Though the Christian communities around Erbil, like much of Iraq, were spared by the first wave of the pandemic, the numbers of Covid-19 cases and deaths rose dramatically over the summer and appear now on the cusp of another significant acceleration.

Mass attendance and Catholic affiliation have been eroding steadily since the 1970s for all income brackets, but the sharpest decline has been among the two bottom economic quartiles.

U.S. bishops call the application of capital punishment “completely unnecessary and unacceptable.”

“I don’t think we can take our foot off the pedal. We are doing a credible job; we need to do more.”

Women, children, elderly people, Indigenous populations and migrants will be among those suffering the most.

Many Beirut buildings simply crumbled; others are compromised beyond repair. Those that can be saved no longer have windows or doors, residents continue to occupy them to protect what possessions they have left.

George M. Anderson, S.J., who died on Aug. 4 at age 86, was for many years the conscience of America magazine, especially in his focus on and commitment to the poor.

Church officials had been in regular conversation with Toronto and Ontario officials and received enthusiastic approval of the plan the diocese put in motion to reopen churches and restore Communion at Mass.

Kino was ”a classic example of the 17th-century philosopher-scientist, where faith meets science,” remembered as a defender of the Indigenous people of what would become the United States of America and Mexico.

U.S. bishops: “The Paycheck Protection Program was designed to protect the jobs of Americans from all walks of life, regardless of whether they work for for-profit or non-profit employers, faith-based or secular.”