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The Vatican announced Saturday that Pope Francis will visit Hungary for the second time, from April 28-30. According to today’s announcement, the three-day papal trip to Budapest will include meetings with Hungary President Katalin Novák, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a private visit with children at the Blessed László Batthyány-Strattmann Institute, and meetings with poor people and migrants, young people, clergy, academics, and members of the Society of Jesus. Pope Francis met Orbán during his 2021 visit to Hungary and in the Vatican in 2022. Novák, who was elected president of Hungary in March 2022, met Pope Francis at the Vatican last August. A Christian wife and mother, Novák was formerly Hungary’s family minister. Pope Francis is returning to the central European country after a short visit in 2021 for the 52nd International Eucharistic Congress.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253745/pope-francis-to-visit-hungary-in-april
Pope Francis and leaders of the Church in Italy expressed their pain and sent their prayers for the eternal rest of at least 59 migrants who died in a shipwreck this Sunday off the southern coast of Italy. The boat that was transporting them crashed into the rocks a few meters from the coast of the village of Steccato di Cutro in Calabria. Italian authorities continue to search with boats for dozens still missing at sea. According to some witnesses, the ship carried about 250 people on board. Some 80 migrants have been rescued so far. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed on February 26 “her deep regret for the numerous human lives cut short by human traffickers.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253749/shipwreck-leaves-more-than-50-migrants-dead-in-italy-the-church-expresses-pain
Pope Francis said a spontaneous prayer for peace during a Vatican event for the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Friday. After saying a few words about the war in Ukraine, the pope invited those present to pray with him. “Holy Father, who art in heaven, look at our miseries, look at our wounds, look our pain. Look also at our selfishness, our petty interests, and the capacity we have to destroy ourselves,” he prayed. “Heal us. Heal our hearts, heal our minds, heal our eyes that they may see the beauty that you have made and not destroy it in selfishness. Sow in us the seed of peace. Amen.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253747/this-was-pope-francis-spontaneous-prayer-for-ukraine-on-anniversary-of-war
Today, the Church celebrates Blessed Maria Caridad Brader, Despite her mother's opinion, Maria entered a Franciscan convent in 1880. She made her final vows two years later and began teaching at the convent school. At the end of the 19th century, it became permissible for cloistered nuns to work as missionaries. Maria volunteered to be one of the first of six sisters to work in Ecuador. Maria served as a teacher and catechist in Ecuador. In 1893, she was transferred to Colombia to attend to the sick and rejected. In response to an urgent need for missionaries, Maria founded the Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate in 1893 in Colombia. Maria served as the congregation's superior general until 1919 and again from 1928 to 1940. Maria urged her sisters to combine contemplation and action with great care. Her congregation also emphasized good education for both the sisters and their students. Maria died in 1943 in Colombia and her grave immediately became a popular pilgrimage site. She was beatified by St. John Paul II in 2003.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/blessed-maria-caridad-brader-160