NEWS

BEIRUIT - Cardinal Bechara Rai, Maronite patriarch, visited a predominantly Muslim city hit by explosions and called on political leaders to come up with a plan to save Lebanon.

MANCHESTER, England - A disgraced Scottish cardinal halted a plan to allow independent investigators to examine Church child abuse files, said a retired archbishop.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis called again for an end to the fighting in Syria, denouncing the "multiplication of massacres and atrocious acts," including the suspected chemical weapons attack that left hundreds dead.

CAIRO - It was lunchtime at Cairo's Italian Hospital, and some of the nuns who reside there were watching state television's latest announcements on Egypt's "war on terror," the expression used by the country's military and its supporters to describe the nationwide crackdown on Islamists.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - The Malaysian government has won the right to continue its appeal against a court ruling that allowed non-Muslims — including a Malay-language Catholic newspaper — to use the word Allah.

VATICAN CITY - Even before retired Pope Benedict XVI set up a pontifical council for new evangelization and convoked a world Synod of Bishops on the theme, a new group of Benedictine monks was using Latin and liturgy to reach out to those whose faith was weak or non-existent.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - An unlikely chain of events made him not only a national celebrity but a stand-in for every priest who has ever ministered to the faithful in an emergency.

OTTAWA - A joint fundraising campaign by Canada’s Catholic bishops and their overseas development agency to bring emergency relief to Syrian refugees will close Sept. 14 with a day of fasting and prayer.

ANTIGONISH, N.S. - A further 62 Catholic churches in Antigonish, N.S., are under review as the diocese tries to get its buildings in line with the number of people attending Mass and the number of priests available to preside.

CAIRO - Churches and other Christian properties around Egypt had already been looted, so when Catholics in Berba were tipped off that their southern village could be next, they acted fast.