International News

News from outside of Canada.

African clergy join fight to save elephants and rhinos

March 27, 2014

NAIROBI, Kenya - The escalating slaughter of elephants and rhinos is drawing the anger of conservationist clerics, who have begun enlisting church members in the battle to save Africa’s wildlife.

Vatican accepts resignation of Germany's 'Bishop Bling'

March 26, 2014

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican has accepted the resignation of a German bishop who was at the center of controversy over expenditures for his residence and a diocesan center.

Ugandan priest witnesses great suffering among South Sudanese refugees

March 25, 2014

ADJUMANI, Uganda, - It has been two months since Father Raphael Ayiga Lebu has had a good night, or a good day, of sleep.

Priest: Ukrainian Catholics flee Crimea to escape threats of arrest

March 25, 2014

OXFORD, England (CNS) -- Members of the Ukrainian Catholic Church are fleeing Crimea to escape threats of arrest and property seizures, a priest told Catholic News Service just four days after Russia finalized the region's annexation.

Cocaine-filled condoms intercepted en route to the Vatican

March 25, 2014

VATICAN CITY (RNS) A sting inside Vatican City aimed at nabbing the mystery buyer of more than $55,000 in cocaine that was hidden inside 14 condoms was foiled, leaving law enforcement officials searching for the source of a leak.

Can Pope mend relationship between Obama and U.S. bishops?

March 24, 2014

When President Obama and Pope Francis sit down at the Vatican on March 27, the meeting may well offer a vision of what could have been for Democrats and the Catholic Church over the last six years: a leader of the state and a leader of the Church working on the many issues where they agree while working through the issues where they don’t.

Salvadoran bishop says he expects Romero beatification in three years

March 24, 2014

WASHINGTON - Auxiliary Bishop Gregorio Rosa Chavez of San Salvador said there's strong hope and signals from the Vatican that beatification for Archbishop Oscar Romero, the man many consider a modern-day saint, will come in three years.

When Pope Francis meets Obama, expect collaboration over conflict

March 23, 2014

ROME - U.S. President Barack Obama is to meet Pope Francis for the first time March 27 as Obama wraps up a European tour, a high-profile encounter between two major world leaders that appears to carry especially high stakes from the U.S. perspective.

Artists, aid agencies work to help vulnerable Syrian refugee children

March 23, 2014

ZAATARI REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan - As Syria's civil war hurtles into its fourth year, hopes of returning home soon seem far off for the 2.5 million refugees sheltering in neighbouring countries, like Jordan. Syrians are soon expected to overtake Afghans as the largest refugee population in the world, according to the United Nations.

For Peru's Kukama people, water is more than a drink, missionary finds

March 20, 2014

DOS DE MAYO, Peru - It was a day Father Miguel Angel Cadenas did not expect to see. One after another, government officials stood before several hundred Kukama Indians packed into a sweltering wood-frame room in this tiny riverside village, describing the results of a study of pollution in their communities.