News/International

The father of a man who was killed by Islamic State militants in Libya earlier this year attends a service in the Virgin Mary Church near Cairo May 3.

Priest says Church will respect sentencing of ex-Egyptian president

By

OXFORD, England - Egypt's Catholic Church has pledged respect for the country's justice authorities after a deposed Islamist president was sentenced to death for alleged complicity in a planned jail break.

Delegates to the general chapter of the Franciscans elected U.S. Franciscan Father Michael Perry to a six-year term as head of the order after he had served in the role for two years. He is pictured in a 2013 photo in Rome.

Franciscan order re-elects American brother amid ongoing financial crisis

By

An influential Franciscan order re-elected its American leader Thursday (May 21), just months after some of its members were accused of embezzling tens of millions of dollars.

People have their wedding pictures taken at the papal cross in Phoenix Park in Dublin May 21. Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said May 17 that Ireland must seize its opportunity to become the first country to approve same-sex marriage in a popular vote when it holds a referendum on the issue May 22.

Ireland’s gay marriage referendum a sign of Roman Catholic decline

By

CANTERBURY, England - “In Ireland,” says a character in a 1904 George Bernard Shaw play, “the people is the Church, and the Church is the people.”

A general view of famous graves is pictured in Palmyra, Syria, May 19.

Recapture of Christian towns contrasts with Islamic State gains in Syria

By

AMMAN, Jordan - Church bells are ringing once again in the Assyrian Christian villages dotting the Khabur River in northeastern Syria after Islamic State militants were routed by a combination of forces.

Members of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart pray in their motherhouse chapel in Fushun, China, in this 2007 file photo. Pope Francis asked Catholics worldwide to show solidarity through their prayers for Catholics in China and for persecuted Christians over the Pentecost weekend.

Pope urges prayers for China, persecuted Christians over Pentecost

By

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis asked Catholics worldwide to show solidarity through their prayers for Catholics in China and for persecuted Christians over the Pentecost weekend.

The World Day of Prayer for the Church in China is observed each year on the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, May 24, which this year falls on Pentecost.

A mural of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero is seen in 2012 at the Columban Mission Centre in El Paso, Texas. Archbishop Romero, who will be beatified in San Salvador May 23, has become a symbol of Latin American Church leaders’ efforts to protect their flocks from the abuses of military dictatorships.

Romero symbolizes Church leader as protecter of his flock

By

VATICAN CITY - Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, to be beatified in San Salvador May 23, has become a symbol of Latin American Church leaders’ efforts to protect their flocks from the abuses of military dictatorships.

Yanira Cortez

El Salvador mining battle has lessons for Canada

By

TORONTO - It’s taken six years and $12.6 million in legal fees, but El Salvador expects to learn before the end of this year whether it has to pay $301 million to a shell company whose sole purpose since 2009 has been to extract money from the country for a mine that never got built.

People from South Sudan stand near a tent used as a church at a railway station camp, where they have spent the last four years, in Khartoum on May 11, 2014.

One year after Meriam Ibrahim's release, two Christians face possible death penalty in Sudan

By

Last year, a death penalty sentence slapped on a Sudanese doctor for refusing to renounce her Christian faith stirred international outrage and heightened calls on the government to increase religious liberty.

A member of the Missionaries of Charity helps distribute relief items to earthquake victims May 16 in the mountains overlooking Kathmandu Valley in Nepal.

Nepal authorities try to block Missionaries of Charity delivering aid

By

KATHMANDU, Nepal - Members of the Missionaries of Charity had to spend more than two hours waiting at police headquarters for clearance before they could deliver food, blankets and other promised relief to earthquake victims in a remote mountainous area of Nepal.

A migrant reacts after his boat was sent back by the Libyan navy to the coastal city of Misrata, Libya, May 3. More than 3,600 migrants were rescued at sea in 17 different operations in just one day in early May, according to the Italian coast guard.

Europe struggles to find solution to increasing migrant crisis

By

RHODES, Greece - Migrants pay thousands of dollars to human traffickers in countries like Turkey and Libya to ferry them to what they hope are the greener pastures of Europe. The growing crises in places like Libya allow traffickers to work almost unobstructed.

Father Ignatius Rai, vicar of Assumption Parish in Lalitpur, Nepal, chats May 9 with 85-year old Padam Kumari Magar, who had crawled out unscathed from the rubble of her stone home on Baretol Mountain after the April 25 earthquake.

D&P's Nepal aid tops $600,000

By

The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace has so far collected $600,800 for relief efforts in Nepal.

The development arm of Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs Trade and Development will match all funds collected by May 25.

Page 426 of 651