Central and South America

CLEVELAND (CNS) -- Recent decisions by leading financial institutions and the world's leading economies to ease the debt burden of the world's poorest nations will help those countries respond to the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the executive director of Jubilee USA said.

SÃO PAULO (CNS) -- Less than a week before the U.S.-sponsored Leaders Summit on Climate, environmental and religious leaders said they are worried about talks on how to preserve the region and are asking government officials from the U.S. and the Amazon to look at kindly at the rainforest and its peoples.

MIAMI (CNS) -- A "Mass for the freedom of Haiti," led by Haitian bishops, turned violent at the end when police fired tear gas into the church.

Bishops in Brazil must remain united, among themselves and with their people, to overcome "one of the most difficult trials in its history," Pope Francis said.

MIAMI (CNS) -- In response to recent kidnappings of clergy and religious in Haiti and growing anarchy in the Caribbean nation, Catholic schools, churches and other entities called for a national strike April 15.

MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- The apostolic nuncio to Mexico urged the country's bishops to "look reality in the eye" as the country's non-Catholic population increases and Mexicans increasingly identify as nonreligious.

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (CNS) -- Despite COVID-19 restrictions and various challenges posed by continuous volcanic eruptions and ashfall on St. Vincent and the Grenadines and neighboring islands, dioceses in the West Indies have rallied to the aid of those affected by La Soufrière volcano.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The latest victims of rampant kidnappings in Haiti are five priests, two nuns and three laypeople who were abducted together on their way to a parish near the capital of Port-au-Prince early April 11.

BOGOTÁ, Colombia (CNS) -- Church groups in Colombia are mobilizing to support thousands of Venezuelan refugees who recently fled a military offensive and are stuck in a remote Colombian border town.

SÃO PAULO (CNS) -- More than 93 Catholic investors from around the world are calling on the Brazilian government to better protect the Amazon and the rights of its Indigenous population.

Poor countries cannot be expected to recover from the current financial crisis if the world returns to an economic model in which a small minority of people owns half of the world's wealth, Pope Francis said.

MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- A Mexican bishop announced his intentions to run as a candidate in the country's upcoming elections, then backtracked -- a decision creating confusion and reviving debate in Mexico over the role of priests and pastors in the country's politics.

The message is still the same. The message's frequency is still the same. How the message is spread is still the same.

The sun in March and April is unforgiving in the hills and mountains of El Salvador. The lack of rain and scorching sun puts much of the vegetation to sleep, painting a landscape of barren trees and plants, visual reminders of a Lenten season.

Using guns and dressed as police, a group of thieves broke into the Colombian bishops' conference headquarters in Bogota and took a safe that contained cash, checkbooks and deeds to bank accounts that the church uses to finance programs for the poor.

The COVID-19 pandemic put a damper on last year's celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary of St. Oscar Romero's martyrdom.

A trio of elections along South America's Pacific Coast on April 11 could define how countries are governed, including church-state relationships, after several years of upheaval.

A young Franciscan friar was shot at one of western Mexico's most important Catholic sites in what local church officials are calling "an isolated incident."

Pope Francis named Archbishop Nelson J. Perez of Philadelphia as a member of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

Bishops in Colombia's Chocó department are calling for a cease-fire between the Colombian army and rebel groups fighting over drug trafficking routes and illegal gold mines in one of the country's most remote regions.