One of the best parts of Christmas is hearing about how other people celebrate it. And in Venezuela, they have all-night roller skating, which ends with everyone skating to Mass at dawn.
Latin America
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
‘Nobody flees from love’: Brazil’s alternative prisons offer a model of restorative justice
Criminals “are not dangerous people. They are only people who are not sufficiently loved.”
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Protests shut down in Cuba after bishops call for free political expression
“Every Cuban should be able to freely and respectfully express and share his personal opinions, his thoughts or his convictions, even when he disagrees with the majority,” the bishops said.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
El Salvador’s death squads have new targets but continue their bloody work
El Salvador’s contemporary death squads do not engage in political liquidation. Their targets have largely been criminal suspects or innocent bystanders caught up in the violence.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Could Indigenous demonstrations against corruption lead to lasting change in Guatemala?
Guatemala’s historical social inequality has only worsened because of economic deterioration intensified by the Covid-19 pandemic and a political crisis created by President Giammattei’s increasing authoritarian tendencies.
Posted inDispatches, Faith
Brazil once depended on Europe for vocations. Now it sends women religious missionaries all over the world.
Besides taking up the challenge of exploring new frontiers of evangelization in Africa, Asia and Latin America, Brazilian women religious have also become evangelizers of the “old continent,” Europe, where female vocations have radically declined in recent decades.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Amid Ortega’s crackdown on opponents, is the Catholic Church in Nicaragua next?
As Nicaragua prepares for a general election in November, Mr. Ortega has ramped up a broad repression of dissenting voices. Could the Catholic Church be his next target?
Posted inFaith, News
Pope Francis and bishops appear in new vaccine PSA: Getting vaccinated is ‘an act of love’
The video insists that vaccines are safe, effective and an “act of love.” It features Pope Francis as well six cardinals and archbishops from North, Central and South America.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
Covid-19 is not an excuse to keep out refugees. Biden must restore the asylum process.
Continuing the Trump administration’s restrictions on asylum seekers is not necessary for public health, and it undermines our long history as a place of refuge.
Posted inFaith, News
Defrocked priest at the center of Chile’s sex abuse crisis dies
A Chilean priest defrocked by the pope in 2018 for having sexually abused minors has died at 90.