China Reserves Right to Elect, Ordain Bishops A Catholic lay leader from Beijing said China will continue to self-elect and self-ordain bishops. We ordain bishops only for the sake of evangelization in the mainland. Nobody can stop us, said Anthony Liu Bainian, vice chairman of the Chinese Catholic

Chaldean Bishop Calls for U.S. Withdrawal From Iraq U.S. troops should withdraw and let Iraqi factions fight it out, the bishop for most Iraqi Catholics in the United States said June 19. Let the Iraqis kill each other, but let the occupying power get out, because they are not killing each other bec

At Assisi, Pope Appeals for Mideast Peace On a pilgrimage to the birthplace of St. Francis of Assisi, Pope Benedict XVI appealed for peace in the Middle East and a return to responsible and sincere dialogue to end armed conflicts. The popes one-day trip June 17 marked the 800th anniversary of the c

Pope in Brazil Speaks on Discipleship and MissionSpeaking at the opening session at Aparecida, Brazil, on May 13 of a meeting of Latin American and Caribbean bishops, Pope Benedict XVI said the faith has serious challenges to address, because the harmonious development of society and the Catholic id

Freedom Commission Notes Violations in Turkey The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom strongly urged the U.S. government to include concerns regarding Turkey’s religious freedom violations on the U.S.-Turkey bilateral agenda. The United States should urge Turkey to continue its