World Religions News

(RNS) — Vice President JD Vance wants women to have more babies, but he should learn from the Catholic bishops how to make having children more affordable and appealing.

“Our people aren’t having enough children to replace themselves. That should bother us,” Vance told a conservative crowd in 2019. He said he feared there will not be enough workers for the economy or taxpayers to support Social Security. 

Vance is correct: Births are down in the United States, and in most other developed nations. In 2023, America had 1.6 children per woman, below the 2.1 children necessary to hold the population at its current level.

Neither he nor President Donald Trump sees immigration as a solution to this problem, but Vance does blame Democrats and feminists. He attacked presidential candidate Kamala Harris and other female Democrats as “childless cat ladies” who didn’t have a “direct stake” in the country because they had no children. He conveniently forgot Harris is stepmother to two children with her husband, Douglas Emhoff.

Vance blames family problems on ideology, but others would say, “It’s the economy, stupid.” 

For many people, the ideal image is the 1950s family with two or more kids and a stay-at-home mother in the suburbs. But this has never been the reality for poor families, and most Black families. The national child poverty rate is about 16%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In the 1950s, the U.S. was an economic and political superpower, with Europe still recovering from the war and other parts of the world at low levels of development. We became smug and were unprepared when Europe recovered and other parts of the world developed into competitors.

We had no idea how fast the world would change. Steel and auto executives were slow to update plants and were challenged to compete with new factories abroad.

Meanwhile, conservative economists told us the magic of the marketplace would make life better for everyone. That marketplace sent manufacturing jobs abroad and kept down the price of many consumer products, but it also made housing, education and health care more expensive.

In 1950, families did not have to worry about retirement or long-term care since average life expectancy was about 68 years for men and 71 for women. Today’s medical technology extends life but costs a bundle. Medical and retirement expenses mean parents no longer have money to help their children into adulthood. It should be no surprise Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid consume most of the federal budget.

Vance has some good ideas to help families with children, such as a $5,000 per child tax credit, although this would have to be fully refundable to help those too poor to pay income taxes. It also remains to be seen whether the child tax credit would be sacrificed to find money to pay for Trump’s other tax cuts.

Catholic bishops also have good ideas to help families. In their 1991 document “Putting Children and Families First: A Challenge for Our Church, Nation and World,” the the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops laid out a comprehensive plan that still has relevance today.

“It is time to move beyond rigid ideologies and political posturing to focus on the real needs of families,” they wrote. As one side emphasizes moral values and personal responsibility, the other emphasizes the need for the government to help families — a divisive problem still today.

“We,” the bishops said, “believe parental responsibility and broader social responsibility, changed behavior and changed policies are complementary requirements to help families.”

The bishops also called on the nation to “fight economic and social forces which threaten children and family life: Poverty, joblessness, lack of access to affordable health care, child care, decent housing and discrimination are among the greatest threats to families and children. Efforts to overcome poverty, provide decent jobs and promote equal opportunity are pro-family priorities.”

In alignment with the bishops’ call, a $20-per-hour minimum wage, affordable health care, affordable housing and affordable day care would all be immeasurably helpful to those starting families. It is criminal that the federal minimum wage is only $7.25 per hour and has not been raised since 2009. How can a family of four live on that? Raising the minimum wage will do more to encourage births than denouncing cat ladies.

The cost of health care is outrageous. Every other developed country has cheaper and yet more comprehensive health care systems than we do. I would love to welcome Canada as our 51^st state if we adopted its health care system. To cut health care costs, we do not need Elon Musk’s chainsaw — we need to learn from other countries.

Affordable child care is also essential for the modern family. In the past, parents could depend on extended families and friends to help out, but today, adult children frequently move away from parents for jobs. Grandparents may still be working because they cannot afford to retire.

We also must admit that the 1950s dream of a house in the suburbs is dead. Zoning laws that only allow single-family homes have priced young families out of the market. 

Meanwhile, forcing people who are able to work remotely back to the office is also anti-child. It is much easier to be a parent if you can work from home. If the Trump-Vance administration wants to encourage births, they should not force parents to abandon their children to return to the office, as Trump has for federal employees. 

Vance is good at spotting problems, but blaming his political opponents is no solution. Our country needs to be more child friendly. A decent wage and affordable housing, health care and child care are what parents need, not a scolding.

