CNA Staff

A joint statement from the bishops of Denver, Colorado Springs, and Pueblo on April 6 announced that the Sunday and Holy Day Mass obligation will be restored on Pentecost, May 23.

Archbishop John Wilson of Southwark made a pastoral visit to the church on Saturday. The archbishop spoke with clergy and a number of parishioners present at the church, assuring them of his closeness in prayer and offering them his support following the incident.

Some sources trace the tradition back to Peruvian Jesuit priest Francisco del Castillo, who in 1660 preached for three hours on Good Friday, comparing the sufferings of Christ with the sufferings of the slaves and indigenous people.

“The rise in violence against Asian people across the country is alarming and horrific to all people of right reason,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone wrote in a March 30 statement.

The Buffalo News reported that the diocese spent $3.8 million on bankruptcy-related expenses in its first year of bankruptcy. This amount nearly rivals its budget for the diocese’s 34 Catholic elementary schools.

Renewing his earlier criticism of the intervention by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the Archbishop of Vienna told the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) March 28 that he was concerned by both the timing and form of the ruling.

The former bishop of Hong Kong said March 30 that if he could, he would fly to Rome and kneel outside the pope’s residence until the decree was withdrawn.

Asked by reporters if he intended to resign, Woelki said: “To simply accept moral responsibility and go -- to protect the standing of the episcopate and the Church -- would be too easy and is, in my view, wrong.”