Downtown Baltimore’s three major hospitals received Catholic blessings the morning of April 8.

While the coronavirus pandemic has proven challenging for schools and parents in educating children, it is also a chance for Catholic schools to confront those challenges with courage, said the Congregation for Catholic Education.

Pope Francis has established a new “Study Commission on the Female Diaconate” as a follow-up to a previous group that studied the history of women deacons in the New Testament and the early Christian communities.

Visits to the sick are taking new forms in the age of the coronavirus pandemic.

To the soundtrack of the official hymn of Recife’s Galo da Madrugada, said to be the largest carnival block in the world, Franciscans from five convents in northeastern Brazil dance to a typical Brazilian rhythm known as the frevo with one request: “Fique em Casa” (Stay Home).