News/International

VATICAN CITY - Tackling the problem of climate change is a serious ethical and moral responsibility, Pope Francis told negotiators from around the world meeting for a climate summit in Lima, Peru.

VATICAN CITY - Leaving their habits behind and disguised along with police in regular clothes, a small group of three or four nuns raid brothels in Calcutta, India, at night, snatching young women and girls as young as 12 from the clutches of their captors.

NAIROBI, Kenya - Church leaders say attacks by Somalia’s al-Shabab militants in the northeast region of Kenya are increasingly taking on an anti-Christian tenor, including targeted executions of non-Muslims.

Latin American Church leaders apologized for historical complicity with colonial atrocities in the Amazon and called for a Church with an "Amazonian face" in a pastoral letter issued as negotiators from around the world met for a climate summit here.

CANTERBURY, England - In a lengthy interview in The Times of London, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby predicted that the Anglican Communion might not hold together because of strong disagreements on the ordination of women as bishops and full rights for LGBT people.

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the U.S bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace said acts of torture outlined in a Senate Intelligence Committee report "violated the God-given human dignity inherent in all people and were unequivocally wrong."

To help set the agenda for the 2015 Synod of Bishops on the family, the Vatican is sending the world's Catholic bishops' conferences a list of questions on a range of topics, including matters of marriage and sexuality that proved especially controversial at the 2014 family Synod.

MANILA, Philippines - Initial assessments by Catholic emergency responders showed significant damage to coastal areas of an island province in the east-central Philippines, where a powerful typhoon first made landfall Dec. 5, but Church officials said in some parts, chapels that were used as shelters held their own.

MANILA, Philippines - Tropical Storm Hagupit dumped heavy rain as it slunk its way to the Manila area Dec. 8, after passing across the northern half of the central Philippines at typhoon strength.

ROME - In the heart of Rome's high-end shopping district, sparkling with Christmas lights and shiny baubles in the windows of famous designers, Pope Francis prayed that people would spend time in silence and in service as they prepare to celebrate Jesus' birth.