Cardinal Claudio Hummes was one of Brazil’s main religious leaders and a strong advocate for the poor.
Latin America
Posted inFaith, News
In new interview, Pope Francis says becoming pope made him less rigid and more merciful
When asked if he felt he had changed during his papacy, the pope said he was told by several people “that things that were dormant in my personality came to the surface; that I became more merciful.”
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
In Nicaragua, the Ortega regime steps up efforts to silence civil society—especially the Catholic Church
Human rights in Nicaragua have deteriorated since a political crisis in 2018 pitted the increasingly authoritarian Ortega government against democracy and political reform advocates.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
‘Crime has spread everywhere’: Mexican bishops respond to the killing of two Jesuit priests
The bishops’ statement followed the slayings of two Jesuits and a person they were protecting in their parish—a crime attributed to a local crime boss in a part of the country dominated by drug cartels.
Posted inFaith, News
With La Luz del Mundo’s leader behind bars for sex abuse, will the Mexican church survive?
Following the imprisonment of the leader of La Luz Del Mundo, a Christian denomination in Mexico, for sexual abuse, denominational leadership reiterated its support for Naasón Joaquín García.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
As inflation spikes, ‘slum priests’ struggle to help the poor in Argentina
“Slum priests” continue to play an important role in many villas in Buenos Aires, helping these marginalized communities organize for social services and reforms.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
American hearts bleed for Ukrainians. But Latin Americans? Meh.
Do Americans care about Ukrainians because they recognize them as victims of Vladimir Putin? Do Americans need a “big baddie” to hate before we take action on behalf of the poor and persecuted?
Posted inDispatches, Faith
A Jesuit’s Palm Sunday with the ‘crucified church’ of Belize
The prayer of Father Sam Wilson is that more of his brother Jesuits will answer the call to serve in assignments on the peripheries like southern Belize. “It’s where we should be,” he says.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
In El Salvador, churches are essential to ending gang violence. But the government’s crackdown could hurt those efforts.
When gang members were asked about what they must do to exit the gang, a little over half said they must join a church or follow God.
Posted inDispatches, Faith
The immigrant neighborhood—and interfaith friendships—that made Pope Francis
The portrait of Pope Francis that emerges from conversations with his friends is that of a man as resolutely down-to-earth and dependably Argentinian as his immigrant neighborhood.