Video of the pre-dawn theft from the Santa Maria in Traspontina church was shared and celebrated on conservative social media on Oct. 21. The Vatican's communications czar, Paolo Ruffini, termed it a "stunt" that violated the idea of dialogue.

Proposals for Amazonian development made by well-known observers at the Synod of Bishops for the Amazon could conflict with the expectations of indigenous people unless they are included in decision-making, some synod participants said.

"We told the Holy Father that we are afraid because we are forgetting our language; it is being extinguished because we are asphyxiated by the models of development that come from outside that do not respect life."

What exactly are we celebrating on Columbus Day?

Deacon Pereira will become the first priest from the Tikuna ethnic group, a tribe of about 60,000 people that live deep in the Amazon, along a stretch of the jungle shared by Colombia, Peru and Brazil.

Members of nonprofit Catholic missionary groups have traveled the Eastern Coachella Valley area, seeking to connect with the indigenous Purépecha community.