March 23, Pope Francis received over 1,000 students from the Collegio Vescovile Barbarigo in Padua on the 100th anniversary of its founding (video).

On March 22, Capuchin Franciscan Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher of the papal household since 1980, delivered the second of five Friday Lenten sermons in the Redemptoris Mater Chapel of the Apostolic Palace. The sermon’s three sections were “Interiority, a Value in Crisis,” “Interiority in the Bible,” and “The Return to Interiority.” His first sermon, preached on March 15, was entitled “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

On March 22, Pope Francis received the managers and members of the Centro Turistico Giovanile (Youth Tourism Center) on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of its founding by Carlo Carretto (1910-1988).

The Office of the General Counsel of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops also offered comments on the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to roll back regulations on mercury emissions.

The cyclone—one of the worst on record—affected millions of people in Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe.

During his March 25 visit to Loreto, Pope Francis signed Christus Vivit (“Christ Lives”), the apostolic exhortation summarizing the work of the 2018 Synod of Bishops, which was devoted to youth and vocation. The Vatican is expected to release the text of the document soon.

The Indian state of West Bengal (map) is 71% Hindu, 27% Muslim, and less than 1% Christian.

On March 21, Pope Francis visited the Roman office of Scholas Occurrentes. Founded by the future Pope Francis in 2001, the group seeks to “educate young people in the commitment for the common good” and to “implement the culture of the meeting for peace through education.”

“In our time, in fact, increasingly often prevention and treatment become the prerogative of those who enjoy a certain standard of living, and therefore can afford it,” Pope Francis told members of the Italian Federation of Primary Care Pediatricians. “I encourage you to work to ensure that this inequality is not added to the many others that already afflict the weakest, but rather that the health system assure assistance and preventative care to all, as rights of the person.”