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News/International

Italian police are investigating after a top Vatican official received a ransom demand for Michelangelo’s stolen notes. More than 10,000 parchment, documents and slips of paper connected with the basilica’s design were stolen. Michelangelo is best known for painting the Sistine Chapel during the last two decades of his life.

Investigation of stolen Michelangelo notes underway after ransom demand

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VATICAN CITY - A top Vatican official received a ransom demand for the return of Renaissance-era documents by the artist Michelangelo.

People react to a homily by Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych, leader of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, during a Divine Liturgy for Ukrainian expatriates at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome Feb. 19

Knights of Columbus send in humanitarian aid to Ukraine's Catholics

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NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The Knights of Columbus is providing $400,000 to relief programs sponsored by the Catholic Church in Ukraine.

A Nepalese man hugs a tree while celebrating World Environment Day at the forest of Gokarna, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Nepal, in this 2014 photo. The greatest threats facing humanity are those "that arise from global inequality and the destruction o f the environment," said Cardinal Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Vatican official to U.N. council: No one is exempt from climate change

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GENEVA - No one is exempt from either the impacts of climate change or the moral responsibility to act to address this global concern, a Vatican official told members of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

A man holds a sign reading "Death penalty is murder" March 4 outside the trial of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Boston. Four nationally circulated Catholic publications called for abolishing the death penalty in the United States in a jointly published editorial March 5.

Holy See representative urges all states to abolish death penalty

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VATICAN CITY - The Catholic Church firmly opposes the death penalty and urges all states to move toward its abolition, said the Vatican's permanent observer to United Nations agencies in Geneva.

Cardinal Edward Egan died March 5 at the age of 82. He served as the archbishop of New York during the 9/11 terror attacks and the clergy sex abuse scandal. He was best known for improving the $20-million deficit through layoffs, restructuring and fundraising.

Cardinal Edward Egan, former New York archbishop, dies at 82

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NEW YORK - Cardinal Edward Egan, who served as archbishop of New York through the trauma of the 9/11 terror attacks and the clergy sex abuse scandal but was best known for administrative acumen that helped solidify the finances of the sprawling archdiocese, died March 5. He was 82.

Over 90 per cent of mass-attending Catholics favour the Pope, according to a Pew Research survey. The banner of St. John Paul II hangs from the facade of St. Peter's Basilica as Pope Francis leaves his general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican April 30, 2014.

Poll: Pope Francis nearly as popular as St. John Paul II among U.S. Catholics

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WASHINGTON - Everyone has a high opinion of Pope Francis. Well, almost everyone.

Left: Beuerberg Abbey choir stalls in Beuerberg, Germany as seen Jan. 9. The 12th-century monastery will house up to 60 refugees from Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan and other conflict zones. Right: Sister Maria Lioba Zezulka, prioress of the Visitandine order, and Gabriele Ruttiger, head of strategy and organizational development for the Archdiocese of Munich, pose for a photo inside the abbey Jan. 9.

German archdiocese plans new residents for old abbey: refugees

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BEUERBERG, Germany - Cold winter light is streaming through the ancient windows of Beuerberg Abbey. It plays on the wood of the empty choir stalls, shimmers on the bronze hand bell of the prioress. Everything is quiet and ready for the next prayer.

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.

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