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News/International

Sister Kathleen Conan

Society of the Sacred Heart unifies Canadian, U.S. provinces

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ST. LOUIS - The Society of the Sacred Heart, an international congregation of women religious, has unified its provinces in Canada and the United States to form the Province of the United States-Canada.
Its headquarters will be based in St. Louis. The change became effective July 8.

Giuseppe Dalla Torre, presiding judge of the Vatican City State court, speaks during a July 11 Vatican news conference concerning Pope Francis' Motu proprio on criminal law matters. Dalla Torre briefed the media on changes to the Vatican's criminal code approved July 11 by the Pope.

Vatican updates laws; Pope expands jurisdiction of Vatican court

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VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis has approved a major updating of the criminal laws of Vatican City State, including in areas dealing with child abuse and terrorism financing, and has ruled that any Vatican employee can be tried by the Vatican court for violating those laws.

Girls walk a street in Timbuktu, northern Mali, in June. The city was seized by Islamist fighters in 2012 and then liberated by French and Malian soldiers early this year. During the jihadists' rule, girls and women could not appear in public unless they were completely covered. Return to the north by hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced people has been slow. Many were waiting for improved security in the north before venturing back home.

In Timbuktu, majority Muslims, minority Christians reject extremists

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TIMBUKTU, Mali - In this ancient city that has become synonymous with the ends of the earth, the recent terrorism of Islamist extremists belies long years of peaceful Muslim-Christian coexistence.

Workers paint waves on a mural in front of the altar July 7 Lampedusa, Italy. Pope Francis will celebrate Mass and pray for immigrants lost at sea when he visits the island July 8. Located about 70 miles from Tunisia, the island has been the destination for thousands of African immigrants seeking a better life in Europe.

Pope calls for repentance over treatment of migrants

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VATICAN CITY - Before saying a word publicly, Pope Francis made the sign of the cross and tossed a wreath of white and yellow flowers into the Mediterranean Sea in memory of the estimated 20,000 African immigrants who have died in the past 25 years trying to reach a new life in Europe.

People walk past a medical marijuana shop in Santa Monica, Calif., June 23. Legal in California since 1996, such marijuana outlets, along with doctor's consultation centers and smoking paraphernalia shops, l marijuana outlets have proliferated along Sant a Monica's Venice Beach boardwalk.

Patchwork of murky laws emerges as more U.S. states OK use of marijuana

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SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Somewhere among the skateboarders, weightlifters, street artisans and moms pushing strollers at California's Venice Beach may be a high concentration of seriously ill Californians seeking alternative pain relief.

Michael O'Connor, Tracey Aiello and Jeff Holowka, members of the 140th New York Volunteer Infantry Living History Organization, take part in a memorial dedication for Civil War hero Col. Patrick O'Rorke at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Rochester, N.Y., July 2. O'Rorke, who died July 2, 1863, during the the Battle of Gettysburg, Pa., grew up in Rochester and is buried at Holy Sepulchre.

Catholic presence at Battle of Gettysburg still evident 150 years later

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PHILADELPHIA - They were Poles, Austrians, Germans, Czechs, Italians, Irish — especially Irish — and they had one thing in common. They were Catholics, many of them new immigrants but loyal Americans.

Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev-Halych, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church (pictured), and Archbishop Jozef Michalik of Przemysl, president of the Polish bishops' conference, pledged mutual forgiveness for the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians during World War II.

Polish, Ukrainian church leaders mark anniversary of WWII massacres

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WARSAW, Poland - Catholic leaders in Poland and Ukraine pledged mutual forgiveness for the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians during World War II.

Firefighters move away from the Yarnell Hill Fire near the town of Yarnell, Ariz., June 30. The Arizona blaze has killed 19 firefighters, who belonged to an elite response team, and destroyed hundreds of homes across 2,000 acres.

Catholic parish mourns loss of one of its own in Arizona fire

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PHOENIX - In Tualatin, Ore., members of Resurrection Parish and Our Lady of the Lake School in Lake Oswego were remembering John Percin Jr., one of 19 firefighters who perished June 30 in an Arizona wildfire.

Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, talks with Russell D. Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington July 2. The two are part of a diverse group of religious leaders urging the U.S. government to "expand conscience protections" in its Health and Human Services mandate that requires almost all employers to provide c overage of contraceptives, sterilization and some abortion-inducing drugs free of charge.

U.S. bishops, religious leaders call for religious liberty protections

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WASHINGTON - A diverse group of religious leaders, including Catholics, Protestants, evangelicals and a representative from the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, issued an open letter July 2 urging the U.S. government to "expand conscience protections" in its Health and Human Services contraceptive mandate.

Pope Francis' first encyclical, Lumen fidei (The Light of Faith), will be published July 5.

Pope Francis' first encyclical to be published July 5

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VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis' first encyclical, which he has said is largely the work of retired Pope Benedict XVI, will be published July 5.

Ernst von Freyberg, who has assumed the function of interim general director of the Vatican bank, poses in his office at the Vatican June 10. A statement from the Vatican press office said the bank's director, Paolo Cipriani, and its deputy director, Mas simo Tulli, offered their resignations July 1 "in the best interest of the institute and the Holy See."

Director, deputy director of Vatican bank resign

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VATICAN CITY - The director and the deputy director of the Vatican bank, which is being investigated by a special papal commission, resigned July 1.

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