All that the bishops said in 1991 is still true. “Our nation,” they concluded, “must move beyond partisan and ideological rhetoric to help shape a new consensus that supports families in their essential roles and insists that public policy support families, especially poor and vulnerable children.”

The childless bishops — with or without cats — make more sense than the vice president.

Beverly Jacobson and her daughter Verity. / Credit: Courtesy of Beverly Jacobson

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 18, 2025 / 14:10 pm (CNA).

When Beverly Jacobson first learned that her unborn daughter Verity would be born with the rare genetic condition trisomy 18, she “was filled with fear and anxiety” — but just three weeks ago the family was able to celebrate Verity’s eighth year of “lots of smiles and giggles and pure joy.”

“Just a happy little girl,” Jacobson told CNA. “We love her.”

Verity turned 8 years old on Feb. 28, less than three weeks ahead of Trisomy 18 Awareness Day, which is celebrated nationally on March 18. Her condition, also called Edwards syndrome, occurs when a person has an extra chromosome 18.

Her name, Jacobson said, derives from the Latin word “veritas,” which means “truth.” She and her husband had considered the name before the diagnosis, but Jacobson said the name choice “was just solidified once we knew that she had this condition” because they wanted her name to “speak truth to the value of all human life.”

“She also is made in the image of God just like every human being, and she’s worthy of life,” Jacobson said.

Some complications often caused by trisomy 18 include growth deficiency, eating difficulties, breathing difficulties, heart defects, facial malformations, skeletal deformities, and intellectual development delays, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders.

In Verity’s case, she is nonverbal, has developmental delays, cannot feed herself on her own enough to sustain herself, and needs help to move around. Yet, as Jacobson puts it, “she’s really thriving in her own special way.”

Although Verity is nonverbal, Jacobson said this “does not mean noncommunicative” and that it is easy to tell when she is happy or irritated. Like other children, she has her favorite toys, enjoys music, and “has a sense of humor,” Jacobson explained. 

“She loves being outside, she loves the wind in her face,” Jacobson said. “It’s so cute.” 

Verity also “loves having people in her face — the people she knows,” Jacobson added. She also recounted stories about how children at Verity’s school play with her and “completely accept her,” saying it’s good to know “she is a part of their lives.”

Jacobson noted her relationship with her daughter also helped provide a better understanding of God’s sacrificial love for humanity, noting that Verity is “never going to be able to serve someone else in that physical way and yet we love her so completely.”

“Going from that state of fear … and just depression to where I am today — it’s 100% God’s work in my life through Verity,” Jacobson said. “Verity is his vessel to teach me more about the gift to lay down your life and sacrifice for someone else.”

“I feel by far the joys and the blessings outweigh the difficulties because now we’ve grown and we’re all stronger,” Jacobson said. “We’re used to a new normal.”

She said her message to families faced with this type of diagnosis is to let them know “they’re not alone” and that their child “is not a mistake” and that finding “a community that can help you is so, so important.”

Jacobson also launched the nonprofit Mama Bear Care to provide a community for families whose children are diagnosed with rare genetic disorders. The organization also helps the families connect with doctors and other resources to ensure those children receive necessary care.

“This baby is a gift and not a mistake,” she said. “I really think that Verity’s life has so much value and serves a greater purpose. … I’m selfishly grateful that I get to be her mom.”

Countercultural advocacy for recognition of human dignity

When Jacobson was still pregnant with Verity, a common phrase she heard from doctors was that trisomy 18 was “incompatible with life” and that if she did not die in the womb, they “just indicated she would pass away within five to 15 days,” Jacobson told CNA.

“[Verity is] very compatible with life,” Jacobson said, despite the doctors’ warnings. “Living a great life.”

A large percentage of unborn children diagnosed with trisomy 18 die in the womb, and the ones who survive to birth only have about a 5% to 10% survival rate after their first year. Tragically, many of the children who would be born are not given the opportunity to fight for their lives because the post-diagnosis abortion rate is higher than 85%, according to a 2012 study published in the Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases.

Father Tadeusz Pacholczyk, a senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethics Center, told CNA that doctors should stop using phrases like “lethal diagnosis” and “incompatible with life,” calling those terms “disparaging” and saying they are “incredibly difficult for the newborn’s parents to hear and process.”

