In remote rural swathe known as the Wild West of Honduras, said to be a bandits' hideout where it is "easy to get in, tough to get out," the church finds itself once again at the forefront of a movement for justice.

Archbishop José H.Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote in a statement released on Feb. 12 that Pope Francis has provided “a hopeful and challenging vision of the future of the Amazon region.”

Cardinal Dolan said he'd met Diaz-Canel twice before and the last time was in 2018, the year he took over the helm as head of Cuba from Raúl Castro.

Over the weekend of Feb. 8-9, the government ordered military and police to surround the legislative building, and on Feb. 9, the military forced its way into congressional chambers in a show of force.

Jesuit provincials have demanded that Nicaraguan authorities end a "campaign of slander and aggressions" against the Jesuit-run Central American University in Managua and its rector, Jesuit Father Jose Alberto Idiaquez.

Cardinal Dolan, in the midst of a six-day mission visit, his first to the island, thanked the three religious sisters of the order of St. Camillus of Lellis "for your example" after celebrating Sunday Mass with them and a group of more than two dozen residents of the facility.