The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) said on Friday they were disappointed with the measures announced by the EU to tackle the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean, describing the outcome in Brussels as “a lost opportunity.” James Stapleton is JRS’ International Communications Coordinator and he told Susy Hodges that JRS was expecting something “much stronger” to emerge from the EU meeting and rather than sharing the responsibilities for dealing with this migrant crisis, he saw instead “a shirking of responsibilities.”

Stapleton said JRS was hoping for and expecting something “much stronger” to emerge from the EU meeting in Brussels on the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean, a plan which contained elements of resettlement and visas (for the migrants) and a much stronger focus on saving peoples’ lives as well as tackling the migrant crisis at its roots…

• Pope Francis has appealed to mankind not manipulate or exploit the planet. Speaking at the end of the weekly General Audience in St. Peter’s Square the Pope noted that on April 22 we celebrate Earth Day.

  “I exhort everyone to see the world through the eyes of God the Creator: the earth is an environment to be safeguarded, a garden to be cultivated” he said. Francis continued: “The relationship of mankind with nature must not be conducted with greed, manipulation and exploitation, but it must conserve the divine harmony that exists between creatures and Creation within the logic of respect and care, so it can be put to the service of our brothers, also of future generations”…

The Director of the Holy See Press Office, Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, has confirmed that Pope Francis will visit Cuba ahead of his visit to the United States in September 2015. 

In a statement released Wednesday afternoon, Father Lombardi said, “I am able to confirm that the Holy Father Francis, having received and accepted the invitation from the civil authorities and bishops of Cuba, has decided to pay a visit to the island before his arrival in the United States for the trip announced some time ago.”

The visit to Cuba is especially significant in light of the role played by Pope Francis in diplomatic negotiations between the United States and Cuba…

At his general audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis continued his catechesis on the family, focussing again on the complementarity of men and women.

Pope Francis commented on the second account of the creation of man in Genesis (following his commentary at the previous audience on the first account of man’s creation. The first man, Adam, is created “alone” – and God determines to make for him “a helper suited to him.” When the first woman is presented to the man, he recognizes in her “bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.” Finally there is a mirroring, a reciprocity,” the Pope said…

“Today the Church is the Church of martyrs”. And among these martyrs are “our brothers whose throats were cut on the beach of Libya; that young man burned alive by companions for being a Christian; those immigrants on the high seas thrown overboard for being Christians; those Ethiopians assassinated for being Christians”. In the chapel of Casa Santa Marta on Friday morning, 21 April, recounting the story of the first martyr, St Stephen, Pope Francis recalled the many present-day martyrs: including those whose names we do not know, who are suffering in prisons or who are defamed and persecuted “by so many modern Sanhedrins”, or for living “the faith within their own family”…