“Let us pray, then, that the beloved land of Cuba may know days of greater serenity, of authentic human and social development, of harmony and hope.”
Latin America
Posted inThe Weekly Dispatch
Trump’s ‘get tough’ on Cuba policy piles on island’s suffering
Trump’s “tough Cuba policy” breaks with recent efforts toward rapprochement supported by the Catholic Church, with the aim of overturning the Cuban revolution by year’s end.
Posted inBooks
Review: Mario Vargas Llosa’s final book approaches the question of nationhood
His final work, published now for the first time in English, Mario Varvas Lloisa approaches the question of nationhood not in the abstract terms of a sociologist or philosopher, but obliquely, through a kind of literary ventriloquism, in a hybrid form combining the novel and essay.
Posted inDispatches
In Peru, it’s no contest when President Trump takes on Pope Leo
Peruvians remember with gratitude Pope Leo’s (then Bishop Prevost) response to catastrophic floods in Chiclayo. They recall him procuring oxygen tanks during the Covid-19 pandemic. The pope had also responded decisively to the exodus of migrants fleeing Venezuela for other parts of South America.
Posted inBooks
Mexico’s James Joyce: Remembering Carlos Fuentes on a complicated holiday
Carlos Fuentes, sometimes called “the Joyce of Mexico,” “the Balzac of Mexico” or “the Faulkner of Mexico,” was a wizardly innovator of language and narrative and is universally recognized as one of Latin America’s literary giants.
Posted inNews
Pew: In US and other countries, Catholicism loses more members than it gains
A new analysis from Pew Research Center has found that Catholicism has lost more members than it has gained in most of the 24 countries surveyed, while Protestantism has seen net gains in several nations, especially Latin America.
Posted inDispatches
In the Brazilian Amazon, a Catholic Indigenous community endures amid land invasions and government neglect
The Indigenous community’s relationship with Catholic institutions has been central to Sateré-Mawé resistance to environmental exploitation and government neglect.
Posted inFaith and Reason
The church Pope Francis left us
Welcome to the Catholicism of the rest of our lives.
Posted inDispatches
As Trump threatens Cuba, refugees relive their journey to America
With his native country roiled by an oil blockade and reports of aggressive U.S. intervention in the offing, Cuban refugee Felipe Fortun recounted his journey to America—his third attempt to escape the island.
Posted inDispatches
Ten years after her murder, indigenous leader Berta Cáceres remains a beacon of hope in Honduras
“It seems that there are powerful groups who are preventing justice from prevailing,” Bishop Jenry Ruiz said at the celebration of life for Berta Cáceres on March 1.