Msgr. John E. Kozar, having completed nine years of service as head of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, is retiring from his post and reflects on his time as CNEWA head and on what he plans to do next.

With numerous closures, Catholic schools are also victims of the pandemic, and school administrators are working on the challenges of keeping other schools open and operating.

Liz McAlister was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay restitution at the rate of $25 per month for the damage she and the other activists caused at the at the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay.

Under a program called the Partnership for the Reconstruction of the Church in Haiti--PROCHE--the American Catholic Church, through financial donations, is assisting Haiti in rebuilding churches and schools which have been damaged during the 2010 earthquake.

Bishops' conferences from Brazil, Indonesia and Ireland are announcing their intent to divest from fossil fuel companies, in keeping with the spirit of Pope Francis' Laudato Si' encyclical, which was released five years ago.

Disallowing emergency aid to one part of an affected community and allowing it for another runs contrary to long-held social policy, Catholic education advocates said.

More than 100 organizations--including Catholic religious congregations-- which advocate for debt relief have publicized a letter to the International Monetary Fund calling on international policymakers to cancel debt payments for poor and developing nations so that they use focus their resources on dealing with the pandemic.

The pandemic's impact on labor trafficking is less certain, but the advocates warn that people desperate for work may be prone to employment schemes in which they are cheated out of promised wages.

The funding is part of a $484 billion emergency relief measure developed in response to the economic fallout caused by the spread of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

Dominican Sister Donna Markham, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, said some Catholic Charities agencies in COVID-19 hot spots such as New York, Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans and Los Angeles are facing unprecedented requests for assistance.