Signs Of the Times

A Vatican ceremony on June 28 marked the 65th anniversary of the priestly ordination of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. It featured a rare joint appearance by Pope Francis and his predecessor that seemed aimed at tamping down speculation prompted by the unusual circumstance that there are two living pop

A new report dedicated to a British politician assassinated after promoting religious diversity finds a sharp rise in anti-Muslim attacks in the United Kingdom. There were 437 incidents of anti-Muslim hatred recorded in 2015, up from 146 the year before. They included assault and verbal abuse,

Rodrigo Duterte, a controversial town mayor dubbed “Dirty Harry” and “The Punisher” for his tough stance on crime—and against the Philippine Catholic Church—was sworn in as the 16th president of the Philippines on June 30. • Thousands of Syrians stranded on t

UNICEF reported on June 17 that 92 percent of some 7,600 children who made the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea from Libya so far this year have been unaccompanied by adults, up from 68 percent last year. • The Rev. Hermann Scheipers, the last surviving priest to have been imprisoned

Syriac patriarchs, marking the two-year anniversary since Islamic State militants expelled Christians from a large part of Iraq, denounced “the ethno-religious genocide” of their people and called for the liberation of those areas. Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan and P

Ten months after an agreement ended armed conflict between forces loyal to South Sudan’s top political rivals, South Sudan’s bishops called for the nation to “rise above negativity” and pull together to achieve lasting peace in the world’s youngest nation. The prelates

Acts of public mourning and solidarity were observed across the nation and around the world in the aftermath of the attack by a lone gunman in Orlando that claimed 49 lives and left 53 others wounded. Family members identified and began to bury their lost loved ones this week as expressions of regre

Because most people today do not understand that sacramental marriage really is a bond that binds them to each other for life, many marriages today can be considered invalid, Pope Francis said on June 16. “We are living in a culture of the provisional,” he told participants in the Dioces