“Medical professionals should not view such a child as ‘less of a person’ because of his or her disability,” Pacholczyk said. “They need to remain resolute about treating such children with the same dignity and respect as any other child. It’s a travesty when some parents have to contend with a doctor who will not even address their child with a disability by his or her name.”

Jacobson said, like with other genetic conditions, “there’s often a spectrum” for how trisomy 18 will affect a child, adding that doctors “don’t know how this is going to present.”

Despite this, Jacobson said the doctor who provided the diagnosis for Verity “was very clinical” when explaining the condition and “referred to [Verity as] ‘the fetus’ and ‘it,’ instead of ‘the baby’ and ‘she.’” The family then met with a specialty doctor who told Jacobson and her husband that Verity would have a “futile life” and would be a “drain on the family” financially and emotionally.

“It took away from the humanity of my growing daughter who was kicking and very much alive inside of me,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson noted the specialty doctor callously referred to her daughter as “retarded,” which she said “was very hurtful,” adding: “I cried.” Yet, she said the coldness from the doctors motivated her to fight harder for Verity and give her “every opportunity to live.”

“When I heard those words, it was like mama bear woke up and I felt this fierce protectiveness that Verity’s life matters,” she added.

Pacholczyk said that many parents who face these diagnoses “quickly figure out they will have to become vigorous advocates for their children with disabilities.” 

“Parents in these situations rejoice when they can link up with an exceptional team of physicians who are hopeful and positive about their disabled child’s life and possibilities,” he said.

Conditions like trisomy 18 have also been used by pro-abortion activists to justify expansions to the procedure in states that have enacted pro-life protections for unborn children, including ones with genetic conditions. 

In December 2023, a woman named Kate Cox sued Texas because state law would not allow her to abort her preborn child who was diagnosed with trisomy 18 in the womb. She ultimately left the state to obtain an abortion elsewhere. Much of the media coverage at the time similarly portrayed the diagnosis as “incompatible with life.”

Jacobson said she feels “so much compassion for Cox,” adding: “I’m sure she’s experiencing a lot of emotional trauma and she’s not going to be able to talk about it honestly” because of how pro-abortion activists and the media used her story.

“Many families are experiencing that pressure to abort appointment after appointment,” she added.

Pacholczyk said that “discrimination against those with disabilities should never be allowed to gain a foothold in the medical profession, nor be allowed to guide public policy.” 

“The true measure of the greatness of a society will always be in terms of how it treats its weakest members, and the authenticity of our own love will be measured by our compassion and acceptance of the disabled and the powerless,” Pacholczyk said. 

“God seems to send us children with disabilities to help us grow, to remind us that every soul is of greater importance than its frail body, and to teach us how man’s highest calling is found in his God-like possibility of sharing unconditional love.”

(RNS) — There is a famous scene in the musical “Fiddler on the Roof”:

Man: He’s right, and he’s right — they can’t both be right.

Tevye: You know — you’re also right.

Over the past week, that scene has played itself out in the hearts and minds of American Jews. It has been an intellectual and spiritual wrestling match — true to our name, Yisrael, the ones who struggle.

I am speaking of Mahmoud Khalil — a 31-year-old Palestinian and a recent Columbia University graduate — who, in the United States on a green card, was taken by the Department of Homeland Security on March 8 and spirited away to the Central Louisiana Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center in Jena, Louisiana.

Khalil emerged as a lead spokesman and negotiator on behalf of the pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia last spring and the student-led Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition, which has expressed support for violent resistance and which led many of the post-Oct. 7 protest actions at Columbia.

This is the first thing that is right: Khalil has been involved in anti-Israel activism. However, it is hard to know, precisely, to what extent his actions fall under the definition of free speech, or when they have moved into hate speech.

To quote The New York Times:

Mr. Khalil has been involved in demonstrations as recently as January, when four masked demonstrators entered a class on the history of Israel taught by an Israeli professor at Columbia to accuse the school of “normalizing genocide.” Videos of an unmasked Mr. Khalil at a related sit-in were soon circulated on social media among critics of Columbia’s protest movement, with some calling for him to be deported.

Similar things are happening, to some extent, on college campuses all over the country.

