World News
Retired Pope Benedict hints at his death in condolence message
Reflecting on the passing of a priest friend, the 94-year-old pope, who is in stable but frail health, said in an Oct. 2 letter he hopes to soon join loved ones in heaven.
Italian dioceses urge vaccination, adopt measures for volunteers
"Care for the salvation of souls cannot be separated from the commitment to safeguard the health of bodies," wrote Msgr. Franco Agnesi, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Milan.
Myanmar military arrests seven Caritas workers
The Oct. 18 detention of the team, whose members were delivering food and medicine to displaced residents, came days after the most recent military attack on Catholic church's in the conflict-torn nation.
Migrant shelter in southern Mexico denounces raid by armed individuals
An armed group forced its way into a Catholic outreach in southern Chiapas Oct. 12, the latest act of intimidation against migrant defenders in the region.
Keep priests from being financial power bases, nuncio warns Indian bishops
Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli said the trend of priests operating trusts or nongovernmental organizations without diocesan oversight creates power imbalances in the pastoral field.
Cries of Haitian people ‘cannot go unheeded,’ Vatican official says
Following his Oct. 17-19 visit to Haiti, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said European and other countries must aid the island nation, increasingly ravaged by poverty and violence.
British lawmaker’s death ‘a painful loss in so many lives,’ says cardinal
Sir David Amess, a member of the governing Conservative Party and one of the most prominent Catholic politicians in the U.K. Parliament, was stabbed repeatedly to death by a Somali man who sprinted into his offices at noon Oct. 15.
Retired Chinese bishop who spent years in labor camps dies at 98
Bishop Stephen Yang Xiangtai of Handan was persecuted during China's Cultural Revolution. After his arrest in 1966 he served 10 years of a 15-year sentence in labor camps and factories before his acquittal in 1980. He never joined the state-sanctioned church.
Rwandan church continues efforts at reconciliation, regaining trust
Catholics were complicit in the ethnic genocide, but 27 years later, the Catholic Church in the East African nation has intensified its campaign to preach peace, help the victims, reconcile Hutus and Tutsis, and rebuild trust in the church.
Seal of confession a topic of debate after French abuse report
Church and government leaders in France are at odds over whether priests should be required to report the abuse of minors if they learn about it in the sacrament of confession. Some 330,000 children had been abused by Catholic priests or church employees in France since the 1950s.