News/International

VATICAN CITY – After hearing of the death of Fidel Castro, former president and leader communist revolution in Cuba, late Friday evening, Pope Francis sent a telegram offering his prayers for the deceased and the entire nation.

JERUSALEM – Catholic leaders in the Holy Land expressed solidarity with those affected by regional wildfires, which continued to burn after five days.

ROME – Jesuit Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, whose service as superior general of the Society of Jesus marked a return to normal governance after a period of tension with the Vatican, died in Beirut Nov. 26, four days before his 88th birthday.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Each week, 2,000 women ages 15-24 are infected with HIV in South Africa.

BHOPAL, India – The grave of a nun murdered in central India 21 years ago has been exhumed as part of a process that may eventually lead to her canonization.

MONTPELLIER, FRANCE – An attack at a French retirement home for missionaries to Africa late on Thursday has left dead one caregiver. The residents have been evacuated and are now safe, but the perpetrator is still at large.

WASHINGTON – When the Democratic Party makes its decisions about leadership at the end of the month, the House Minority Leader will be a self-proclaimed “pro-choice Catholic.”

MEXICO CITY – When Father Daniel Portillo set about designing programs to protect children and address allegations of sexual abuse, he quickly encountered a core challenge in Mexico: an unwillingness to acknowledge the very existence of a problem with predatory priests.

WASHINGTON – The incoming Trump administration’s immigration policy must avoid a religious registry or any “stigmatizing” of religious groups, religious freedom advocates insist.

WASHINGTON – Some of the greatest challenges to ending hunger worldwide are “fragile states” threatened by instability, conflict, and climate change, a new humanitarian report says.