A quick FAQ guide to Catholics’ Holy Week vocabulary and key history.

Though the global situation risks plunging people into pessimism, Christians are called to pursue their vocation of becoming “men and women of hope,” Pope Francis said.

Andrew “Andy” Ciofalo, founder of what would become the communications department at Loyola University Maryland and a longtime member of the board of directors of the Cathedral Foundation that once oversaw the Catholic Review, died March 7 in Moscow.

Pope Francis’ envoy for peace in Ukraine asked his fellow bishops and all Catholics in Italy to continue their prayers for peace in Ukraine and in the Holy Land, but also to make those prayers concrete through acts of solidarity.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop William P. Callahan, 73, from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, for health reasons, and has appointed Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Gerard W. Battersby as his successor.