News from Around the World

While life in the Eternal City is still fairly quiet, with many locals off to the beach to escape sweltering temperatures during the month of August, there is plenty happening in other parts of the world.

The U.S. Bishops’ Conference Migration Committee chair is calling for swift passage of federal legislation that would provide newly arrived Afghans an opportunity to become lawful permanent residents, saying it’s “both our moral duty and in our country’s best interest.”

ROME – As the government’s pressure against the Catholic Church continues to grow in Nicaragua, so does the pressure for the Vatican to break its silence, with over 60 NGOs and civil associations sending a letter to Pope Francis urging him “not to leave us alone.”

Detained Nicaraguan Bishop Rolando José Álvarez appeared in a video Aug. 11, a week into his de facto house arrest by government authorities, saying that he and the companions who are with him have hearts full of forgiveness and love.

The London-based Ukrainian Welcome Centre is providing support and hope to thousands of Ukrainians who have arrived in the UK in order to escape the bloodshed in their country.

In an interview with Vatican News, the Apostolic Administrator of Mogadishu, Bishop Giorgio Bertin, talks about the humanitarian emergency in Somalia facing its worst drought in 40 years, as the Church seeks to offer humanitarian relief for the millions of people affected.

Jorge Alvarenga's voice seemed to crack just a little when the 31-year-old began remembering and talking about the last time he saw his mother in El Salvador. He was 14. She was in her 20s. It was the middle of the night and she got into a car.

Pope Francis speaks by phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who thanked the Pope for his constant prayers as the nation endures ongoing aggression.

Each year at back-to-school-time, many parents are in sticker shock about school-supply costs. This year, with inflation, is no exception as parents pay more for everything from notebooks to backpacks and calculators.

Earlier this week, Canadian Jesuit Cardinal Michael Czerny, head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Integral Human development, was in Auschwitz to mark the 80th anniversary of the death of St. Edith Stein, the celebrated German Jewish philosopher who became a Carmelite nun and who perished in the infamous Nazi death camp in 1942.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re celebrates the funeral Mass for the late Cardinal Jozef Tomko, and recalls the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples’ faithful and fruitful service to the Church and the Pope.

When Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny visited Auschwitz to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Edith Stein, he also prayed for his grandmother who died there -- a Catholic whose parents were born Jewish.

'Let's start with the question of forced conversions, a scourge in the life of Pakistan's religious minorities.'

The visitors browse the intricately carved wooden Nativity sets or dive into some mouthwatering creamy Italian ice cream at the Eiscafe Paradiso. Thousands from the world over are descending on this picturesque Alpine village to see the famed Passionsspiele, or Passion Play, held here every decade for nearly 400 years.

America’s military archdiocese has applauded legislation expanding federal health coverage for millions of veterans exposed to toxic burn pits serving overseas, saying the nation “owes” it to them to ensure their care.

Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal group, announced that a settlement it called historic has been reached with an Illinois hospital system over denying its employees a religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

On Tuesday, the 80th anniversary of Edith Stein’s death, a cardinal close to Pope Francis celebrated Mass in a Carmelite convent in Auschwitz, saying that he shares with the saint his own Jewish origins, his Catholic faith and his vocation to religious life.

Over the past few days, the Vatican’s top body on life issues has caused a stir throughout the digital world for arguing that one of the church’s most influential, and controversial, magisterial documents in the past century is not covered by papal infallibility.