The homily given by Cardinal Michael Czerny S.J., head of the Vatican dicastery for promoting integral human development, at the Pax Christi Conference closing Mass.

In far off places, I’ve seen children under armed guard, fenced in, sitting in the dust, holding themselves up on the edges of human existence — exiled to places where any notion of the rights of children seems fanciful, even sadly comical.

Embracing a consistent ethic of life must include working to create economic and social systems that foster relationships and build the common good, rather than focusing only on what are seen as traditional life issues such as abortion and euthanasia, said Cardinal Michael Czerny.

Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny deployed a recent lecture in Chicago to drive home the vital point that “pro-life” commitment does not — must not — be limited to opinion and activism around abortion and euthanasia.

Commemorating the 80th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Edith Stein at Auschwitz, Cardinal Michael Czerny also prayed for another victim of the Nazis from the notorious Second World War concentration camp.

VATICAN CITY -- Continuing the mission entrusted to him by Pope Francis, Cardinal Michael Czerny visited Slovakia and a Ukrainian border town to convey the pope's closeness to victims of Russia's war against Ukraine.

VATICAN CITY -- Two cardinals arrived at separate destinations on one mission entrusted to them by Pope Francis: to bring relief, hope and encouragement to suffering Ukrainians.

Mine is a journey of prayer, prophecy and denunciation. I (left) Rome on March 8 to reach Budapest and I will continue by meeting refugees and displaced persons, and those who welcome and assist them. 

VATICAN CITY -- As the Russian military continues to bombard Ukraine, the Vatican is mobilizing efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to those suffering.

VATICAN CITY -- Thanking Cardinal Peter Turkson for his five years of service as prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Pope Francis has decided to name new leadership for the office, said a Vatican communique.

Back in Canada for the first time since receiving the red hat from Pope Francis in 2019, Cardinal Michael Czerny told the theology faculty and students at Toronto’s Regis College they must take up the neglected renewal of theology called for by the Second Vatican Council, St. Pope Paul VI and St. Pope John Paul II.

More than 80 million refugees and others forced from their homes by war, climate change and natural disasters need COVID-19 vaccines just as much as the rest of us, but Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny worries they’re easily overlooked.

Science, medicine and economics are going to all play important roles in the global post-pandemic recovery, but from the Church’s point of view there needs to be a moral recovery first, Cardinal Michael Czerny explained in a Nov. 27 address at Tokyo’s Sophia University.

VATICAN CITY -- The September conviction of a former Salvadoran colonel for the murder of five Spanish Jesuit priests during El Salvador’s civil war is a major step forward on the path to gaining justice and healing old wounds, Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny said.

VATICAN CITY -- Catholics will mark the World Day of Migrants and Refugees during the ecumenical celebration of the Season of Creation, highlighting the obligation, as Pope Francis says, to listen to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, said Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny.