More than 100,000 Christians from the area had already left. The archbishop of Mosul begged the remainder to flee, too.“They [Kurdish fighters] left us alone, and we were few in number with no weapons, and we could do nothing to face the Islamic State,” said Banni. “We ran.”A

Colombia’s Catholic bishops urged the government and armed rebels to commit to an indefinite cease-fire while a new peace deal is negotiated after voters rejected an agreement that would have formally ended the Western Hemisphere’s longest-running war. Following a meeting on Oct. 13-14,

Heavy damage was reported to homes and farmland in the northern Philippines on Oct. 20 after the strongest storm in three years struck overnight. Typhoon Haima barreled into northern Cagayan and Isabella provinces, ripping the roofs off homes and flattening crops. By late Oct. 21, 13 people had been

The Florida Supreme Court ruled on Oct. 14 that the death penalty cannot be imposed unless the jury is unanimous in the decision, aligning Florida with sentencing standards in most other states. • As Catholics and Lutherans mark the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation o

The president of the Canadian bishops’ conference has written a frank letter to Canada’s federal immigration minister urging immediate government action to unclog delays in processing refugee applicants. Bishop Douglas Crosby, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, wro

Two Catholic organizations are calling on physicians to urge the American Medical Association to maintain its current stance against physician-assisted suicide. The call from the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Catholic Bioethics Center

In his message for World Food Day on Oct. 14, Pope Francis urged consumers to take responsibility for their use and waste of food and actions that harm the environment. • The Diocese of Baton Rouge has been helping flood victims deal with the stress of “letting go” and adjusting to

Meeting a pilgrimage of Catholics and Lutherans from Germany, Pope Francis said he does not like “the contradiction of those who want to defend Christianity in the West and, on the other hand, are against refugees and other religions.” Answering questions from young people in the group o

A 5 a.m. wake-up call from a friend in Rome alerted Cardinal-designate Blase J. Cupich of Chicago to the news that Pope Francis had added his name to the list of church leaders soon to be made cardinals. The previous six archbishops of Chicago received a red hat, but Pope Francis has recently skippe

Pope Francis made a surprise visit on Oct. 4 to the town of Amatrice in Italy, recently devastated by an earthquake, and told survivors there: “From the first moment” of the tremblor on Aug. 24, “I felt the need to be here.”