News Briefs

Iraqi Christians gathered on Oct. 25 at the Church of our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ainkawa, Turkey, to offer prayers of support for Iraqi forces pressing an offensive against the Islamic State around Mosul. • President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela met privately with Pope Francis an Oct. 24 as the Vatican began a mediation effort to end the political and economic crisis in Venezuela. • Rapid growth in the number of men entering St. John’s Seminary prompted the Archdiocese of Boston to buy back space from Boston College on Oct. 20. • Italy’s Interior Ministry released figures on Oct. 28 documenting a record monthly landing of 26,161 migrants—almost all from West Africa and the Horn of Africa—while another 1,000 were pulled from dinghies on the Mediterranean later that day. • The South African government announced on Oct. 20 that it plans to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, provoking fears of widespread abandonment of the court throughout the continent. • The camp for undocumented migrants in Calais, France, known as “the jungle,” was cleared out by French security forces on Oct. 26 as some frustrated, departing migrants set fire to parts of the slum.