The statement does include a new introduction warning that the document “has at times been misused to present an incomplete or distorted view of the demands of faith in politics.”

Eighteen Catholic colleges asked the Obama administration to broaden the religious exemption offered within new guidelines on women’s health.

France’s Catholic bishops have urged citizens to accept the fact that their country is no longer culturally homogeneous.

Commenting on elections planned for Nov. 28, the Coptic bishop of Luxor said that Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood were among the most organized political groups.

Perhaps in response to social unrest, executions in Iran have spiked this year, with more than 320 tallied by the end of June.

Nobel Peace Price-winner Wangari Maatthai, founder of the Greenbelt Movement, which planted more than 30 million trees in Kenya, died on Sept. 25.