News/International

Police cruisers outside of Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida where a shooting left 50 people dead early Sunday morning. Pope Francis offered prayer in a statement released on June 12.

Pope offers prayers for Orlando victims of 'terrible, absurd violence'

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VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis offered prayers for the families of the victims of the mass shooting in Orlando and expressed hope that people would find ways to identify and uproot "the causes of such terrible and absurd violence."

Jesuit Father Richard Shortall, a missionary of mercy for the Jubilee Year of Mercy, walks outside his motor home at St. Patrick and St. Brigid Church in Cooranbong, Australia, May 26. Father Shortall, one of two missionaries of mercy in Australia, is traveling throughout the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese to rural parishes that have no resident priest.

Australian priest takes up Pope's call to be a missionary of mercy

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COORANBONG, Australia – A shiny white motor home stationed on the grounds of Catholic churches throughout the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese has become a beacon of hope and mercy among local communities.

Iraqi refugee women who fled Islamic State group violence in their homeland pose for a photo in Amman, Jordan, in early June. The Chaldean Catholic women sent the hand-sewn mantle to Pope Francis and asked him to pray for them and for peace in their country.

Iraqi women hope mantle sent to Pope will inspire prayers for peace

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AMMAN, Jordan – Iraqi refugee women who fled Islamic State group violence in their homeland have appealed to Pope Francis for help, sending a hand-sewn mantle and imploring him to pray for them and for peace in their country.

Pope Francis walks with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, left, and Orthodox Archbishop Ieronymos II of Athens and all of Greece, as they meet refugees at the Moria refugee camp on the island of Lesbos, Greece, April 16. Pope Francis will send high-level observers to the pan-Orthodox council meeting in Crete, beginning June 19, as a sign of respect, support and encouragement of the Orthodox Church.

Pope sending observers to Orthodox council meeting

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VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis will send high-level observers to the pan-Orthodox council meeting in Crete as a sign of respect, support and encouragement of the Orthodox Church.

Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles at the Vatican Oct. 14, 2015. Gomez says the recently taken-effect assisted suicide law in California have crossed the line.

Assisted suicide 'crosses the line,' says California bishop

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LOS ANGELES – With California now allowing doctors to prescribe lethal medications for terminally ill patients who ask for them, "we are crossing a line," said the archbishop of Los Angeles.

Israelis light candles near the site of a Palestinian shooting attack in Tel Aviv, Israel, June 9, 2016.

Christian Broadcasting Network links Tel Aviv attack to BDS

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The Christian Broadcasting Network said Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions activists share blame for the shooting that killed four Israelis in Tel Aviv, saying in a statement condemning the attack that the movement encourages “violent anti-semitism.”

Pope John Paul II meets with Muhammad Ali in 1982 at the Vatican. Ali got his start working at a Louisville Catholic college. He died June 3 at age 74 after a long battle with Parkinson's.

Muhammad Ali got his start working at a Louisville Catholic college

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. – It may seem improbable that the late boxing legend Muhammad Ali, a devout Muslim, would be closely connected with a Catholic religious order.

A member of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic forces stands guard near buildings destroyed during battles with Ukrainian armed forces, at Donetsk airport, Ukraine, June 1. Pope Francis has established a committee to distribute aid in Ukraine with an ecumenical, interreligious approach.

Pope sets up committee to distribute aid in Ukraine

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VATICAN CITY – After making a personal donation and asking Catholic parishes throughout Europe to take up a special collection for victims of the war in Eastern Ukraine, Pope Francis has set up a predominantly Ukrainian committee to distribute the funds and has asked that they go to projects suggested first of all by the assemblies of Ukraine's religious leaders.

Pakistani Christians gather at a church March 16 to protest two suicide attacks on churches in Lahore. The latest round of attack happened June 4 when two gunmen open fired at St. Joseph Church

Pakistan parish boosts security, including armed guards, after attack

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LAHORE, Pakistan – Christians in Lahore are ramping up security measures following a shooting at a Catholic church in the Punjab capital.

This is an undated portrait of G.K. Chesterton by Edwin Swan. Chesterton (1874-1936) was an agnostic who converted to Catholicism in 1922 and became one of Catholicism's best-known defenders.

Chesterton conference confronts challenge of modern-day eugenics

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ROME – The eugenics mentality that affirms some human lives are worth more than others did not end with the Nazis, but continues in modern times through abortion and the promotion of contraception, especially in the Third World, said a U.S.-based historian and author.

People sit on the beach and watch the sun set as seagulls fly over head in Santa Monica. On Thursday, California's physician-assisted dying law, passed in 2015, will come into effect.

California’s End of Life Option law: More peaceful deaths or moral quicksand?

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Somewhere in California on Thursday, June 9, a gravely ill person may lift a glass and drink a lethal slurry of pulverized prescription pills dissolved in water.

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