The war in Ukraine is getting closer to several neighboring member states of the NATO military alliance. In one of the latest incidents, Russian missiles hit an aircraft repair plant outside Lviv in western Ukraine, relatively close to Poland. At the same time, rescuers freed 130 people from the basement of a theatre in the besieged city of Mariupol, but Ukrainian authorities say 1,300 remain trapped.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has spoken with the Vatican on ending the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Vatican and Russian sources say.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday, “we don’t want war in Europe,” but doubts remained despite Moscow announcing a partial pullback of forces near Ukraine.
A nation was grieving Sunday, and many paid tributes to a five-year-old Moroccan boy who died after being trapped in a well for four days despite massive rescue efforts.
As Europe’s winter sets in, Pope Francis urged prayers for migrants fleeing war, persecution, and poverty as the European Union braced for a new influx of desperate people through Belarus and other routes. The Belarusian President, Alexander Lukashenko, offered humanitarian aid to refugees who opted to stay at the Belarusian-Polish border.
U.S. President Joe Biden announced Friday that Pope Francis had called him a “good Catholic” despite the president’s support for abortion.
An independent commission in France has published a major report showing that over a 70 year period an estimated 330,000 children were sexually abused in the French Catholic Church, Deutche Welle (DW) reports.
Pope Francis has offered condolences to victims’ families after two Catholic nuns were shot and killed along a highway in South Sudan.
Pope Francis is urging people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, calling the decision an “act of love.”
Pope Francis has changed church law to explicitly criminalize the sexual abuse of adults by priests who abuse their authority and to say that laypeople who hold church office can be sanctioned for similar sex crimes.
Pope Francis prayed for the end of the pandemic amid mounting social turmoil in Europe about COVID-19 restrictions. His prayers in St. Peter’s Basilica and call for “a horizon of hope” came as in Belgium’s capital Brussels police said they detained more than 130 people at an “illegal” party.
Pope Francis on Sunday prayed for those who looked the other way after at least 130 migrants fleeing war, persecution and poverty perished in the Mediterranean and aid workers accused states of not responding to distress calls.
Devoted Christians in Europe and North America are increasingly among those being persecuted for their faith in Christ, a rights report shows.
Pope Francis appealed for peace in eastern Ukraine, where growing violations of a ceasefire trigger rising tensions between Kyiv and Moscow agreed between Ukrainian government forces and Russian-backed separatists. It comes while a massive Russian military buildup is underway near Ukraine’s borders and British warships preparing to sail for the Black Sea next month in support of Ukraine.
An emotionally charged private memorial service was held Saturday, March 20, in honor of world-renowned evangelist Luis Palau. He passed away this month after losing his battle against lung cancer at age 86, leaving behind an evangelism legacy that impacted millions’ lives.
The Catholic Church does not have the power to bless same-sex unions, the Vatican office responsible for doctrine has said.
Luis Palau, the international evangelist who preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ to more than 1 billion people through media and evangelistic events, has died, his family confirmed. The 86-year-old preacher, a close friend of the late evangelist Billy Graham, passed away after a decision to stop all treatment for his incurable lung cancer.
Pope Francis has visited Iraq to reassure the nation’s dwindling Christian community of his prayers after years of Islamic attacks and persecution.
Pope Francis has addressed an interfaith gathering of Iraq’s religious and ethnic groups in Ur, said to be the birthplace of Abraham, the common patriarch for Jews, Christians and Muslims. He drove home the need for respect and unity, and he used the opportunity to condemn violent religious extremism.
Pope Francis was in northern Iraq Sunday where he prayed in the ruins of churches destroyed by the Islamic state and celebrated an open-air Mass.