Feast date: Apr 19

James Oldo experienced a radical conversion that led him to become a Franciscan tertiary, and later a priest.

He was born in 1364 into a rich family in Lodi, Italy. He married at a young age, and he and his wife both led a very self-indulgent lifesyle. One day, a traveling reproduction of the Holy Sepulchre came to thier town. As a joke, James lay down on it to compare his height to Christ's.

As soon as he laid down on it, he was instantly converted, and became a tertiary soon after.

At first, his mother and wife were opposed to the change they saw in him, but soon they grew attracted to his new ways and became tertiaries as well. The family turned their mansion into a chapel and worked with the sick and with prisoners.

When James’ wife died, he became a priest. His acts of penance were so severe that his bishop had to order him to eat at least three times a week. He was a celebrated preacher, who inspired many to enter the religious life. He also prophesied wars and his own death. He died at the age of 40 in 1404. When his body was moved seven years after his death, it was found incorrupt.

A British court has ruled that one of Britian’s highest performing schools has the right to prevent Muslim students from saying ritual prayers during lunch.

“The Claimant at the very least impliedly accepted, when she enrolled at the School, that she would be subject to restrictions on her ability to manifest her religion,” the court ruled. “She knew that the School is secular and her own evidence is that her mother wished her to go there because it was known to be strict.”

Known for its high academic and behavioral standards, the Michaela Community School is akin to a public charter school in the United States. Its headmistress, Katharine Birbalsingh, delivered a keynote address at at the leading classical education conference in the United States last year.

A Knights of Columbus council in Washington, DC, has called for the removal of Father Marko Rupnik’s mosaics from the St. John Paul II National Shrine.

The shrine, located in Washington, is a major pastoral initiative of the Knights of Columbus.

Pope Francis has written a message of encouragement to participants in the fourth global gathering of the Global Christian Forum, an ecumenical organization founded a quarter century ago.

“Throughout its history, the Global Christian Forum has contributed significantly to the promotion of this bond by providing a space in which members, especially those from different historical expressions of the Christian faith, grow in mutual respect and fraternity by encountering one another in Christ,” Pope Francis wrote to pariticipants in the gathering in Accra, Ghana.

“May this gathering, on the forum’s silver anniversary, deepen your faith and revitalize your fraternal love as you pray together, exchange your personal stories and address the challenges facing the global Christian community,” the Pope added.

Seven major Italian sees—Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Turin, and Venice—are now no longer led by a cardinal, Vatican reporter Franca Giansoldati notes in an analysis for Il Messaggero.

Pope Francis appointed archbishops of six of these sees: Archbishop Corrado Lorefice (Palermo) in 2015, Archbishop Mario Delpini (Milan) in 2017, Archbishops Domenico Battaglia (Naples) and Marco Tasca (Genoa) in 2020, Archbishop Roberto Repole (Turin) in 2022, and Archbishop-elect Gherardo Gambelli (Florence) in 2024. Patriarch Francesco Moraglia has led the Patriarchate of Venice since 2012.

Pope Francis has named bishops of less prominent Italian dioceses as cardinals, including Archbishop Edoardo Menichelli (Ancona-Osimo), Archbishop Francesco Montenegro (Agrigento), Archbishop Giuseppe Petrocchi (L’Aquila), Archbishop Augusto Paolo Lojudice (Siena-Colle di Val d’Elsa-Montalcino), and Bishop Oscar Cantoni (Como).

As has been customary, the Pontiff named the (now former) vicar general of Rome (Angelo De Donatis) and Archbishop Matteo Zuppi of Bologna as cardinals.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, visiting the Holy Land in his role as president of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Both leaders “expressed their appreciation for the role that Christian communities play in their civil societies,” Cardinal Dolan said in an interview with the Vatican newspaper.

Cardinal Dolan said that the efforts of Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, to promote peace are widely respected in the area.

“I was able to appreciate the hearing that the powerful voice of Pope Francis receives,” Cardinal Dolan added. “In both parties [Israeli and Palestinian], some find reasons to criticize him, but there is unanimous appreciation for his strong words in favor of dialogue and peace.”

Reflecting on vocational discernment, Cardinal Lazarus You Heung-sik, prefect of the Dicastery for Clergy, said that the “call to happiness” is the first vocation of all people.

“The first road signs to follow are precisely our desires, what we sense in our hearts may be good for us and, through us, for the world around us,” he said. However, “our desires do not always correspond to the truth of who we are,” and sometimes “are dictated by a selfish search for our own well-being.”

Emphasizing the importance of prayer for discernment, Cardinal You said that “a vocation is recognized when we bring our deep desires into dialogue with the work that God’s grace does within us.”

“There is a need for a new mentality and new formation paths because often a priest is educated to be a solitary leader, a ‘one man in charge,’ and this is not good for him,” he added. “We are small and full of limitations, but we are disciples of the Master. Moved by him we can do many things. Not individually, but together, synodally.”

Pope Francis received the leadership of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in an April 18 audience.

Present at the meeting were Archbishop Timothy Broglio, USCCB president; Archbishop William Lori, vice president; Father Michael Fuller, general secretary; and Father Paul Hartmann, associate general secretary.

“This is the third time I have participated with the USCCB Conference leadership for a private, hour-long audience with the Holy Father,” Father Hartmann tweeted. “It is always powerful to be in the Apostolic Palace and be able to share the good things happening in the Church in the United States.”

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, 77, as archbishop of Florence, Italy, and has named Father Gherardo Gambelli, 54, a parish priest there, as his successor.

The see of Florence is among the most prominent in Europe, with each archbishop over the past 130 years being named a cardinal. Until the appointment of Father Gambelli, every archbishop since 1888 was already a cardinal or bishop at the time of his appointment.

Father Gambelli served as a missionary in the north-central African nation of Chad (map) from 2011 to 2022. In 2018, he became rector of the cathedral in N’Djaména, the nation’s capital; the following year, he was named vicar general of the Archdiocese of N’Djaména.

With the headline “Deserts of Water, Rivers of Earth,” L’Osservatore Romano devoted the most prominent front-page coverage in its April 18 edition to climate change.

Warning that “between floods and droughts, climate change is splitting the world in two and weighing on economic development,” the newspaper reported on flooding in Dubai, Pakistan, and Kazakhstan, and drought in Colombia, Mexico, and Spain.

Citing a study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, the unsigned Vatican newspaper article stated that “because of the climate crisis, the world economy is destined to lose $38 trillion a year until 2050, with an average reduction in citizens’ income of 19%. The populations of Southern Asia and Africa will be most affected.”