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The personal secretary of Pope Emeritus Benedict the sixteenth has been in isolation for the past ten days after testing positive for COVID-19, according to German media. Archbishop Georg Gänswein has been in isolation since April 11, a time period that included all of the Easter Triduum and Benedict’s 95th birthday. Benedict has tested negative for COVID-19, according to Gänswein, as have all other residents of the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, the retired pope’s residence inside of Vatican City. Both Benedict and Gänswein have received three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251023/benedict-xvis-secretary-in-isolation-after-testing-positive-for-covid-19
Pope Francis has joined the head of the United Nations and the leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in a call for a four-day truce in Ukraine for the Triduum and Easter. The Eastern Orthodox churches and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church follow the Julian calendar, meaning they will celebrate Easter on April 24 this year. The Vatican announced on April 21 that Pope Francis had joined the UN chief's appeal, after the pope had called for an Easter truce in Ukraine during Palm Sunday Mass on April 10.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251024/pope-francis-joins-un-chief-s-appeal-for-ukraine-war-easter-truce
A West Virginia priest is speaking publicly about his role in providing a funeral Mass and dignified burial for more than 100 aborted babies that pro-life activists say they rescued outside of a Washington, DC, abortion clinic in March. Father Bill Kuchinsky, 62, a longtime advocate for the unborn who also runs the Catholic prison ministry for the entire state of West Virginia, declined to disclose the burial location other than to say it was in a private cemetery. CNA also found that Kuchinsky’s bishop, Bishop Mark Brennan of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, fully supports the actions Kuchinsky took to ensure the babies’ remains were treated respectfully.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251015/priest-funeral-mass-burial-dc-aborted-babies
Vicki Thorn, Catholic pro-life pioneer, international speaker, author, and a member of the Pontifical Academy of Life, died Tuesday, April 20 at age 72. Thorn founded Project Rachel, a groundbreaking post-abortion healing ministry that started in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and has since spread to dioceses across the US and around the world. As a certified trauma counselor and spiritual director who earned a degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota, Thorn launched Project Rachel in 1984. The ministry was staffed by a team of specially trained priests, spiritual directors, and other caregivers, and received an immediate response from both women and men who had been wounded by the experience of abortion.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251025/vicki-thorn-pro-life-project-rachel-abortion-healing
Today the Church celebrates Saint Anselm, the 11th and 12th-century Benedictine monk and archbishop best known for his writings on Christ's atonement and the existence of God.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-anselm-443