Catholic News Service
U.S. re-opens door to more refugees
WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden announced May 3 he was raising the historically low refugee cap of 15,000 left by the Trump administration, but he also warned that his administration may not be able to meet the new number of refugees it is seeking to resettle in what remains of the fiscal year: 62,500.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- Sri Lankan churches once again have halted services, church weddings and Sunday schools due to a third wave of COVID-19 infections.
Bishops denounce revival of fetal tissue research
WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee is calling on the Biden administration to fund research “that does not rely upon body parts taken from innocent children killed through abortion.”
THRISSUR, India -- Catholic hospital directors in India say they do not have enough facilities to treat patients as India sets records for the number of COVID-19 deaths — numbers many people believe were underreported.
HONG KONG -- Catholic media tycoon and philanthropist Jimmy Lai has been sentenced to 12 months in jail after being found guilty of unauthorized assembly.
MANCHESTER, England -- The former chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II remembers Prince Philip as a man so deeply interested in God that he often would arrange conversations with Jewish and Muslim scholars, then put himself into the role of the Christian theologian.
LONDON -- Police halted a Good Friday service after a complaint that pandemic regulations were not being met, leading the parish priest to complain that officers had "brutally exceeded their powers."
VATICAN CITY -- The Easter season, which lasts until Pentecost, is a time for rejoicing and for always seeking out the risen Christ, Pope Francis said.
Papal charity to run Holy Week vaccination clinic
VATICAN CITY -- The Office of Papal Charities has purchased enough doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to offer inoculations in Rome to 1,200 of “the poorest and most marginalized people who, because of their situation, are the most exposed” to the coronavirus.
MAKASSAR, Indonesia -- A suicide bomb attack on a Catholic cathedral compound shattered the calm of Palm Sunday Mass, leaving two bombers dead and at least 20 people wounded.