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With an ongoing military crackdown and political upheaval in Myanmar, Pope Francis called for prayers for peace and reconciliation in the country.

Sri Lankan churches once again have halted services, church weddings and Sunday schools due to a third wave of COVID-19 infections.

The sainthood causes of seven men and women -- including the hermit Blessed Charles de Foucauld and the Indian martyr Devasahayam Pillai -- cleared their final hurdle May 3 during an "ordinary public consistory," a meeting of the pope, cardinals and promoters of sainthood causes that formally ends the sainthood process.

Cardinal Charles Bo of Yangon has encouraged Catholics to say the rosary and participate in eucharistic adoration for peace and justice in military-ruled Myanmar.

As India marked over 200,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19, the Catholic Church is also suffering: Several priests have died with the coronavirus over the past week.

A Catholic bishop from eastern Ukraine said tensions remain high despite an announced withdrawal of Russian forces.

NEW DELHI (CNS) -- As COVID-19 continues to claim thousands of lives daily in India, some Catholic leaders have called on the federal government to deploy the military to deal with the crisis before it worsens.

THRISSUR, India (CNS) -- Catholic hospital directors in India told Catholic News Service they did not have enough facilities to treat patients as India set records for the number of COVID-19 deaths -- numbers many people believe were underreported.

NEW DELHI (CNS) -- An oxygen leak at a government hospital in India has killed 22 COVID-19 patients as the entire country faces a huge shortage of oxygen to support pandemic-hit patients.

HONG KONG (CNS) -- Catholic media tycoon and philanthropist Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 12 months in jail after being found guilty of unauthorized assembly.

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.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The biggest risk Afghanistan might face with a withdrawal of U.S. troops could be civil war, said the Italian priest in charge of the small Catholic community in Afghanistan.

PARIS (CNS) -- When Laurent Thorigné went to the Philippines to work for a nongovernmental organization serving underage inmates, he initially did not know it had been set up by a French nun.

QUEZON CITY, Philippines (CNS) -- Jane Ollivier lost her parents by the age of 10. For five years, she bounced among various relatives before she entered the School of Life, a residential program for teenage girls in metropolitan Manila run by the Missionaries of Mary.

MANILA, Philippines (CNS) -- A diocese in the Philippines has launched an application, E-Pray, for spiritual accompaniment during COVID-19 isolation.

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.

Pope Francis sent a video message encouraging Filipino Catholics to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in their country by continuing to be faithful, generous missionaries of the Gospel.

World leaders ramp up their condemnation of the military coup leaders as Myanmar's death toll crosses the grim total.

The secretary-general of the Russian bishops' conference said new legal regulations will give state officials extra powers to intervene in church life and revive communist-era restrictions.

The March 25 announcement in Manila and at the Vatican filled the vacancy Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle left in February 2020, when he was called to the Vatican.