News/International

ROME, Italy – While many in different sectors of the Church are pulling out their hair trying to resolve the Amoris Laetitia communion debate, Papua New Guinea's new cardinal said his country has a much more immediate problem.

WASHINGTON – In a Feb. 16 statement, U.S. Catholic Church leaders said they were encouraged that President Donald Trump may be considering an executive order to protect religious freedom and said they would be grateful if he would move forward with the pledge that his administration would "do everything in its power to defend and protect religious liberty."

WASHINGTON – In a joint statement, Catholic bishops whose dioceses are along the U.S.-Mexico border spoke of the "pain, the fear, and the anguish" they're seeing in immigrants and vowed to follow the example of the Pope in building "bridges, rather than the walls of exclusion and exploitation."

World Relief has announced it will lay off more than 140 staff members and close five local offices as a “direct result” of President Trump’s order to more than halve the number of refugees resettled this year in the United States.

VATICAN CITY – Vatican heavyweight Cardinal Reinhard Marx said there may be tensions within the Roman Catholic Church but stressed Pope Francis has the full support of his senior cardinals.

WASHINGTON – The chairman of a U.S. bishops' committee urged Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to pursue additional reductions in the nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia.

VATICAN CITY – Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, a church law expert and former head of the Vatican's highest court, arrived in Guam Feb. 15 as the presiding judge in a church trial investigating allegations of sexual abuse levelled against Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron of Agana.

WASHINGTON – A repeal of Washington, D.C.'s physician-assisted suicide law moved through the U.S. House on Monday, but is in a race against time to pass through Congress and be signed by President Trump by Friday.

VATICAN CITY – The provisions of "Amoris Laetitia" allow people in irregular marriage situations access to the sacraments only if they recognize their situation is sinful and desire to change it, according to the cardinal who heads the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.

AMMAN, Jordan – A famed Italian Catholic cathedral organist is believed to have been the first Western musician to perform in Syria since the start of the civil war nearly six years ago.