Pope meets Ukrainian ambassador to Holy See (CNS) Andrii Yurash, Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, presented his credentials to Pope Francis April 7. He also met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state. Vatican Media images from the meeting showed Yurash presenting the pope with several gifts, including a traditional Ukrainian decorated round loaf of bread and a sheaf of wheat wrapped in a ribbon of the colors of the national flag: blue and yellow…

Michigan governor sues to secure abortion rights (AP) Gov. Gretchen Whitmer filed a lawsuit Thursday asking a Michigan court to recognize the right to get an abortion under the state constitution and to overturn a 176-year-old ban in the state that might take effect again if the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade ruling is vacated…

The growing religious fervor in the American right (The New York Times) The Christian right has been intertwined with American conservatism for decades, culminating in the Trump era. And elements of Christian culture have long been present at political rallies. But worship, a sacred act showing devotion to God expressed through movement, song or prayer, was largely reserved for church. Now, many believers are importing their worship of God, with all its intensity, emotion and ambitions, to their political life…

Pope asks families to write Way of Cross meditations for Good Friday 2022 (CNS) Pope Francis has asked several families to write the prayers and meditations for his Stations of the Cross service at Rome’s Colosseum on Good Friday. The request comes during the year Pope Francis asked Catholics to dedicate to families and to a rereading of “Amoris Laetitia,” his exhortation on the family, which was published in 2016…

Three sisters become religious sisters in the same order (CNA) Sister Mariana, Sister Roziane, and Sister Isabela Guimaraes are three blood sisters who embraced their call to religious life in the same congregation: the Institute of the Sisters of Our Lady of Good Counsel. Today Sr. Mariana, 50, and Sr. Isabela, 35, live in the same house of the congregation, located in Maricá in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state. Mariana is a counselor and part of the institute’s governance, and Isabela takes care of the elderly nuns. Sister Roziane, 37, lives in Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais state…