International News

Analysis: A Reader’s Guide to McCarrick Report: Beware of Bad Guys, Smoking Guns

November 10, 2020

It’s taken far too long to get here, with agonizing delays, chaos, confusion, and reversals of fortune along the way, not to mention accusations of fraud and cover-up. Even now that we have a final result, heated arguments over its meaning and legitimacy probably are only beginning. That’s not a summary of the 2020 U.S. election, though it easily could be. The reference instead is to the Vatican’s release today of its long-awaited report on ex-cardinal and ex-priest Theodore McCarrick, promised more than two years ago and finally at hand.

McCarrick Report Summary Cites Lack of Serious Investigations of Rumors

November 10, 2020

Although dogged for years by rumors of sexual impropriety, Theodore E. McCarrick was able to rise up the Catholic hierarchical structure based on personal contacts, protestations of his innocence and a lack of church officials reporting and investigating accusations, according to the Vatican summary of its report on the matter.

Iraqi Priest Doubles Down on Christianity’s Survival in the Middle East

November 9, 2020

Ever since the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS), there’s been rising alarm regarding the future for Christians in the Middle East. A Catholic priest who recently returned to his village in northern Iraq after six years in Rome described what he found as “shocking,” but doubled down on the need for Christians to survive.

Kids Helping Kids: One Boy’s 1,740-Mile Journey Raises Money for Refugees

November 5, 2020

Months ago, 11-year-old Romeo Cox in Italy secretly hatched a plan to somehow visit his grandmother Rosemary in England. Romeo and his granny hadn’t seen each other in a year and a half when the coronavirus pandemic struck. So, he repeatedly asked his parents if he could walk to see her because he missed her.

Mexico’s ‘Bishop of the Poor’ Dies of COVID-19 Complications

November 3, 2020

Retired Bishop Arturo Lona Reyes of Tehuantepec — known as “bishop of the poor” and famed for promoting an indigenous church — died Oct. 31. He was one day shy of his 95th birthday and had tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in October.