Pope Leo XIV said today that the Beatitudes are “lights that the Lord kindles in the darkness of history, revealing the plan of salvation that the Father accomplishes through the Son, with the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Pope Leo XIV today called for “sincere and effective dialogue” between Cuba and the United States amid mounting tensions.

Noting that prayer is “not external to the evangelical work of the Body of Christ, but an integral part of it,” Pope Leo XIV praised the work of the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network and encouraged it to “invite young people to take part so that they may form the next generation of intercessors for the needs of the whole world.”

Pope Leo XIV encouraged participants in the general assemblies of the consecrated members of Regnum Christi to define their charism “with ever greater clarity,” to identify their own style of “authentically evangelical governance,” and to “promote ever deeper communion” within the Regnum Christi family.

Bishop Anthony Taylor, whose grandfather lost 20 cousins in the Holocaust, wrote in a recent diocesan newspaper column that “I fear that the same dynamics are now happening in our country with the decline of civil discourse.”

Hitler’s atrocities “ are not what is happening here today,” Bishop Taylor said. “But these are the kinds of atrocities to which the dehumanization of mass, indiscriminate deportation can naturally lead.”

The prelate concluded:

But aside from our political situation, I pray that we will begin to look at the immigrants and refugees in our midst not as enemies or as “other.” Not as different in color or in accent. Not as dangers or risks. But as created in the image and likeness of the same true God—as the stranger in our midst—as Jesus (Matthew 25:35). Peace be with you.

The attack on the parish in the western Ethiopian town of Itang took place on December 18, Aid to the Church in Need reported this week.

“What was more painful is to know some of them who came to loot were our own Catholic faithful, catechists, youth leaders and choir members belonging to that particular ethnic group,” said Father David Kulandai Samy.

The Conference of Bishops of France welcomed a 144-23 vote in the nation’s Senate rejecting assisted-suicide legislation.

“The Pope asked me if we wanted to withdraw for a few minutes and if I would like to confess,” Schwarzenegger said, as recalled his reply: “You don’t want to do that, it would take three hours.”

“Seven million people die every year in the world because of environmental pollution,” Schwarzenegger added during a climate-related fundraising dinner at the Stanglwirt bio-hotel. “We have to get better at that. That’s why I met with Pope Leo, and we had a wonderful conversation.”

“The Catholic Church also wants to help,” Schwarzenegger continued. “They have 200,000 churches, 400,000 priests, 650,000 nuns. Think about the power they have. Together, we can do something big about pollution.”

Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations, began a three-day visit to Slovakia on January 30 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the basic agreement, or concordat, between the Holy See and Slovakia.