You can join the debate over whether this was an exercise of free speech or if it ventured into hate speech. But ask yourselves: What other minority group would be expected to tolerate anything remotely approaching this? Imagine the Ku Klux Klan marching on campus or interrupting classes. Would the free speech people be coming out in force to support them? I don’t think so.

The students who interrupted that History of Modern Israel class also passed out anti-Israel flyers, one of which featured a picture of a jackboot stomping on a Star of David, interfering with the professor’s ability to teach and the students’ ability to learn.

You know that whole thing about “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings”? Do Jews on campus deserve those, as well?

Here is Franklin Foer in The Atlantic:

Columbia [has been] the site of some of America’s most vitriolic protests against Israel’s actions, and even its existence. For two weeks last spring, an encampment erected by anti-Israel demonstrators swallowed the fields in the center of the compact Manhattan campus. Nobody could enter Butler Library without hearing slogans such as “Globalize the intifada!” and “We don’t want no Zionists here!” and “Burn Tel Aviv to the ground!” At the end of April, students, joined by sympathizers from outside the university gates, stormed Hamilton Hall — which houses the undergraduate-college deans’ offices — and then battled police when they sought to clear the building. Because of the threat of spiraling chaos, the university canceled its main commencement ceremony in May.

Here is the second thing I know to be right: Whatever else you think of Mahmoud’s ideas, words and actions, he deserved due process. To spirit someone away in the middle of the night, torn from his pregnant wife? Something is wrong here. This is what happened in Argentina during the “Dirty War” of the late 1970s to early 1980s. America was not supposed to be Argentina, though some would greet that prospect gleefully.

But, here is the third thing that I know to be right. The Jews are being used.

My fellow Jews might relish this administration’s purported support of the Jews. 

Not so fast.

Here is what I see: an administration that is apparently comfortable with antisemitism.

• President Donald Trump has uttered his own share of antisemitic epithets.
• He warned that if he had lost the election, it would have been the Jews’ fault.
• This administration has welcomed antisemites — such as Kingsley Wilson in the Department of Defense.

Moreover, President Trump pardoned known antisemites who were responsible for Jan. 6. There was Enrique Tarrio, the former head of the far-right group the Proud Boys, the antisemitic group that marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 and chanted: “The Jews will not replace us.” 

And, then, Robert Keith Packer — you know him as The Guy in the Camp Auschwitz Sweatshirt.

To quote Yale history professor Timothy Snyder:

Rulers who deploy the word “antisemitism” can themselves be antisemites or promoters of antisemitism. The abuse of the word “antisemitism” is meant to generate a sense of plausibility, confuse opposition, and create more space for the actual phenomenon of antisemitism. And this misdirection is an integral part of the effort to replace a constitutional order with an authoritarian one.

Here is what is really happening.

The Trump administration is waging a war against the universities, especially “elite” universities. It is a blatant manifestation of anti-intellectualism.

The Trump administration is using the Jews as its main weapon in that war, and Jews should know anti-intellectualism invariably becomes antisemitism.

Again, Snyder:

Jews in the United States are being instrumentalized in an effort to build a more authoritarian American system. The real and continuing history of the oppression of Jews is transformed into a bureaucratic tool called “antisemitism” which is used to suppress education and human rights — and so, in the end, to harm Jews themselves.

In a few weeks, we will be celebrating Passover. I return to the account of the crossing of the Red Sea: “The Israelites went into the sea on dry ground, the waters forming a wall for them on their right and on their left.” (Exodus 14:22)

This is the Jewish experience: facing the walls on the left and the walls on the right.

On the left (center left to extreme left): Some applaud Khalil’s beliefs and actions. Some don’t applaud the substance of what he said but support his right to free speech (or, as it might be, hate speech). Some would make him the symbol for their (quite necessary) concerns about ICE’s actions. It is difficult to know whether those who want to “free Mahmoud” support his ideas or oppose the way he was handled. I tend to think the former.

On the right (center-right to the more extreme right): There are those who, rightfully, abhor Khalil’s beliefs and actions. But their hatred of his ideas might make them willing to ignore or justify the lack of due process.

I return to the story of the Israelites crossing the sea. They walked through the path that the parted waters created — through the middle.

