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News/International

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

Recapture of Christian towns contrasts with Islamic State gains in Syria

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

In this courtroom sketch, convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzokhar Tsarnaev stands as he is sentenced to death at the U.S. courthouse in Boston May 15.

Reaction mixed to Tsarnaev death sentence in Boston Marathon bombing

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WASHINGTON - Reaction was mixed to the May 15 jury sentencing of death for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

This photo taken Feb. 10, 2014 from the home of Emmanuel and Maria Rosevilla Margate shows homes left in ruins in Tacloban, Philippines. The family huddled together in their block home Nov. 8, 2013, as Typhoon Haiyan made shambles of many homes in their community.

Philippines relocation of storm victims like ‘Siberian gulags’

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While Philippines President Benigno Aquino III was in Ottawa signing a May 8 agreement to govern how more than $90 million in Canadian aid is spent, the Canadian bishops’ development agency was holding community meetings in the Philippines trying to ensure local people get new permanent homes close to their jobs, family and community.

A volunteer picks up trash at Freedom Island, a marshland considered to be a sanctuary for birds, fish and mangroves in a coastal area of Las Pinas City, near Manila, Philippines. Few papal encyclicals have been as eagerly awaited as Pope Francis’ upcoming statement on the environment.

World awaits papal call to action on environment

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Encyclicals are important for Catholics. Our theologians study them. Our pastors preach them. Sometimes we even read them.

But there has never been an encyclical like the yet-to-be published papal letter on the environment and climate change due out next month. Even the editorial board of The New York Times is waiting with baited breath. “The Pope is right to speak up for our planet, and the greater the impact the better,” the newspaper wrote in its April 29 editorial.

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