Signs Of the Times

In a new report, researchers from the Jesuit Refugee Service argue that education is a life-saving intervention for children and adolescents who are forcibly displaced from their homes. “This report highlights the need to prioritize education for refugees and those displaced by conflict and cr

The annual report on the implementation of the U.S. bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” warns against complacency in dioceses. The new report said that between July 1, 2014, and June 30, 2015, 26 allegations of clerical sexual abuse were made by minor

Egyptian authorities on May 19 arrested Mina Thabet, a well-known advocate for the rights of Egypt’s Coptic Christians, the latest move in the government’s crackdown on rights activists and dissidents. • Francesco Patton, an Italian Franciscan priest named on May 20 Custos of the Ho

As heavy fighting continues across the Nineveh Plain, some Christians displaced by the Islamic State have given up the dream of returning home and joined the stream of refugees leaving the war-torn country. Others remain in Iraqi Kurdistan, clinging to the hope that they can someday go back to their

Bishop Donal McKeown of Derry told hundreds of mourners at the funeral of Sister Clare Crockett, killed in Ecuador during an earthquake on April 17, that “a life given in loving sacrifice is never wasted.” • Twenty-three new Swiss Guard recruits pledged during a ceremony on May 6 to

Pope Francis, accepting a prize for promoting European unity, on May 6 bemoaned that the continent’s people “are tempted to yield to our own selfish interests and to consider putting up fences.”“I dream of a Europe where being a migrant is not a crime but a summons to a

As wildfires continue to blaze in northern Alberta, churches of all denominations across Canada have been offering prayers and helping relief efforts. More than 100,000 residents of Fort McMurray have fled the inferno—most have lost their homes completely. Bishop Paul Terrio, bishop of St. Pau

Something developed countries take for granted—electricity—could go a long way to stem violence often attributed to religion, said Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto, Nigeria, in the country’s northwest. Only major cities, like state capitals, have reliable electricity, the bish