News/International

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine environmentalists and advocates for farmers, fishers and the poor praised lauded the recently released encyclical, "Laudato Si'," as "affirmation" for their causes and said that, using it as a guide, they were ready to get to work.

AMMAN, Jordan - Israel's Ministry of Education may force dozens of Christian schools to shut their doors this school year, but a Catholic priest is hoping a meeting with government officials can avoid that.

VATICAN CITY - Representatives of Colombia's largest guerrilla movement have asked to meet Pope Francis in Cuba in September and have requested the Catholic Church name a permanent delegate to their peace negotiations with the government.

GLASGOW, Scotland - The president of the Scottish bishops' conference offered a "profound apology" to victims of child abuse following a national review of Church safeguarding procedures.

HONG KONG - The morning after the industrial blast in Tianjin, China, the Tianjin Diocesan Social Service Center helped line up 60 volunteers to assist the government's rescue and relief work. The volunteers donated drinking water, clothes and other supplies to hospitals and temporary settlements for evacuees, reported ucanews.com.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis is looking for a few good "missionaries of mercy," priests who are known for their preaching and their dedication to hearing confessions and granting absolution.

HAVANA - With Havana Harbor's bright blue waters and a trio of vintage U.S. cars parked along the Malecon framing the scene, Secretary of State John Kerry officially reopened the U.S. Embassy in Cuba Aug. 14, marking the end of more than 54 years of fractured diplomatic relations.

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA - One of the leading voices among Africa’s bishops predicts a new flexibility in Catholic teaching at this October’s Synod on the Family, allowing bishops and bishops’ conferences in different parts of the world to adapt Church teaching on the family to the culture, economic situation and political landscape in their part of the world.

VATICAN CITY - More than five years after the murder of Bishop Luigi Padovese, Pope Francis has named an Italian Jesuit to succeed him as apostolic vicar of Anatolia, Turkey.

HONG KONG - Cardinal John Tong Hon of Hong Kong has issued an "urgent appeal" to Communist Party chiefs in Beijing, calling on them to order a halt to an ongoing cross-removal campaign from Christian churches in Zhejiang province.