St Ann Catholic Church Fayetteville, NC

Not much is known about the history and youth of St. Sixtus, but we do know that he was born in Rome, Italy and ascended to the papacy in 432.As the 44th Pope, he approved the results of the Council of Ephesus and actively protested against the heresies of Nestorianism and Pelagianism. He restored many Roman basilicas and corresponded frequently with St. Augustine of Hippo. He died on August 18 in the year 440 of natural causes.

The southern Indian state (map) is nearly 88% Hindu, 6% Christian, and 6% Muslim.

Ohio’s March 22 stay-at-home order, in effect from March 23 to April 6, lists “religious entities” among the exempt essential businesses and operations: “religious facilities, entities and groups and religious gatherings, including weddings and funerals” (p. 5). Earlier, on March 16, the bishops of Ohio had decided “to suspend temporarily all publicly celebrated Masses/liturgies, at least through the celebrations of Holy Week and Easter.”

“Solidarity must be seen above all in dramatic moments—it must be shown there’s a European identity, and moreover a Christian European identity,” said Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, president of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union.

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal upheld the province’s funding for non-Catholic students enrolled in a Catholic school.

The Catholic Church, Greek Orthodox Church, and Armenian Apostolic Church share the basilica, built over the site of our Lord’s Crucifixion and Resurrection (Encyclopaedia Britannica article). The Order of Friars Minor (Franciscan order) offers a glimpse of life at the basilica without pilgrims; seven Masses are celebrated each day.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle is prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, president of the Catholic Biblical Federation, and president of Caritas Internationalis, the Church’s federation of relief and development agencies.

The Central African nation of 2.2 million (map) is 56% Catholic, 30% Protestant, and 10% Muslim, with 3% adhering to ethnic religions.

According to Vatican statistics, the number of Catholics worldwide rose to 1.329 billion at the end of 2018, an increase of 75 million over the previous five years. During the same time period, however, the number of priests fell by 0.3%, and the number of sisters fell by nearly 8% to less than 642,000—despite strong growth in Africa and Asia. The number of seminarians worldwide also declined, from 118,251 to 115,880. (The number of major seminarians worldwide rose from 63,882 in 1978 to 110,553 in 2000, and peaked at 120,616 in 2011.)

“A statement from the office of the papal Almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, did not say where they would be sent, or if any would go to countries beyond Italy,” according to the report.