This is what a middle position would look like. It would vociferously condemn Khalil’s ideas and actions — those ideas encouraged and enable antisemitism.

But a middle position would likewise condemn the methods the government used against him — because, as I said, there is such a thing as due process, and this is still America. 

Can we carry those two truths in the same mind?

I hope so. The future of Jewish discourse depends on it.

And the future of America — likewise.

(RNS) — Last week, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ordered the state’s Department of Education to halt its effort to purchase 55,000 Bibles for distribution to public schools under the Bible Education Mandate that was issued last June by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, pending resolution of a lawsuit opposing the mandate filed in October on behalf of 32 Oklahoma clergy, parents and schoolchildren.

In the mandate, Walters calls Bible education “a crucial step in ensuring our students grasp the core values and historical context of our country.” With that in mind, consider these questions and their right answers from a graded, multiple-choice quiz given last August in an Oklahoma public high school.

Q: What is the main idea conveyed by the statement “a student of English literature who does not know the Bible does not understand a good deal of what is going on in what he reads”? A: The Bible has had a significant influence on English literature, making it a highly recommended reading for comprehension.

Q: What is the significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls being nearly identical to the traditional Hebrew text of the Old Testament? A: It suggests that Biblical scripture has been accurately transferred from ancient times to modern day.

Q: What does 1 Samuel chapter 16, verses 1 – 13 (where God instructed Samuel to anoint David as Israel’s future king) tell us about the God of the Bible? A: He looks at the heart, not outward appearance.

Q: What is a lesson that can be inferred from David and Goliath? A: It serves as a reminder that even the most formidable challenges can be overcome with faith, determination, and a willingness to fight for what is right.

Now consider an alternative set of Q&As.

Q: What is the main idea conveyed by the statement “a student of the Bible who does not know that science teaches that the universe is billions of years old and that life on Earth evolved over millions of years does not understand a good deal of the natural world.” A: The Bible’s account of creation should not be taken literally.

Q: According to the Documentary Hypothesis, what is the significance of the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) using different words to identify God? A: The Five Books of Moses were not transcribed by Moses.

Q: What does Leviticus chapter 19, verses 9-10 and Deuteronomy chapter 24, verses 19-21 (where God orders the Israelites to leave portions of their harvest for the poor, widows, orphans and resident foreigners) tell us about social obligations in biblical Israel? A: Providing for those in need was not to be left to acts of charity but was rather a legal requirement.

Q: What is a lesson that can be inferred from Jesus telling his disciples that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God? A: Rich people who want to be saved should give their wealth to the poor.

The takeaway from the first set is: “Read the Bible, an unchanging text that teaches good character.” The takeaway from the second is: “The Bible is a religious text written by humans that includes ideas that some people may not find acceptable.”

You can understand why plaintiff Rachel Hill, the secularist mother of the high school student who was given the above quiz, objected on the grounds that such Bible teaching would cause her children “to keep their dissenting views with respect to religion to themselves out of fear of being judged by their teachers and peers.” I expect she would be happier with the second set of Q&As, as would many of the other plaintiffs.

Not that other plaintiffs don’t have additional objections.

There are those who simply want to keep instruction in religion out of the public schools — like Mitch Randall, the Native American Baptist pastor who hews to the old-time Baptist belief in strict church-state separation. There are also those who object, as special education teacher Tamara Sanchez did, to “a Protestant version of the Bible being the official Bible of Oklahoma public schools.”

That would be the King James Version, which, as Walters insisted when he put his Bible purchase order out for bid, had to be provided “for historical accuracy.” What he presumably meant is that the KJV is the translation most widely used through American history, though it was hardly the one carried by the Spanish missionaries who first brought Christianity to the Oklahoma territory in the 16th century, or by the proselytizing French Jesuits in the 19th — to say nothing of the Bibles used by Catholics throughout the country to this day.

Indeed, if Walters wants to demonstrate the importance of the KJV in American history, he should stipulate that Oklahoma students be taught that the public schools’ use of it in the 19th century was what impelled American Catholic bishops to create parochial schools for the children of the faithful.

Come to think of it, I wonder what Walters’ mandate might mean for St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, the public charter school — to be managed by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa — that was approved by the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board in 2023, over the objections of the Oklahoma attorney general, and which the Oklahoma Supreme Court deemed in violation of the state constitution.

