Building on the one-year anniversary of Pope Francis’s historic address to Congress last September, over 120 alumni of Jesuit law schools delivered a letter on Sept. 21 to Congressional leadership and the offices of Jesuit-educated members of Congress, calling for passage of bipartisan crimina
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Clashing Theologians
In August, the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research, based in the United Kingdom, published a report in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of “Humanae Vitae,” the papal encyclical that upheld the ban on the use of contraceptives. The statement, signed by more than 150 Catholic sc
U.N. Summit Seeks New Strategy On Global Migration Crisis
High on the agenda for the September meeting of the U.N. General Assembly was the revision and reinvigoration of the global community’s approach to the treatment of displaced people and refugees. The global community has attempted, by fits and starts, to deal with an unprecedented humanitarian
News Briefs
With a Mass near the tomb of St. Ignatius Loyola in Rome, 215 Jesuits from around the world gathered on Oct. 2 for a general congregation to elect a new superior general to replace Adolfo Nicolás, S.J., who is retiring. • Brazil’s Indigenous Missionary Council in a new report highlighted
Duterte Seeks Revived Death Sentence
Archbishop Socrates Villegas urged Catholic lawmakers not to support “any attempt to restore the death penalty.”
‘Shocking’ Liberty
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released a report on Sept. 7 that calls for reining in religious liberty protections in favor of nondiscrimination statutes aimed at protecting L.G.B.T. Americans. “The phrases ‘religious liberty’ and ‘religious freedom’ will stand fo
Good Investments
Small sums of financial assistance can help stabilize housing for low-income people and stave off homelessness, with its numerous related social problems, a University of Notre Dame study concluded. Targeted emergency financial assistance of a few hundred dollars for rent, security deposits, utility
News Briefs
Honoring Star Trek’s 50th anniversary in September, the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano said the popular series gave the world a model of peace, tolerance and cooperation at a time of global tensions. • After a Polish immigrant was beaten to death by a teenage mob in Harlow,
Bishop Removed
AsiaNews, the Rome-based missionary news agency, reported on Sept. 8 that Chinese authorities had taken Coadjutor Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin of Wenzhou, China, out of the diocese to northwest China “on a trip.” Local faithful said it was to prevent him from taking possession of the diocese
Why mining operations are failing
Large-scale mining and extractive operations are failing to deliver economic benefits while causing environmental damage and human suffering throughout Latin America.
