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Almost 1,000 Catholic convents in Poland are helping refugees from Ukraine, as hundreds of thousands of people cross the border, fleeing the country. Some religious communities have offered help to a few people, while others have offered assistance to as many as 18,000. The U.N. refugee agency reported that as of March 14, almost 1.8 million people have entered Poland from Ukraine since the full-scale Russian invasion on February 24.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250669/ukraine-war-almost-1000-polish-catholic-convents-are-helping-refugees
A Spanish seminary welcomed 60 refugees from Ukraine on Sunday, who arrived accompanied by dozens of volunteers who had helped them make the trip from the Polish-Ukrainian border. The seminary of the Diocese of Tarazona will host the group of refugees consisting of women, children, adolescents, and three men. The group of refugees arrived in Spain thanks to the initiative of several volunteers from Tarazona, who brought food, clothing, and medical supplies to the Polish-Ukrainian border and returned with refugees.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250665/spanish-seminary-takes-in-60-refugees-from-ukraine
A German Catholic diocese has commissioned 17 women to administer baptisms, citing a shortfall in the number of priests. The Diocese of Essen, in Germany’s industrial Ruhr area, is the first diocese in the country to commission a group of women to administer the sacrament. Catholic Canon law allows for people other than bishops, priests, or deacons to be designated to perform baptisms if the ordinary ministers are, quote, absent or impeded.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250670/women-commissioned-to-confer-baptisms-in-german-catholic-diocese
Saint Teresa of Calcutta’s former secretary has been named the new superior of the Missionaries of Charity. The sisters elected Sister Joseph Michael, who will be the third superior to lead the order since its founder’s death in 1997. Saint Teresa of Calcutta founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950. Together with some of her former students, she took in men, women, and children who were dying in the gutters along the streets and cared for them. The Missionaries of Charity now have hundreds of houses worldwide and its membership includes religious sisters and brothers and priests, plus a lay organization.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250671/mother-teresa-s-former-secretary-to-lead-missionaries-of-charity
Today marks the eleventh anniversary of the war in Syria. Since the war started on March 15, 2011, there have been an estimated half a million casualties. The conflict has also created an estimated 6.6 million refugees, and 6.7 million internally displaced persons. The pope’s ambassador to Syria, Cardinal Mario Zenari, said Syria’s people continue to suffer the effects of war. Zenari said in an interview, quote, “It is sad to see repeated in Ukraine the same harrowing images of pain seen in Syria: destroyed neighborhoods, deaths, millions of refugees, use of unconventional weapons such as cluster bombs, bombing of hospitals and schools. Seeing the exact same descent into hell that was seen in Syria.”
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/250672/syria-lost-in-oblivion-on-11th-anniversary-of-war-says-cardinal-zenari
Today, the Church celebrates Saint Louise de Marillac, a spiritual directee of Saint Vincent de Paul who founded the Daughters of Charity, a group of women dedicated to serving the sick, the poor and the neglected. She was declared patroness of social workers in 1960.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/st-louise-de-marillac-178