A new report says Christians are faring better in conflict-ravaged regions in the Middle East, but the precarious situation means the Church could vanish in places like Syria and Iraq if the Islamic State mounted another campaign in the region.
International News
Cardinal Says Synod Seeks to Give Women Greater Role in Church Governance
Catholic bishops are not fully utilizing Church law to maximize the role of women in decision making capacities, Indian Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai said on Oct. 23.
Group Advocates for Women’s Ordination on the Sidelines of the Synod
As the Vatican’s meeting on the Amazon draws to a close this week, one group is using the occasion to seek new roles for women in leadership, hosting a prayer vigil on Oct. 23 in support of women’s ordination to the priesthood and the diaconate.
Vatican Confirms Election of Msgr. Peter Vaccari to be President of CNEWA
Monsignor Peter Vaccari, currently rector of St. Joseph’s Seminary in Dunwoodie, New York, has been elected to succeed Monsignor John E. Kozar as president of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association/Pontifical Mission for Palestine.
Amazon Group Denounces Theft and Destruction of Indigenous Statue in Rome
An indigenous organization has denounced the theft and destruction of wooden statue of a naked pregnant woman from a Church in Rome on October 21.
Cairo’s Marginalized Christians Make ‘Garbage City’ a Blessed Place
Perhaps no place on earth serves as exhibit A for Pope Francis’s call to “resist the throwaway culture” better than Cairo’s Manshiyat Nasser neighborhood, where residents recycle an estimated 90 percent of the city’s trash.
Controversial Amazon Statue Stolen From Church, Thrown in Rome’s Tiber River
A wood carving statue of a naked pregnant woman that has been at the heart of brewing controversies since before the Vatican’s major summit on the Amazon region began was stolen from a Roman Church on October 21 and tossed in the Tiber River.
Coptic Christians in Egypt Fear Martyrs are Being Forgotten
The last body of the 21 people beheaded by ISIS on a Libyan beach in 2015 will soon be reunited with the rest of the 20 Coptic Christian martyrs in a newly built shrine honoring their memory in one of most prominent hotbeds of Christian persecution in the country.
Leaked Documents Detail $200 Million Vatican Deal for Swanky London Property
Against the backdrop of a Synod of Bishops on the Amazon dedicated to the defense of some of the world’s most impoverished people, the Vatican finds itself rocked by yet another financial scandal after publication Sunday of seamy details about a $200 million purchase of a swanky 183,000-square-foot apartment building in the Chelsea district of London.
Amazon Bishops Pledge Poverty, Spurning Plastics and Taking the Bus
Some 40 bishops participating in the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon gathered October 20 in the Catacombs of St. Domitilla in Rome to renew a pact signed in 1965 by 42 prelates at the Second Vatican Council calling for a poor church.