International News

News from outside of Canada.

D&P's Nepal aid tops $600,000

May 19, 2015

The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace has so far collected $600,800 for relief efforts in Nepal. The development arm of Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs Trade and Development will match all funds collected by May 25.

Reaction mixed to Tsarnaev death sentence in Boston Marathon bombing

May 19, 2015

WASHINGTON - Reaction was mixed to the May 15 jury sentencing of death for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

Philippines relocation of storm victims like ‘Siberian gulags’

May 18, 2015

While Philippines President Benigno Aquino III was in Ottawa signing a May 8 agreement to govern how more than $90 million in Canadian aid is spent, the Canadian bishops’ development agency was holding community meetings in the Philippines trying to ensure local people get new permanent homes close to their jobs, family and community.

World awaits papal call to action on environment

May 17, 2015

Encyclicals are important for Catholics. Our theologians study them. Our pastors preach them. Sometimes we even read them. But there has never been an encyclical like the yet-to-be published papal letter on the environment and climate change due out next month. Even the editorial board of The New York Times is waiting with baited breath. “The Pope is right to speak up for our planet, and the greater the impact the better,” the newspaper wrote in its April 29 editorial.

New Palestinian saints highlight region’s beleaguered Christians

May 17, 2015

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis will bestow sainthood on two Palestinian nuns May 17, a move that’s being seen as giving hope to the conflict-wracked Middle East and shining the spotlight on the plight of Christians in the region.

Church workers reach out to quake victims in remote Himalayan villages

May 15, 2015

NAMJUNG, Nepal - "Sir, because of luck, we all survived. But, we may die of hunger," Mithuram Pariyar said when a church relief team arrived after a four-hour drive from Kathmandu.

Israel downplays media flurry over Vatican agreement with Palestine

May 15, 2015

JERUSALEM - Israel is downplaying the recent media flurry over reports the Vatican and Palestinian representatives have finalized the text of a formal agreement recognizing freedom of religion in the "State of Palestine" and outlining the rights and obligations of the Catholic Church, its agencies and its personnel in the territory.

Italians help flood of refugees in Francis’ vision of ‘a Church for the poor’

May 14, 2015

CATANIA, Italy - Sitting outside the central train station here in eastern Sicily, a 16-year-old who would only give his name as “Simon” hunched his knees up to his chest and wrapped himself up into a ball. With little spoken English, the teenager from Eritrea has taken to miming the way he travelled across the Mediterranean.

Exhaustion, no hope: Bishop says life in Syria needs 'attitude of faith'

May 14, 2015

ROME - Chaldean Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo, Syria, and his people are exhausted.

Periphery pope: Bosnia trip aims to build bridges in divided nation

May 14, 2015

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis' concern for those suffering on the margins and for small Catholic communities that have kept the faith alive through war or repression will take him to Bosnia-Herzegovina in early June.