News/International

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.

Soldiers of the U.S. Army's 2nd Cavalry Regiment, deployed in Latvia as part of NATO's Operation Atlantic Resolve, ride in an armoured vehicle during a joint military exercise in Adazi Feb. 26. Catholic officials in Latvia are trying to stay out of the region's ideological war with neighbouring Russia.

Latvian Church officials wary of regional propaganda wars

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WARSAW, Poland - Catholic officials in Latvia are trying to stay out of the region's ideological war with neighboUring Russia.

Catholic and Orthodox patriarchs meet in Bkerke, Lebanon, Jan. 27 to address the crises in the Middle East. Pictured from left to right are Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregoire III Laham; Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X of Antioch; Lebanese Cardinal Becha ra Rai, Maronite patriarch; Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II; and Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan.

Melkite, Orthodox patriarchs urge world to work to solve Syrian crisis

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BEIRUT - Two Syrian-born patriarchs separately urged the international community to work together to address the crisis in Syria and the region.

A French soldier stands guard in 2014 outside St. Joseph Cathedral in Bambari, Central African Republic. A church leader confirmed Pope Francis will visit the Central African Republic later this year in an effort to end two years of intercommunal conflict.

Central African archbishop compares his people to Israelites in desert

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BANGUI, Central African Republic - An archbishop in Central African Republic compared citizens of his country to the people of Israel wandering in the desert and urged them to use the Pope's planned autumn visit to escape from their "prolonged crisis."

In a cafe in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep, Zaid AlFares, a journalist from Raqqa city, tells about life under the Islamic State group.

Islamic State refugees grow disgruntled

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SANLIURFA, Turkey - Hassan, a chain-smoking 20-year-old from Syria, sits in a cafe across the border from his homeland, one of thousands who escaped the clutches of the Islamic State group.

Auxiliary bishop John Sherrington of Westminster said that the House of Lords’ recent decision revealed a “very utilitarian” view of the human embryo and said that the Catholic view is not adequately respected or understood. Britain’s House of Commons approved the genetic modification of the human germ line to fight inherited diseases on Feb. 3.

Britain legalizes modifying germ line to fight disease

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MANCHESTER, England - Britain has become the first country in the world to legalize the genetic modification of the human germ line in an attempt to fight inherited diseases, but Catholic officials oppose the procedures.

A displaced Syrian girl finds temporary shelter at a school in Damascus, Syria, Feb. 23. A prominent Syrian Christian political leader has called for U.S.-led coalition forces to use airstrikes to aid fellow Syrian Christian and Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State militants in northwest Syria following reports of flagrant abductions and church burnings.

Politician calls for coalition airstrikes to help Syrian Christians

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AMMAN, Jordan - A prominent Syrian Christian political leader has called for U.S.-led coalition forces to use airstrikes to aid fellow Christian and Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State militants following reports of flagrant abductions and church burnings in northwest Syria.

Coptic Orthodox priests in Amman, Jordan, remember 21 murdered Egyptian Christians during a Divine Liturgy Feb. 18. The Coptic Christians were beheaded by Islamic State militants in Libya, where the Egyptian nationals had been working.

Islamic State actions reinforce urgency of dialogue, religious leaders say

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WASHINGTON - Amid frequent reports of brutal killings and attacks by Islamic State militants, the director of an Islamic group in the United States strongly believes that people of faith must "collectively denounce" these actions of "stark evil" and "cruel barbarism."

An electoral agent in Lagos, Nigeria, inspects the temporary voter card of a woman Feb. 10.

Cardinal urges Nigerian candidates to avoid hate speech during campaign

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ABUJA, Nigeria - Politicians should desist from hate speech and inciting Nigerians against each other during the campaign for general elections, said a Nigerian cardinal.

A view shows smoke rising Nov. 20 from a Kobani, Syria, neighborhood damaged by fighting between Islamic State militants and Kurdish forces.

Up to 100 Christians abducted in Islamic State offensive in Syria

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DOHUK, Iraq - Dozens of Assyrian Christians were abducted by Islamic State forces during a new offensive against a string of villages in northeastern Syria, aid and civil rights organizations reported.

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