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.

The threat of spreading the coronavirus has forced Catholic officials in Hong Kong to suspend all church programs Feb. 15-28, including Sunday Masses and the Ash Wednesday liturgy that marks the beginning of Lent.

"The time has come for Christians to have a stronger, broader voice in government so that the challenges of poverty and violence can be overcome," Bishop Kukah said.

The German bishops are due to hold their next regularly scheduled elections at the spring full assembly in early March in Mainz.

Pope Francis warned the bishops that many in the media and the general public will be focusing on those two issues -- married priests and women deacons -- while he wanted to focus on the social, pastoral, ecological and cultural challenges facing the Amazon region.

Bishop McElroy added, "There is no mandate in universal Catholic social teaching that gives a categorical priority to either of these issues as uniquely determinative of the common good."

Bishops Barber and Fitzgerald issued the statement expressing appreciation for the administration's commitment to parental choice in education following a visit by Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to St. Francis de Sales Catholic School in Philadelphia.

Christian funerals outside of churches have been banned in some areas of China as the communist government begins to enforce new regulations on religious practices.

The first synodal assembly on the future the Catholic Church in Germany drew both praise and some criticism, with many of the 230 participants lauding what they called a special atmosphere in the debates on key reforms.

Diocesan guidelines included cleaning directions -- including microphones used by lectors -- and instructed people to bow their heads instead of shaking hands during the sign of peace.