Advocates for the protection of women charge that rape is systemic and endemic in South Africa. Police statistics confirm this: There are about 115 rapes per day, a level that is among the highest in the world.
International
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Chile’s constitution vote raises difficult questions for Catholics about equality and abortion
Chileans will get to vote on Sunday as to whether or not to adopt a new constitution. Chilean Catholics face a document that supports some Catholic ideas of equality and community yet also codifies abortion and euthanasia.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
83-year-old American nun freed after five months of captivity in Burkina Faso
Marianite Sister Ann Lacour said that fellow Sister Suellen Tennyson, who was kidnapped from the convent of her educational and medical mission in Yalgo, Burkina Faso, is now safe and on American soil.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Catholic Relief Services C.E.O. on the alarming signs of our times: hunger, drought and war
Sean Callahan, president and C.E.O. of Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services, returned last month from tours and consultations with C.R.S. partners in Ukraine, Ghana and Ethiopia.
Posted inDispatches, Faith
In South Africa’s synodal process, lay enthusiasm is often met with gatekeeping from priests
Bruce Botha, S.J., said one notable achievement of the synodal process was that many people who experienced themselves on the margins of the church felt that they were heard.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
‘Listen to the cry of the people of Haiti.’ Religious orders call for international intervention in Haiti
A coalition of 20 religious orders has sent an open letter to the U.N. requesting direct intervention against violent gangs in Haiti.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Detained by police inside church building in Nicaragua, Bishop Álvarez says hate must be answered with love
Bishop Álvarez, facing the threat of incarceration, maintains a message of love and hope.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Newfoundland church sales bring justice to abuse victims—and leave longtime parishioners in need of a new spiritual home.
A group of elderly survivors of abuse at Newfoundland’s Mount Cashel Orphanage are finally receiving compensation ordered by a landmark ruling in 2020 that went against the Archdiocese of St. John’s.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
The International Space Station was a symbol of solidarity. Its impending doom should worry us.
I get the sense that a monumental moment in history “passed us by” this week when Russia announced on Tuesday that it would withdraw from the International Space Station before the end of the decade.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
For Nigerian Christians, allegations of blasphemy against Islam can be a death sentence
The killing of Deborah Yakubu for alleged blasphemy and the reaction to it offer a stark depiction of the volatile divisions between Nigeria’s Muslim and Christian communities.