In January, the U.S. Supreme Court chose to take up the case, which will determine whether using public funds to create a charter school that has a religious educational philosophy constitutes an unconstitutional establishment of religion. Should the court find in favor of St. Isidore’s, will Walters require the King James Version to be used there (for historical accuracy) too?

If he did, he would be forcing a religious body to swallow a long-standing religious objection. If he didn’t, it would be an acknowledgment that mandating Bible education as he sees fit is a violation of religious liberty.

null / Credit: Vinokurov Kirill/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 18, 2025 / 12:35 pm (CNA).

Though Congress extended the visa program used by religious sisters ahead of its deadline last Friday evening, they and other “non-minister religious workers” still face unprecedented challenges in immigrating or remaining in the U.S. to serve their communities.

Concern for the future of the visa program used by nuns and religious workers to immigrate to the U.S. grew earlier this month, as extension of the program hinged on whether a deeply divided Congress would pass its appropriations bill.

Since Congress passed the bill late last Friday, narrowly avoiding a government shutdown, the “sunset date” assigned to the non-minister visa program has been extended another year, thereby allowing workers in this category to begin or continue the process of immigrating to the U.S.

However, as Miguel Naranjo, director of religious immigration services at the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), explained to CNA, the employment-based fourth preference (EB-4) visa category, which contains the Religious Worker Residence Program, is experiencing an unprecedented “backlog.”

“The process to obtain permanent residence status, to get the permanent residency, which a couple of years ago could probably be done somewhere between 12 to 24 months, now is going to take significantly longer,” he told CNA in an interview. 

The EB-4 “special immigrant” category can distribute up to 7.1% of all available immigration visas, the second-lowest of any category, and contains not only programs for religious workers but also individuals such as former employees of the U.S. government overseas, broadcasters, and unaccompanied minors. 

“There’s a huge demand in the EB-4 category,” Naranjo continued. “The irony of this is that the group that’s really in the queue really applying is unaccompanied minors, so juvenile immigrants.” 

Naranjo said religious workers had not been previously affected by the surge in unaccompanied minors until the past year and a half, after the State Department designated the whole category as “subject to backlog” due to the sheer rise in demand across the category. 

Furthermore, the State Department announced late last month that it has distributed all available visas in the EB-4 category for the fiscal year and will not issue any more until Oct. 1. 

Essentially, according to Naranjo, the “good news” is that religious sisters and others in this category can “certainly start the process” of applying for permanent residence. The issue is that the process could exceed the five years they have on their Religious Worker (R1) temporary visa through which they are able to enter the U.S.

“Several years ago, a religious worker could usually, while they’re here in R1 status, be able to get their permanent residency during that period, right before their five years ran out,” Naranjo said. “But now, because of this backlog, what’s happening is five years is not enough, and religious workers don’t have many good options to remain in the United States beyond their five-year stay, so many religious workers are having to leave.” 

Religious sisters and other non-minister religious workers who are unable to obtain their visas within five years have to leave the U.S. for at least one year before they are able to return — though they are able to continue their permanent residence application process in the meantime.

“It can be very disruptive to the communities they serve,” Naranjo reflected. “Religious workers are involved in all kinds of different ministries, social ministries, working with the elderly, working with those in need, working with children.” Ultimately, he said, churches will be increasingly forced to find replacements for religious workers. 

The only way for this problem to get fixed, according to Naranjo, is if Congress votes to increase the percentage of visas in the EB-4 category.

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis entered the fifth week of hospital treatment for double pneumonia Saturday very much looking ahead as he worked on a signature priority of his papacy and signs of his recovery remained on a positive trajectory.

Working from the Gemelli hospital, Francis has approved a three-year implementation and evaluation process for his reform project that aims to make the church a more welcoming and responsive place. The Vatican office for the synod, or gathering of bishops, released a timetable through 2028 to implement the reforms and said Francis had approved the calendar last week.

In a new medical update, the Vatican said that doctors were working to reduce the pope’s nighttime reliance on the non-invasive ventilation mask, which will allow his lungs to work more.

Doctors underlined that while the pope’s condition is stable, he still requires hospitalization for both physical and respiratory therapy, which are ‘’showing further gradual improvements,” the Vatican said Saturday in the first medical update in three days.

