International News

News from outside of Canada.

Refugee crisis is in world’s developing nations, not Europe

August 7, 2016

There is a global refugee crisis, but it’s not in the rich west, the international director of the Jesuit Refugee Service told The Catholic Register in an e-mail.

Displaced Iraqi Christians are weary of waiting to go home

August 7, 2016

AINKAWA, Iraq – Abu and Um Sabah had to trade a tent anchored in a soft, grassy patch in a park for a roughly hewn, five-story unfinished cement building as they sat out their forced displacement by Islamic State militants for a second year.

Is Syrian peace attainable? Not by war

August 6, 2016

As Armenian Catholics, the Moubayed’s don’t want to disagree with the Pope. But as Syrians who fled their home in Aleppo last year while the bombs came closer and closer, the married couple are not so sure peace is possible.

Aid agencies brace for displaced as military prepares offensive on Mosul

August 6, 2016

IRBIL, Iraq – The upcoming military offensive to root out Islamic State militants from Mosul and surrounding villages will be a "huge challenge," the United Nations says, as it expects about 1.5 million people to flee the warfare in a short amount of time.

Training prepares dioceses for terrorism, mass shootings, other disasters

August 6, 2016

WASHINGTON – To help before tragedy occurs, a Washington-based priest and psychologist is conducting a free webinar at the end of August to prepare priests, religious and other Church members to deal with the trauma that follows a natural disaster, an act of terrorism or any other large-scale tragedy that they and the communities they serve might face.

Noah’s Ark mosaic uncovered in ancient Galilee synagogue

August 6, 2016

JERUSALEM – Exquisite mosaics depicting biblical scenes — one of Noah’s Ark, the other the parting of the Red Sea — were uncovered this summer by archaeologists excavating a fifth-century synagogue at Huqoq, an ancient Jewish village near the Sea of Galilee.

At Rio's Christ the Redeemer statue, cardinal blesses Olympic torch

August 5, 2016

RIO DE JANEIRO – High above the city, beneath the statue of Christ the Redeemer, Rio Cardinal Orani Tempesta blessed the Olympic torch, held by Brazil's former Olympic volleyball player, Maria Isabel Barroso Salgado.

Catholic nuns under siege in Syria appeal for help

August 5, 2016

ROME – Despite intense bombing and severe food shortages, several Carmelite nuns are refusing to abandon the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo and have appealed for urgent aid.

Pope Francis video extols sports as path to peace ahead of Olympics

August 5, 2016

ROME – Just ahead of the opening of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Pope Francis has released a video celebrating the important role of sports in building world peace.

Religious freedom threatened by Turkey’s response to coup

August 4, 2016

Civil service purges and mass arrests in Turkey since a July 15 failed coup attempt are bad news for religious freedom in what has been one of the Muslim world’s most open and democratic societies, said Canada’s former ambassador for religious freedom.