News/International

The leader of the American Catholic bishops on Monday (Dec. 14) denounced the backlash against Muslims and refugees in the wake of the mass shooting in San Bernardino, apparently by a pair of radicalized Muslims.

PARIS - German Msgr. Josef Sayer prayed over a crowd of environmental activists at Saint-Merry Catholic Church, where they had joined for Mass after two weeks of intense lobbying in and around the U.N. climate change conference.

PARIS - A day after Islamic extremists massacred 130 people in Paris last month, a Muslim-Catholic couple married in Lyon. It had to be a civil ceremony because the Muslim family refused to enter a church. Shocked by the attacks, some relatives even asked whether they should go ahead with the ceremony at all.

MEXICO CITY - Jonathan Gonzalez lugged a large statue of St. Juan Diego into the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe on a recent Sunday, showing no signs of strain as he moved through the masses at the world's most-visited Marian shrine.

MEXICO CITY - For the Dec. 9 feast of St. Juan Diego, traditional indigenous dancers known as "concheros" and "chinelos" danced outside the Old Chapel of the Indians on the grounds of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

ROME - The survival of Christianity in the Middle East has reached such a critical point that the chances of dialogue and reconciliation in the region are being threatened, said Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad.

PARIS - Faith-based groups presented French President Francois Hollande with 1.8 million signatures of people seeking a fair climate change agreement that would stop global warming and protect the poor, reported religious groups in Paris for the U.N. climate change conference.

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral was dark as men and women of different faiths walked down the center aisle of the mission-revival-style church.

PARIS - One-hundred-fifty events to combat climate change, at the rate of roughly 30 per day, were taking place the week of Dec 7-11 in various parts of the French capital, against the backdrop of the U.N. climate change conference in the Paris suburb of Le Bourget.

DULUTH, Minn. - The Diocese of Duluth said Dec. 7 it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection because efforts to reach a settlement "that would assist all abuse victims and protect the Church's mission" have been unsuccessful.