Catholic News Service

Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON – Pope Francis has appointed Bishop John S. Pazak of the Byzantine Eparchy of Sts. Cyril and Methodius of Toronto as bishop of the Holy Protection of Mary Eparchy of Phoenix. The Pope accepted the resignation of Bishop Gerald Dino, 76, of the Phoenix eparchy, where he had served eight years.

BRUSSELS – Lebanese Cardinal Bechara Rai urged the international community and the European Parliament to stop the wars in the Middle East through dialogue, and he called for a return of the displaced to their countries of origin.

VIENNA – An Austrian bishop said the government may not use Church property to build a border fence to keep out refugees.

QUITO, Ecuador – Catholic agencies are beginning to build temporary shelters for thousands of families in Ecuador made homeless by the South American country's worst natural disaster in nearly seven decades.

NEW YORK – A canonical inquiry into the life of Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, will begin soon and extend to the end of the year, according to the Archdiocese of New York, which is sponsoring her sainthood cause and is where Day oversaw Catholic Worker houses.

WASHINGTON – If Christians and other religious minorities disappear in Iraq and Syria, "pluralism and stability leave with them," the head of the Knights of Columbus told a U.S. congressional commission April 19.

VATICAN CITY – Four months after announcing it had hired the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to conduct an external audit of its finances, the Vatican has suspended the work underway.

LONDON – Catholic bishops have welcomed a unanimous vote by the House of Commons declaring atrocities committed by Islamic State as "genocide."

ROME – The same day Pope Francis brought 12 Syrian refugees to Rome from Greece, a merchant ship rescued 41 refugees, including a three-year-old child. They told human rights workers they saw as many as 500 others drown when the refugees' boat sank.

WASHINGTON – Six members of the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother, including a young nun from Northern Ireland, are among the dead in the strongest earthquake to strike Ecuador since 1979.