News/International

Chinese Catholics pray during Christmas Eve Mass at the Church of St. Saviour in Beijing.

Chinese Christians told to replace Christ with Mao

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Government authorities in Shanxi, China, are ordering people who receive government assistance to replace religious symbols in their homes, including pictures of Jesus, with pictures of Chairman Mao and President Xi Jinping. Refusal to comply results in the assistance being taken away. 

A decapitated statue of Jesus is seen at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Miami July 15, 2020.

Christ statue vandalized at Florida church

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MIAMI -- The beheading of a statue of Christ at a Catholic church in the Miami Archdiocese has saddened the parish community of Good Shepherd Church and prompted Miami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski to call on law enforcement to investigate the incident as a hate crime.

French firefighters battle a blaze at the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in Nantes July 18, 2020. Police are investigating the incident as arson because the fire started in three different places.

Arson suspected as cause of fire at Nantes Cathedral

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NANTES, France -- French police have opened an arson investigation into a fire at a Gothic cathedral in Nantes.

Salvadoran Col. Inocente Orlando Montano is pictured during a 2000 news conference denying involvement in the 1989 deaths of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter.

Ex-Salvadoran officer says witnesses lied in his trial for Jesuits' murders

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MEXICO CITY -- Inocente Orlando Montano, the former Salvadoran army colonel accused of participating in "the decision, design or execution of the killings" of six Jesuits in 1989, testified in his Spanish trial that no order was ever given to eliminate the priests.

Australian Cardinal George Pell leaves the Melbourne Magistrates Court in 2017.

Cardinal Pell on prison experience: "I knew the Lord was with me"

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Australian Cardinal George Pell, 79, a former senior adviser to Pope Francis, has broken his silence two months after the country's High Court overturned his conviction for sexual abuse of two teens.

Salvadoran Gen. Rene Emilio Ponce, right, and his colleagues, Colonels Francisco Elena Fuentes, left, and Inocente Orlando Montano, center, are pictured in a 2000 photo during a news conference denying involvement in the 1989 deaths of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter.

Campaigns to discredit church preceded '89 Jesuit murders, witness says

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MEXICO CITY -- An expert witness has testified that the slayings of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador in 1989 was "premeditated" and preceded by campaigns to discredit the Catholic Church and the Society of Jesus.

Workers remove scaffolding from the remains of the roof of the damaged Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris July 14, 2020, after the historic cathedral was partially destroyed in a 2019 fire. A new study has found that the amount of lead that settled to the ground and likely seeped into houses downwind of the fire was far greater than officials indicated at the time.

Lead poisoning from Notre Dame fire worse than first thought

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LIMA, Peru -- When the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris went up in flames in April 2019, images were made even more dramatic by thick smoke tinged with yellow as the 460 tons of lead on the roof and spire melted.

A statue of Mary defaced July 10, 2020, is seen on the grounds of Cathedral Prep School and Seminary in the Diocese of Brooklyn, N.Y. In the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Catholics said they are worried a July 11 fire that ravaged a historic mission church there and is still under investigation could be part of attacks on the Catholic Church, like the vandalization of statues.

Statues of Mary vandalized in weekend of Catholic church attacks

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Boston police are investigating an arson attack on a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary Saturday night, the second attack in the U.S. on a statue of the Virgin Mary in two days, and during the same weekend in which two Catholic church fires are being investigated for arson.

The Atomic Bomb Dome is seen in Hiroshima, Japan, Aug. 6, 2019.

Bishops renew nuclear disarmament call as 1945 bombing anniversary nears

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WASHINGTON -- Members of a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' committee renewed a long-standing call for nuclear disarmament as the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of two Japanese cities neared.

Mission San Gabriel Arcangel in San Gabriel, Calif., caught fire before sunrise July 11, 2020.

Fire ravages historic California mission, but community vows to rebuild

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LOS ANGELES -- The fire that ravaged Mission San Gabriel Arcangel church in the predawn hours of July 11 left behind a haunting scene.

Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Ocala, Fla., is seen July 13, 2020, after it was set ablaze by a suspect who drove his van through the front doors two days earlier.

Arrest made in Florida Catholic church burning

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ORLANDO, Fla. -- A man crashed his van through the doors of Our Lady Queen of Peace Church in Ocala, Florida, early in the morning July 11 and once inside, the church's pastor said, the man set the interior of the church ablaze and drove off.

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