Bishop Alfred Schlert of Allentown announced the year in a pastoral letter.

“I was deeply saddened to hear recent reports that plans to resettle children seeking refuge from the Moria camp in Greece, to Ireland – originally scheduled for September 2020 and again last month – have been further delayed,” said Bishop Denis Brennan, chair of the Bishops’ Council for Immigrants. “I call on government to act as quickly and decisively as possible in this case to bring these children to safety and shelter.”

French President Emmanuel Macron visited the cathedral on April 15, the second anniversary of the devastating fire.

Archbishop José Gomez, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, delivered an address on “The Catholic difference on social justice.”

The remains of the Servant of God Father Emil Kapaun (1916-1951), a military chaplain in the Korean War, were identified last month.

In his video message to the conference, Pope Francis paid tribute to the work of the US bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

“A Catholic Mass led by Haiti’s leading bishops to bring attention to the country’s surging violence amid a rash of killings and kidnappings . . . ended Thursday in tear gas, gunshots and chaos,” the report begins. The Mass took place after the bishops asked Catholic institutions to take part in a national strike.

The southwestern Indian state of Kerala (map) is 55% Hindu, 27% Muslim, and 18% Christian. Two Eastern Catholic churches (the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church) have their headquarters there.

“The desire for peace prevails among the population, but also a great fear that the Taliban will return,” said Father Giuseppe Moretti, who led the Catholic mission in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2014.

“Although China is the most important missionary zone for the Church in Asia, Church affairs in China are no longer handled by the Congregation of Evangelization of Peoples, which is responsible for missionary work, but are now in the hands of the Secretariat of State, the political arm of the Holy See,” said a priest in northern China. “The actions of the Church have become political in order to serve political ends.”