“His presence brings prestige to our nation and to the entire Group of 7. It is the first time that a pope will participate in the work of the G7,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said.
International
Posted inPolitics & Society, The Weekly Dispatch
Why isn’t anyone talking about the exodus of Christians in Nagorno-Karabakh?
Christians who have lived in Nagorno-Karabakh for 2,000 years are being driven out by Azerbaijan. Will world leaders act?
Posted inPolitics & Society, The Weekly Dispatch
Catholic aid workers confront humanitarian crisis in Sudan as world looks away
Sudan now represents the world’s largest internal displacement crisis, with more than six million uprooted from their homes and communities inside Sudan’s borders.
Posted inPolitics & Society, The Weekly Dispatch
The Vatican’s moral objection to the global surrogacy industry
The global surrogacy market, valued at $14 billion in 2022, is projected to reach $129 billion by 2032. That’s a lot of bucks and a lot of babies and a lot of young women renting their bodies to other people.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Pope Francis buried the hatchet with President Milei. Argentina’s bishops aren’t ready to do the same.
Pope Francis has been managing church-state relations well since Javier Milei’s election, while the church hierarchy in Argentina has kept a cautious and skeptical distance from the country’s new leader.
Posted inPolitics & Society, The Weekly Dispatch
Will Canada allow autism to become a justification for assisted suicide?
A court decision in Canada crossed a regrettable, if predictable, redline. For the first time, a young woman successfully applied to proceed with medical assistance in dying based on her autism diagnosis.
Posted inFaith, News
Record 12,000 people were baptized in France on Easter
Record-breaking surge in Easter baptisms reflects shifting religious landscape in France, with increasing numbers of adults and adolescents seeking entry into the Church amidst what many describe as accelerated de-Christianization.
Posted inPolitics & Society, The Weekly Dispatch
The world is terrible at protecting children in conflict zones
While some children have been evacuated from conflict, more than 1.1 million children in Gaza and 3.7 million in Haiti have been left behind to face the rampaging adult world around them.
Posted inFaith, News
Ukraine’s top Catholic bishop: Pope Francis’ calls for negotiations with Russia are ‘deeply hurtful’
Ukrainians had already experienced a “crisis of faith in the pope’s primacy,” Major Archbishop Shevchuk said, and that the pope’s latest statements were “deeply hurtful.”
Posted inPolitics & Society, The Weekly Dispatch
On Óscar Romero’s feast day, El Salvador may have peace from gangs. But at what cost?
President Bukele has used his emergency powers to detain more than 78,000 suspected gang members in security sweeps that human rights groups charge are often arbitrary and violent.