World News
Church must make ‘preferential option for the Amazon,’ bishop says
As tropical forests fall victim to loggers, miners and ranchers, the Catholic Church must take sides to defend the Amazon region and its people, said a bishop whose Bolivian diocese has been ravaged by fire this year.
Catholic priest murdered in Kenya, latest in string of killings
A Catholic priest who disappeared from his family home was found dead in a shallow grave in southeastern Kenya a week after he was reported missing.
Indigenous vow to stand with Pope Francis, with each other
The pope met Oct. 17 with about 40 indigenous people from the Amazon, a group that included representatives participating in the synod and others who were in Rome for synod-related events.
Development proposals at synod raise questions about indigenous rights
Proposals for Amazonian development made by well-known observers at the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon could conflict with the expectations of indigenous people unless they are included in decision-making, some synod participants said.
Catholic teachers urge Ghana to remove sex ed program from schools
The topics in the program, scheduled to be taught starting 2020 in all public schools to children 5 years and older, are unsuitable for young children and do not conform to Ghanaian culture, the teachers said.
Renew commitment to peace in Syria, U.S. archbishop pleads to world
Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Justice and Peace, urged that countries choose "dialogue over confrontation" to resolve their differences.
Aid groups scramble to help people fleeing Syria
Humanitarian concerns are growing as the Turkish military incursion into northeastern Syria is forcing thousands to flee for safety in Iraq. A Syrian bishop said the U.S. "has betrayed the Kurdish people," and Turkey's goal "is ethnic cleansing."
Celibacy is a gift, not an obstacle, indigenous priest says
While indigenous cultures may have difficulty accepting the concept of celibacy, indigenous candidates for the priesthood are more than capable of understanding that it is a gift from God, said an indigenous priest from Brazil.
North American indigenous support Amazonian indigenous at synod
As the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon heard pleas to defend the rights of the region's indigenous people and of the land they hold sacred, indigenous leaders from Canada and the United States came to Rome to support them.
Inadequate formation a factor in lack of vocations, bishops say at synod
Existing formation programs are not preparing priests and other pastoral workers to be leaders in a church with an Amazonian and indigenous face, according to bishops participating in the synod for the Amazon.