The international director of the Jesuit Refugee Service, Peter Balleis, S.J., said, J.R.S. staff in Afghanistan and around the world were elated to have Alexis Prem Kumar, S.J., home in India and recuperating after almost nine months of captivity. “He’s in good spirits, physically well;

The director of the Holy See Press Office, Federico Lombardi, S.J., came out swinging on Feb. 27 in response to a collection of articles published in the Italian weekly L’Espresso. The articles purport to show internal struggles within the Vatican on ongoing economic reforms. “Passing co

The University of Notre Dame website went dark on Feb. 26, its usually lively front page replaced by an image of Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., and a quotation from him: “I never wanted to be anything but a priest, which is in itself a great and unearned grace. I hope to live and die a priest, not

On Feb. 26, the Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregoire III Laham said, “It is shocking that the whole world” has not responded in a proper way to the ongoing crisis in Syria. He called for international unity against the Islamic State to protect Assyrian Christian villages in northeast Syri

The chaos in South Africa’s Parliament on Feb. 12—the expulsion of one party and the walkout of a number of others during President Jacob Zuma’s annual State of the Nation address—was arguably the worst moment in the history of South Africa’s legislature. The spectacle

Walmart reported on Feb. 19 that it would increase wages and establish more predictable work schedules for employees. New employees will receive a minimum wage of $9 an hour beginning in April 2015 and $10 starting in 2016.In a letter to Walmart “associates,” Walmart’s chief execut