Catholic News Service

Catholic News Service

YANGON, Myanmar -- Another church in Kayah state, a Catholic stronghold in eastern Myanmar, was damaged by indiscriminate shelling by the military.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis named Slovenia Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic to be the new nuncio to Canada.

VATICAN CITY -- Pope Francis named Archbishop Adolfo Yllana to be apostolic nuncio to Israel and to Cyprus and apostolic delegate in Jerusalem and Palestine.

PHILADELPHIA -- Imploring Catholics of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to return to the celebration of Mass in person, Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez launched a major initiative for that purpose on Pentecost Sunday, May 23.

HONG KONG -- The protesters killed in Tiananmen Square in mainland China on June 4, 1989, used to be remembered in Hong Kong with an annual candlelight vigil in the city’s expansive Victoria Park, attended by crowds as big as 130,000, all holding flickering candles.

The recent arrest of a Vatican-approved bishop, priests and seminarians in north-central China came as a shocking development, if not surprising, as religious persecution in the communist-led country has continued to intensify under President Xi Jinping.

For nine years, Randa Aweis battled kidney disease, urgently in need of a transplant.

HONG KONG -- Authorities in northern China have arrested a Vatican-appointed Catholic bishop, his seven priests and 10 seminarians in what is seen as part of a renewed crackdown on the underground Catholic Church in the communist country.

MUMBAI, India -- The High Court in Mumbai ordered prison authorities to take an ailing 84-year-old Jesuit to the hospital, as it heard his appeal to receive bail on medical grounds, Indian media reported.

FRANKFURT, Germany (CNS) -- Germany's Third Ecumenical Convention concluded in Frankfurt May 16 with an open-air church service on the bank of the River Main. With the city's skyline of office towers providing the backdrop, some 400 people attended the service, including German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.