Welcome to Wisdom Wednesday, approaching Holy Week 2026. As Lent ends and you reflect –perhaps with Deutero-Isaiah’s servant song, “Who would believe what we have heard?” or with Burt Bacharach’s pop existentialist question, “What’s it all about, Alfie?” may you be blessed during Holy Week and the season to come!
Personal stories: Into the light of Easter
The darkness of our times begs for the light of Easter, exemplified in the personal stories of conversion told by women and men, as reported by the Union of Catholic Asian News. (Check out more stories, below.)
War in the Middle East
Pope Leo XIV demanded a ceasefire in the Middle East on Sunday (March 22) in his strongest comments to date, directly addressing the leaders who launched the war in Iran. “Cease fire so that avenues for dialogue may be reopened. Violence can never lead to the justice, stability, and peace that the people are waiting for.” From National Catholic Reporter.
As war spreads across the Middle East, a senior Iranian cleric has turned to Pope Leo XIV. Ayatollah Seyed Mostafa Mohaghegh Damad Ahmadabadi, a prominent figure within Iran’s Shia clerical establishment, wrote a public letter to Leo calling for peace and respect for international law. From National Catholic Reporter.
Evangelical and Catholic leaders differ over Trump’s Iran war, according to a report published by Baptist News Global.
Four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity were set on fire early Monday in London in what British police are investigating as an anti-semitic hate crime. Detectives were working to determine whether a claim of responsibility from a group with alleged links to Iran was authentic. From the Associated Press.
Republican fearmongering about Muslims and Sharia Law is generating plenty of pushback from Democrats and civil rights groups across the country, but next to nothing from GOP leaders in Congress. A report from Baptist News Global.
OPINION
Save democracy from the SAVE America Act
The president continues to keep pressure on his party to pass the SAVE America Act after a 51-48 vote on March 17 bringing it to the Senate floor for further discussion. This bill would disenfranchise millions of voters and suppress the votes of millions more. From Baptist News Global.
Advocates for women deacons look to Latin America for hope
“The Amazon is leading the whole world in the [women’s] diaconate movement, because they have women who have been granted … [permission] to go into the spaces where there are no priests, and there, they are really doing diaconate work,” she said. “This is an exception, but we want to increase that. We’re behind them. They are the leaders in this.” From National Catholic Reporter.
Wake up
Evangelical Christian stars line up to read Bible aloud to wake up ‘apathetic church
Bunni Pounds, a political fundraiser-turned-Christian organizer, has recruited nearly 500 Christian leaders to read the Bible aloud from cover to cover in Washington this April.
Texas vouchers for Muslims
Texas accepts some Islamic schools into voucher program after lawsuits. Four Muslim parents and three Islamic private school providers had sued Texas leaders for excluding the schools while accepting hundreds of other non-Islamic schools. From the AP and RNS.
Catholic matters
Leo XIV Reopens the Amoris Debate, according to a report from “Your Pope Leo WeeklY.”
Pope Leo XIV has called the presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences to Rome for an October 2026 summit aimed at assessing how the Catholic Church engages with families in a rapidly changing world. Announcing the gathering in a March 19 message marking the 10th anniversary of Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”), Leo said the meeting would seek “a synodal discernment on the steps to be taken in order to proclaim the Gospel to families today, in light of Amoris Laetitia and taking into account what is currently being done in the local Churches.”
The Catholic Climate Covenant and Laudato Si’ Movement are deeply alarmed and disappointed by a February decision by the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding. “This action abandons one of the most important public health safeguards in modern environmental law. . . . Rescinding it places our country and our planet on a dangerous path” says the Catholic Climate Covenant.
Welcome to the Laudato Si’ Animators Training
This online course is designed to train and inspire local volunteers from all walks of life to bring Catholic teaching on climate change into their local communities. Registration is now open for the online course starting on April 15, 2026.
Denver’s Catholic archdiocese, famously conservative, enters the Leo era
Archbishop-designate James Golka, bishop of Colorado Springs since 2021, has the potential to unify Denver’s 600,000 Catholics. From Religion News Service.
Regarding ICE
Not since the Civil Rights era have local faith leaders so publicly championed a social issue they regard as a spiritual one. The question is whether the resurgence of faith-based resistance can be sustained now that the crackdown has quieted. Will the coalitions built over the past months become permanent? Will the theology of protest embodied by demonstrators sway moderates in the pews? From Religion News Service.
Judge grants Minneapolis clergy access to detainees in ICE holding facility. ”This is one important step in our struggle for justice and my call to live out Jesus’s command to care for the captives,” said the Rev. Susie Hayward, who is cited in the legal case and was in court for the ruling.
The MAGA coalition
MAGA followers have a new enemy: Traditionalist Catholics.A civil war has broken out in the MAGA coalition between traditionalist Catholics and evangelical Christians. The major disagreement? American support of Israel. From National Carholic Reporter.
The Vatican Diary
Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro is the undersecretary of the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See. He is a member of the board of directors of Georgetown University and a full member of the Pontifical Academy of Fine Arts and Letters of the Virtuosi al Pantheon. Spadaro has served as editor-in-chief of La Civiltà Cattolica, the oldest and most respected Catholic journal published in Italian from Rome, now also available in seven other languages, including English. From the Union of Catholic Asian News.
A personal story: A martyr for religious freedom
Fifteen years ago this month, Pakistani jihadis assassinated my friend Shahbaz Bhatti in broad daylight. Shahbaz Bhatti’s legacy of courage, faith and solidarity endures 15 years after his assassination. From the Union of Catholic Asian News.
A personal story, from Lexington to Jamaica
From Lexington to Jamaica with love: Serving the differently abled with Mustard Seed Communities. A return mission trip to a unique Catholic ministry in the Caribbean brought love and joy to a priest from Kentucky who shared his story with Black Catholic Messenger.
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