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Following Pope Francis’s announcement of a year dedicated to St. Joseph, the archdiocese has produced a booklet of prayers to help Catholics ask for the saint’s intercession and learn more about him. 

The day after Ash Wednesday, the delegates of the V Encuentro of Hispanic Pastoral -- representatives of the churches with religious services in Spanish in the Archdiocese of San Francisco -- participated in an event to prepare themselves for Lent. The day included talks on signs and symbols of the liturgical season and on personal conversion.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis told the people of Iraq he was going to their country as a "penitential pilgrim," asking God's forgiveness for years of war, persecution and destruction, and as a "pilgrim of peace," hoping to remind people that they are all brothers and sisters no matter their ethnic or religious identity.

CHALATENANGO, El Salvador -- U.S. President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador began bilateral cooperation talks March 1 with humor, a focus on limiting immigration to the U.S. and talk about Our Lady of Guadalupe.

DALLAS -- Recognizing the pandemic has taken its toll on discipleship and could lead to the faithful in the Diocese of Dallas becoming complacent, Bishop Edward J. Burns announced he will convene a synod in the diocese Dec. 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

​​​​​​​PARIS -- Catholic clergy in France perpetrated more than three times as many sexual abuse offenses as previously thought, said the head of a bishops' commission whose report is due out in September.

WASHINGTON -- Use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, approved Feb. 27 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, raises moral concerns because it was "was developed, tested and is produced with abortion-derived cell lines," the chairmen of two U.S. bishops' committees said March 2.

VATICAN CITY -- There is no greater love in the world than the love God has for humanity, Pope Francis said.

ROME -- Reading the Bible has had a positive effect on people's "mental well-being" during the pandemic, according to a Christian Research survey conducted in the United Kingdom.

WASHINGTON -- Over a dozen nonprofit organizations, including Catholic Charities USA, praised the American Rescue Plan passed by the U.S. House early Feb. 27 for including "several provisions of importance to the charitable nonprofit sector."

SAN DIEGO -- Deacon Albert Graff, who turned 102 Jan. 23, explains the secret to his longevity in two words: "Never retire."

WASHINGTON -- A special working group of the U.S. bishops formed last November to deal with conflicts that could arise between the policies of President Joe Biden, a Catholic, and church teaching has completed its work, Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez said in a March 1 memo to all the U.S. bishops.

VATICAN CITY -- Although it took obvious effort to pronounce each word and sometimes his secretary repeated what he said to make it clear, retired Pope Benedict XVI spoke to an Italian newspaper about his retirement and about Pope Francis' planned trip to Iraq.

VATICAN CITY  -- People should fast from gossiping and spreading hearsay as part of their Lenten journey, Pope Francis said.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis said he believes he will die in Rome, either in office or retired, and will not be buried in his native Argentina.

CHICAGO -- Catholic Extension has joined the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations to engage youth around the globe in raising awareness of religious freedom and cultivating interreligious respect through a campaign called #forSafeWorship.

WASHINGTON -- When health care chaplains talk about the need for self-care, they really mean it, especially after this past year.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis has yet to sign decrees in sainthood causes that follow the new path he approved in 2017, that of giving one's life in a heroic act of loving service to others.

VATICAN CITY -- For believers, the ability to practice their faith and receive spiritual guidance are "the highest of essential services," and pandemic practices over the past year have shown they are not automatically super-spreader events, the Vatican foreign minister said.

LOS ANGELES -- For Jesus' parents, "answering God's call meant their whole lives were turned upside down," not unlike the events of the past year, Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez said Feb. 21 at the close of the all-virtual 2021 Religious Education Congress.