Pope begs forgiveness for Canada school abuses (AP) Pope Francis apologized and begged forgiveness Friday for the “deplorable” abuses suffered by Indigenous Peoples in Canada’s church-run residential schools and said he hoped to visit Canada in late July to deliver the apology in person to all those who suffered from the Catholic Church’s misguided missionary zeal. Francis made the apology during an audience with dozens of members of the Metis, Inuit and First Nations communities who came to Rome seeking a papal apology and a commitment for the Catholic Church to repair the damage. He said he hoped to visit Canada “in the days” around the Feast of St. Anna, which falls on July 26 and is dedicated to Christ’s grandmother…

Cardinal Marx: Catechism is “not set in stone” (CNA) German Cardinal Reinhard Marx said in an interview published on Thursday that the Catechism of the Catholic Church is “not set in stone” and “one is also allowed to doubt what it says.” The cardinal made the comments in a seven-page spread in the March 31 edition of the weekly current affairs magazine Stern, reported CNA Deutsch, CNA’s German-language news partner…

Former priest sentenced to house arrest for lying to FBI (AP) An 84-year-old defrocked priest was sentenced to five years of probation for lying to the FBI about whether he knew a former altar boy and his family. Robert Brennan, of Perryville, Maryland, was ordered to spend the first two years on house arrest. Under a plea agreement, he admitted he lied to the FBI when agents visited his home in 2019 as part of a broader federal probe of priest abuse in Pennsylvania…

Malta awaits arrival of Pope Francis (Vatican News) Europe’s southernmost country is preparing to welcome a Pope for the third time in its history. in its history. After St John Paul II, who came to the Republic of Malta in 1990 and 2001; and Benedict XVI, who made the journey in 2010, Pope Francis is now set to visit the archipelago on Saturday and Sunday. It’s a trip the Pope has been looking forward to. Previously planned for May 2020, the journey was postponed because of the pandemic; now, it will inevitably be marked by the war in Ukraine and the incessant flow of refugees fleeing the bombings…

Ukrainian communities in U.S. prepare to help refugees (AP) As the United States prepares to accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees following Russia’s invasion of their country, existing communities in cities like Sacramento and Seattle are already mobilizing to provide food, shelter and support to those fleeing the war…

Survey: Americans skeptical about religious exemptions for COVID vaccines (Pew Research Center) While many public and private employers in the United States have required workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, some are allowing exemptions for people who say the vaccine violates their religious beliefs. But most U.S. adults do not believe that these requests for religious exemptions are sincere, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. Two-thirds of U.S. adults say most people who claim religious objections to a COVID-19 vaccine “are just using religion as an excuse to avoid the vaccine,” while about a third (31%) say they think the objectors “sincerely believe getting a COVID-19 vaccine is against their religion…”