International News

News from outside of Canada.

Priest among five convicted of bishop's 2005 slaying in Kenya

November 6, 2014

NAIROBI, Kenya - A Catholic priest was among five people found guilty and sentenced to death for the 2005 slaying of Italian Bishop Luigi Locati.

Church protests beating deaths of Pakistani Christian couple accused of blasphemy

November 6, 2014

THRISSUR, India - Catholic leaders in Pakistan protested the Nov. 4 beatings and burning of a young Christian couple accused of desecrating the Quran.

Burkina Faso bishops urge return of civilian rule

November 5, 2014

OXFORD, England - Burkina Faso's Catholic bishops sent a "message of peace and hope" to the West African country after its 27-year president, Blaise Compaore, fled prompting a military takeover.

Christian persecution gains notice from Prince Charles, Catholic group

November 5, 2014

MANCHESTER, England - The heir to the British throne suggested that Islamic leaders must speak out against the persecution of Christians by Muslims if they are to guarantee freedom within their own countries.

Vatican ethicist: No dignity in Brittany Maynard’s physician-assisted death

November 5, 2014

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican’s top ethicist condemned Brittany Maynard’s decision to end her life, saying there was no dignity in her physician-assisted death.

NY archdiocese, one of the world’s grandest, shrinks

November 4, 2014

NEW YORK - The Archdiocese of New York, with the second-largest Catholic population in the country and an unparalleled place in U.S. Church history, is shrinking: Cardinal Timothy Dolan on Nov. 2 announced that nearly a third of the archdiocese’s 368 parishes would be merging, and some would close.

Woman's suicide called tragedy, symbol of 'culture of death' in U.S.

November 3, 2014

PORTLAND, Ore. - Brittany Maynard, a young California woman who was suffering from terminal brain cancer and gained national attention for her plan to use Oregon's assisted suicide law, ended her life Nov. 1. She was 29 years old.

Experts, historians explore Shakespeare's Catholic sympathies

November 2, 2014

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON, England - Inside this town's recently refurbished Royal Shakespeare Theater, a massed audience, banked on three floors, gazes attentively out over a wide, brightly lit stage.

Remembering the Holocaust after the survivors are gone

November 1, 2014

As aging Holocaust survivors gathered at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to celebrate its 20th anniversary last year, a question hung in the air: How will the world remember the Holocaust — the Nazis’ systematic murder of six million Jews — when the last survivors are gone?

Bishops object as Catholic universities offer same-sex benefits

October 31, 2014

The decision by a Jesuit university in Nebraska to provide benefits to spouses of gay employees has prompted a strong protest from the local archbishop, the latest skirmish in a battle that seems likely to widen as gay marriage becomes more common.