Besides treatment, the pontiff spent the day alternating between prayer, rest and some work.

The Vatican has announced that it would provide medical updates on the pope less frequently, in what it called a positive development. The next medical update will be made in the middle of next week, the Vatican said. It also has ceased issuing brief morning advisories that the pope had slept well and was starting his day.

Doctors this week said the 88-year-old pontiff was no longer in critical, life-threatening condition, but have continued to emphasize that his condition remained complex due to his age, lack of mobility and the loss of part of a lung as a young man.

Francis was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 14 after a bout of bronchitis that made it difficult for him to speak. Doctors soon added a diagnosis of double pneumonia and a polymicrobial (bacterial, viral and fungal) infection.

The first three weeks of his hospitalization were marked by a rollercoaster of setbacks, including respiratory crises, mild kidney failure and a severe coughing fit.

But medical updates this week have focused on his continued physical and respiratory therapy, as well as the rotation from high-flow oxygen through nostril tubes during the day and a non-invasive ventilation mask at night to help ensure his rest. An X-ray this week confirmed that the infection was clearing. Doctors have not indicated how much longer Francis will be hospitalized.

The pope this week participated in Lenten spiritual exercises from the hospital, which Vatican officials have said implied a lighter workload. He received a cake and hundreds of messages wishing him well on the 12th anniversary of his papacy Thursday.

The only public sign of life from the pope since his hospitalization was a recorded audio message thanking people for their prayers for his recovery in a weak and labored voice. It was played in St. Peter’s Square for the faithful gathered for a nightly recitation of the rosary prayer earlier this month.

For the last four Sundays, the traditional blessing that the pope delivers from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square has been released as a text.

LONDON (AP) — King Charles III is scheduled to have an audience with Pope Francis during a state visit next month to the Vatican, suggesting the Holy See is optimistic the pontiff will be back at work by then, barring any setbacks in his recovery from double pneumonia.

The tentative audience was among details of the British monarch’s visit to the Vatican and Italy released on Tuesday by Buckingham Palace. State visits are always planned in close consultation with the Vatican’s secretariat of state.

The palace separately confirmed that Charles wrote privately to the pope when he was taken ill. Francis, 88, has been hospitalized since Feb. 14. With gradual improvements, the Vatican said Monday it had suspended morning updates and is issuing less frequent medical bulletins. The next one is not expected before Wednesday.

The visit to the Vatican is symbolic of efforts to build closer ties between the Catholic Church and the Church of England, which split from Rome in the 16th century during the reign of King Henry VIII. Charles, who is head of the Church of England, made building bridges between people of all faiths a priority since he ascended the throne 2 1/2 years ago.

Charles’ three-day trip begins April 7 and it will also include events in Italy and its capital, Rome, which surrounds Vatican City.

In Rome, Charles will highlight the close links between Britain and Italy, two NATO allies, at a time when European nations are working to bolster support for Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression. The visit will include a joint flypast over Rome by the Italian Air Force aerobatic team, Frecce Tricolori, or Tricolor Arrows, and their Royal Air Force counterparts, the Red Arrows.

The king and queen will attend a reception in Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, to mark the 80th anniversary of the region’s liberation from the Nazis by Allied forces on April 10, 1945. The royals will also celebrate the cuisine of the Emilia-Romagna region and meet with local farmers devastated by floods that recently hit the area.

“The visit to Italy will underscore the depth and breadth of the bilateral relationship,’’ the palace said in a statement.

One of the central events of Charles’ trip to the Vatican will be a historic first in which the king, in his capacity as supreme governor of the Church of England, will visit the Papal Basilica of St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, where reconciliation and ecumenical relations between Christian faiths are celebrated. Choirs from the King’s Chapel Royal, St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle and the Sistine Chapel will perform.

English kings had a particular link to the basilica before the split from Rome during the Protestant Reformation. The church was built over a white marble sarcophagus that for some 2,000 years has been believed to be the tomb of St. Paul.

The visit is taking place during the Papal Jubilee, a year of forgiveness and reconciliation that is celebrated by the Catholic Church every 25 years.

“The Visit to the Holy See will be an historic visit in the year of the Papal Jubilee, and will mark a significant step forward in relations between the Catholic Church and Church of England,” the palace said. ____

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