NEW DELHI – A cyclone killed more than 40 people and displaced hundreds of others in southern India, severely damaging farmland and buildings, including the region's most revered Marian shrine.

KOCHI, India – A priest who had been a key witness in the charge of rape against Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jullundur died Monday, prompting a police investigation into his death.

COCHIN, India – The Catholic Church has joined relief efforts as unprecedented floods and landslides continue to wreak havoc in India's Kerala state, killing about 370 people within a week.

NEW DELHI – India's Catholic Church has led a chorus of protest over a demand to ban the sacrament of reconciliation from the chairwoman of the National Commission for Women.

BHOPAL, India – A federal ministry in India has ordered inspections of all child care homes run by the Missionaries of Charity, the congregation founded by Mother Teresa, after a lay employee reportedly confessed to selling babies for adoption, reported ucanews.com.

NEW DELHI – Catholic and other leaders have urged that a bishop accused of sexually assaulting an Indian Catholic nun be removed from his position.

NEW DELHI – Facing child trafficking allegations at one of its homes for unmarried mothers in India, the Missionaries of Charity said the order condemns the actions of individuals involved and stressed that these are unrelated to the order.

BHOPAL, India – Indian officials are seeking to freeze bank accounts of the Missionaries of Charity following the arrest of a nun on child trafficking charges in Jharkhand state.

BHOPAL, India (CNS) -- Suspected Hindu extremists demolished the wall of a Catholic mission hospital and manhandled staff, including nuns, in the latest incident in Madhya Pradesh state, considered a hotbed of anti-Christian violence in central India.

BANGALORE, India – Father Xavier Thelakkat, rector of the shrine of St. Thomas at Malayattoor, was stabbed to death March 1 around noon.

Beneath Canadians’ cringing at Justin Trudeau’s embarrassing Indian amble, there seemed charitable hope he could use the debacle for hard reflection on the difference between image and reality.

Kochi, India – Both Hindu and Catholic schoolchildren in India claim to have witnessed an apparition of Christ and several appearances of the Virgin Mary accompanied by the scent of jasmine, the gift of contrition, and the healing of a girl’s ear problem.

ROME – Salesian Father Tom Uzhunnalil was sitting in a room in an unknown location -- one of several he had been relocated to during his 18-month imprisonment -- when he received some unexpected news.

VATICAN CITY – After leading thousands of pilgrims in praying the Angelus, Pope Francis offered prayers for flood victims in Texas and Louisiana following a devastating hurricane that caused massive flooding.

NEW DELHI, India – The bishops of India have offered their congratulations to the country's newly elected president, Ram Nath Kovind, urging him to live out the oath he will take to serve the well-being of the people.