Perhaps you saw the Nov. 9th New York Times profile of the Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital in Manila where a reporter recently found more than 170 women and nearly as many newborns sharing fewer than 100 bed and dozens more expectant mothers lining the street outside, some sleeping on the sidewalk while waiting to get in.
Abortion is a hot-button issue in Latin America, especially after Uruguay recently legalized abortion, becoming the third country in the region to do so.
A Nigerian archbishop joined others in his country in questioning the wisdom of a plan that the Nigerian government dialogue with the Boko Haram Islamic sect, responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in the past several years.
Critics, including Archbishop Felix Job of Ibadan, urged Nigerian authorities to be cautious of negotiating with an extremist "faceless group" that had been involved in maiming and killing of innocent Nigerians.
There was much rejoicing in the Philippines when Cardinal-designate Luis Antonio Tagle opened the Year of Faith in Manila over the weekend.
Some Catholics in Cotabato are taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the recently signed preliminary agreement between the Philippine government and the country's largest Muslim rebel group.
While welcoming the end of fighting that has claimed more than 120,000 lives and displaced millions more over 40 years, Christians in the region are awaiting details of the deal and said they want an explanation about what the future holds for them.
A gathering of Asian bishops originally scheduled for November had to be rescheduled after the Vatican announced it would hold a consistory to create six new cardinals in that timeframe.
Pope Benedict XVI has named a Wisconsin-born missionary, Fr. Robert H. Flock, to be an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Flock, who will celebrate his 56th birthday Nov. 4, has served at Santa Cruz Parish in the Archdiocese of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, since 1988. The parish was founded by priests from the Diocese of La Crosse, Wis., in the 1950s.
The Vatican announced the new assignment for Flock, a La Crosse priest and native of Sparta, Wis., on Wednesday.
When Jose Venero Villafuerte was 5 years old, his mother took him to see the statue of Our Lord of the Earthquakes for the first time.
"In this moment my path to God was opened," said Venero, now president of the Fraternity of the Our Lord of the Earthquakes. "I realized God existed."
For the Mass celebrating the 475th anniversary of the Diocese of Cusco, Venero was in charge of the statue: dressing it, transporting it from the cathedral to the local coliseum, and decorating the truck.
In Central America, the livelihoods of farmers of maize and beans, the region's staples, are at risk. A new study hopes to help counteract that.
In a pastoral letter, the bishops say renewal of faith in communion with the pope is the only way out of the stalemate between bishops and the Austrian Priests' Initiative.
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