Catholic News Service

The coronavirus pandemic not only has added to the many sufferings of the people of Puerto Rico but also has exposed decades of inequality that is deeply embedded in the island territory's political machine, said Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves of San Juan.

The pleasure of seeing other people face to face and not "screen to screen" as COVID-19 restrictions ease clearly demonstrates that people are social beings and need one another, Pope Francis said.

The exploitation and plundering of the Earth's resources at the expense of the poor and vulnerable cry out for justice and the forgiveness of debts, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis' efforts to bring reform in the Catholic Church are meeting resistance in some church circles, according to one panelist at an Aug. 31 online forum sponsored by Georgetown University's Office of the Vice President for Global Engagement.

Churches in Germany criticized the attempt by demonstrators, described by one bishop as "peculiar alliance of right-wing extremists, anti-vaccinationists and adherents of conspiracy ideologies," to "storm" the Reichstag building in Berlin, the seat of the Bundestag, or lower house of parliament.

Celebrating an Aug. 28 Mass to mark the 57th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King's historic March on Washington, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory urged Catholics to continue the dream of the late civil rights leader and to work for reconciliation and unity building.

John Thompson, the Hall of Fame college basketball coach who guided Georgetown University in Washington to a national championship in 1984, died Aug. 31 at age 78. No cause of death was given.

On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, college student Aalayah Eastmond, of Trinity Washington University, spoke of her dream Aug. 28, at the place where iconic civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech 57 years before.

Pope Francis encouraged global initiatives for the protection of the environment, especially in Mauritius after a devastating oil spill threatened the livelihood of the island nation's inhabitants and wildlife.

Hurricane Laura destroyed six churches in the Diocese of Lake Charles, left a dozen others "highly compromised" and did heavy damage to chancery offices.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the absurdity of "pouring valuable resources into the maintenance of weapons of destruction while so many on this planet are struggling to survive," a Vatican representative told a U.N. meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day Against Nuclear Tests.

No sooner had federal forces arrested José Antonio Yépez Ortiz — a crime boss known as "El Marro," or the sledgehammer — than stories surfaced of his supposed generosity with the Catholic Church and devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

When he addresses, via video message, the U.N. General Assembly Sept. 15, Pope Francis is expected to speak about using the coronavirus crisis as an opportunity to rethink economic, political and environmental policies in a way that will benefit humanity and the earth.

Parts of Syria's north where Kurds, Christians and Yazidis have practiced religious freedom in recent years are reportedly again under attack by mainly Turkish military and their allied Syrian Islamist fighters.

Bolivia's bishops want environmental concerns to play a key role when voters go to the polls to elect a new government in October. The Oct. 18 vote has been postponed twice because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Retired Archbishop Oscar Cruz of Lingayen-Dagupan, former president of the Philippine bishops' conference, died in a Manila hospital Aug. 26 after complications from COVID-19, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines announced.

Christians must work with members of other religions in responding to "a world wounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and by the scourge of religious intolerance, discrimination, racism, economic and ecological injustice and many other sins," said a new document from the Vatican and the World Council of Churches.

Catholics will mark the World Day of Migrants and Refugees during the ecumenical celebration of the Season of Creation, highlighting the obligation, as Pope Francis says, to listen to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, said Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny.

A new survey of heads of German Catholic religious orders found abuse allegations against at least 654 members over a period of decades, reported the German Catholic news agency KNA.

Twenty-six weeks after his last weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis will resume his audiences with the public present, but in a Vatican courtyard.