News/International

People protest Aug. 6 in San Antonio on a sidewalk outside a Planned Parenthood clinic that performs abortions. Federal and state lawmakers have called for an investigation of Planned Parenthood and defunding it after the organization's top physicians were videotaped talking about ways to perform abortions to better salvage intact fetal tissue and organs intact to sell to researchers.

For abortion foes, it’s now more ‘SHOCK!’ and less ‘Awwwww’

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In recent years, up-and-coming leaders in the U.S. anti-abortion movement have been pushing for a kinder, gentler strategy for their “pro-life” campaign — an effort to win hearts and minds with an upbeat message and affecting ultrasound photos.

This museum representation of a nuclear bombing shows burned skin peeling and hanging from hands Aug. 6 at the Peace Museum in Hiroshima, Japan.

Pope Francis on the anniversary of the bomb: ‘A lasting warning to humanity’

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VATICAN CITY - Seventy years after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, Pope Francis on Aug. 9 described the bomb as a “lasting warning to humanity.”

An Assyrian woman prays at a church in Damascus March 1 during a special Mass for Assyrian Christians abducted by Islamic State fighters. In early August, Islamic State militants attacked Qaryatain, a town where Christians sought refuge after leaving Aleppo, and Hawwarin, a nearby Assyrian village, where 2,000 Assyrian Christians were forced to flee.

Dozens of Christians feared to be among 230 kidnapped in Syria

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AMMAN, Jordan - Dozens of Christians are feared to be among the 230 people abducted by Islamic State after the extremist group's militants captured a central Syrian town in early August.

Joan Cheever poses with young farmers in front of the Chow Train food truck.

For some churches, food trucks are a vehicle for serving the poor

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FORT WORTH, Texas - Allen Lutes wipes his brow as he prepares another plate of food. The culinary school-trained chef is serving grilled chicken, fresh vegetables and rice pilaf.

Enrique Segura, a Broadway actor, and his wife, Kristi, a choreographer, pose on the set of "The Lion King Jr." in early May at the School of Sacred Heart St. Francis de Sales in Bennington, Vt. "The Lion King Jr.," a 60-minute adaptation of the show about love and redemption, was created especially for the strengths and skill level of middle- school students.

Choreographer, Broadway actor help Catholic school perform 'Lion King'

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BENNINGTON, Vt. - Though the budget was clearly lower, the cast definitely had less experience, the costumes were much simpler and the audiences were far smaller, there was something that the production of "The Lion King Jr." at a Catholic school in the Burlington Diocese had in common with the Broadway production of "The Lion king": Enrique Segura.

An elderly woman kisses the hand of Sister Marica of the Missionaries of Charity at a home for the elderly in the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, July 4. The nuns have been caring for the dying and the elderly sick at the destitute center since 1978, when Mother Teresa initiated the service at the Nepal's holiest Hindu temple.

Missionaries of Charity care for the dying in Nepal’s holiest temple

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KATHMANDU, Nepal - Every Saturday morning businessman Rajan Silwal rushes to the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu to see a few friends.

Ethnic Kachin refugees are seen inside a shared kitchen at a camp in Myitkyina, Myanmar, July 30.

Ethnic minorities in Myanmar struggle on many fronts, U.S. bishop says

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WASHINGTON - Displaced members of Myanmar's Kachin ethnic minority are struggling with being away from their homes and the limited services available in a Catholic-run camp near the Myanmar-China border, said the chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Migration.

Sudanese men build a structure to house them in the "Jungle" migrant camp near Calais, France, Aug. 5. Catholic bishops from France and Britain have urged their governments to settle a growing refugee crisis around the port of Calais, where highways have been blocked and migrants from Africa and the Middle East have died attempting illegal crossings of the Channel Tunnel.

French, British bishops urge solution to migrant crisis in channel port

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OXFORD, England - French and British Catholic bishops urged their governments to settle a growing refugee crisis around the port of Calais, where highways have been blocked and migrants from Africa and the Middle East have died attempting illegal crossings of the Channel Tunnel, or Chunnel.

People pray at a memorial in Hiroshima, Japan, Aug. 6, to commemorate the victims of the atomic bombing of the city by the United States in 1945. Delegation members from the World Council of Churches, in Hiroshima for the commemoration, said they would return home to build a movement to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

U.S. bishop in Japan: American bishops will push for nuclear disarmament

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HIROSHIMA, Japan - For a long minute on a sunny morning, silence fell over the memorial park that commemorates the Aug. 6, 1945, atomic bombing of the city.

Iraqi Christian children play with concrete blocks Jan. 21 in a new camp set up for the displaced on the outskirts of Ainkawa, Iraq.

Pope condemns world's silence on Iraqi refugees

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VATICAN CITY - The world continues to be silent in the face of widespread persecution of Christians and other religious minorities, Pope Francis said.

The Knights of Columbus' 133rd Supreme Convention opened with a new initiative to raise awareness and funds for persecuted Middle East Christians. Cardinals, archbishops, bishops and priests concelebrated Mass with Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput Aug. 4.

Knights of Columbus convention opens with 'Life and Liberty' as theme

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PHILADELPHIA - Approximately 2,000 members of the Knights of Columbus from around the country and abroad gathered Aug. 4 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia to open the Catholic fraternal organization's 133rd Supreme Convention.

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