News/International

In an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York says that the Islamic State militants are a distortion of "genuine" Islam. He compared them to the Irish Republican Army's members who claimed to be Catholic but whose acts were "a perversion” of all church teachings.

Cardinal Dolan: Islamic State is Muslim like IRA was Catholic

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NEW YORK - Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York said Islamic State militants terrorizing the Middle East are a distortion of “genuine” Islam much as the Irish Republican Army was a “perversion” of Catholicism.

A student at the Yedhi Primary School in the village of Boraimani, Kenya, does her school work on a desk provided by Catholic Relief Services. On March 3, the Population Research Institute and the Lepanto Institute said that CRS implemented the “Healthy Choices 2” program including the distribution of condoms and contraceptives under the federal President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program. CRS called assertions that it had supplied birth control in the country as “misleading, exaggerated and untrue.”

CRS rejects groups' assertions it supplied birth control in Kenya

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WASHINGTON - Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' overseas relief and development agency, called assertions that it had supplied birth control in Kenya "misleading, exaggerated and untrue."

Coptic Christian women attend a Feb. 17 service in Cairo for the Egyptians said to have been beheaded in Libya. A video released on social media Feb. 15 is said to show the beheadings.

21 slain Egyptian Copt martyrs had their cross to bear

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MONTREAL - Christians have always faced various degrees of persecution through the centuries and should always be prepared to wear  “the crown of martyrdom,” a Coptic leader in Montreal told his congregation Feb. 28 during a memorial Mass honouring  21 Egyptians who were beheaded on a beach in Libya by jihadists in mid-February.

A baby cries as members of a Palestinian family warm themselves by a fire Feb. 20 at the remains of their house that witnesses said was destroyed by Israeli shelling during a 50-day war last summer near Gaza City. Six months after the end of the most rec ent war in Gaza, one aid official said there is still a "grave humanitarian crisis."

Aid official says Gazans have lost hope, situation worse than during war

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JERUSALEM - Six months after the end of the most recent war in Gaza, there is still a "grave humanitarian crisis" in the narrow strip wedged between the Egyptian and Israeli borders, where more than 1.8 million Palestinians live closed off to the world because of an international embargo.

Top priest psychologist Msgr. Stephen Rossetti told hundreds of Irish delegates that in the United States, child abuse rates are dropping throughout society and the church. He also said that the Catholic Church is no longer a safe haven for child abusers. Rossetti spoke at the first national conference on safeguarding children in Ireland Feb. 27-28.

U.S. priest to Irish safeguarding meeting: Church not haven for abusers

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ATHLONE, Ireland - The Catholic Church is "no longer a safe haven for child abusers," said a top priest psychologist who advises the U.S. bishops on child sexual abuse.

Nigerians are seen packed in a van fleeing Mubi, Nigeria, following attacks in 2014. Nigeria's bishops criticized Boko Haram insurgents' use of children to commit crimes such as suicide bombings.

Nigerian bishops criticize Boko Haram's use of kids as suicide bombers

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LAGOS, Nigeria - Nigeria's bishops criticized Boko Haram insurgents' use of children to commit crimes such as suicide bombings.

Pope Francis gives a blessing as he leads the Angelus from the window of the Apostolic Palace in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Feb. 22.

Remedy against violence is seeing differences as beneficial, says Pope

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VATICAN CITY - The best antidote to violence is teaching people to discover and accept differences as being valuable, Pope Francis told the bishops of North Africa.

A priest gives Communion during Mass at a church in Baghdad March 1. Christian organizations have begun funneling aid to Syrian cities that are housing refugees from the Islamic State.

Catholic aid group channels money to help Christians displaced in Syria

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BEIRUT - A pontifical aid organization has begun sending aid to families who fled their homes when Islamic State militants raided a cluster of Assyrian Christian villages on the Khabur River in northeast Syria.

Displaced people from the minority Yezidi community keep warm under blankets as they take refuge in a building in Shikhan, Iraq, Jan. 19. Thousands of Iraq's religious minorities were displaced by vicious attacks by Islamic State militants last summer.

19 Assyrian Christians released, but many concerned for more than 200 said to be held captive

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AMMAN, Jordan - Christians in the Middle East welcomed the release of nearly 20 Assyrian Christians abducted by Islamic State militants in northeastern Syria, but expressed concern that more than 200 others remained in captivity.

Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, poses with Chris Caicedo, Andrea Minichini and their son, Gabriel Caicedo, following a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington Feb. 23 to call attention to a protocol to reverse RU-486 medical abortions.

Baby born after RU-486 reversal is 'light of our life,' says father

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WASHINGTON - Two-month-old Gabriel Caicedo is one of 78 children who have been saved by a new medical protocol being used to reverse the effects of the RU-486 abortion regimen in its early stages.

Carabinieri police officers stand guard in front of the shroud in Turin, Italy, May 2, 2012.

During shroud display, Turin reaches out to women who have aborted

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ROME - With the aim of ensuring that the public display of the Shroud of Turin promotes conversion and healing, the archbishop of Turin has given priests throughout the archdiocese special faculties to offer absolution to women who confess to having had an abortion.

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