David Agren

Nicaragua has approved a law increasing government control over educational institutions and stripping funds from Jesuit-run Central American University, which has been at odds with the government.

Honduran church leaders have called for a thorough investigation into the abduction and murder of a priest in the Diocese of San Pedro Sula, a crime causing outrage in the Central American country.

The Sisters of Mercy celebrated the release of six anti-mining protesters in Honduras, who spent nearly two-and-a-half years in pre-trial detention — in a case the country's Supreme Court said should have never proceeded.

The Nicaragua national assembly ordered the revocation of the legal status of five universities — including a Catholic university — along with several Catholic educational and charitable projects.

The Honduran bishops' conference has urged dialogue as a political crisis threatens to torpedo the Central American country's presidential inauguration.

 An ecumenical coalition of religious representatives and laypeople has condemned the murder of an Indigenous leader in Honduras and called for a thorough investigation of the death.

A tractor-trailer carrying more than 150 migrants crashed in Mexico's southern Chiapas state, claiming at least 53 lives and leaving dozens more injured.

'Remain in Mexico' policy forces asylum seekers to wait in dangerous border cities while U.S. courts hear their cases.

Peruvian Archbishop Hector Miguel Cabrejos Vidarte called for a "second reception" of the Second Vatican Council as prelates, religious and laity participate in the Sixth Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean.

A Catholic migrant shelter in southern Chiapas state said unidentified individuals forced their way into the premises — the latest act of intimidation against migrant defenders in the region.

A network of offshore trusts and subsidiaries established by priests and businessmen close to the Legionaries of Christ moved as much as $295 million around four continents, according to a trove of leaked documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and published by the Spanish newspaper El País.

The Mexican bishops' migrant ministry has disavowed a proposal from Mexico's National Immigration Institute that would establish a camp for migrants and asylum-seekers stuck in the southern city of Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala. The issue seems to have generated some confusion.

Mexican church leaders expressed solidarity with a caravan of migrants that was disrupted by security forces. Their reaction came after videos that surfaced showing an immigration agent kicking a migrant in the head.

A Catholic shelter on the Mexico-Guatemala border has been assisting busloads of migrants who are being expelled from the United States to southern Mexico, then transported to Guatemala and dropped in a jungle town.

Guatemalans took to the street to demand the ouster of the Central American country's president and attorney general over the firing of an anti-impunity prosecutor whose work caused discomfort for President Alejandro Giammattei. Guatemala's bishops also backed the demonstrations — and the included calls for a national strike — while priests and religious have participated in protests.

Pope Francis sent a letter of encouragement to residents of a Mexican diocese afflicted by battling drug cartels, a conflict that has cast attention on the lawlessness covering wide swaths of Mexico and the government's inability to pacify the country.

Mexico's bishops have expressed dismay with a Supreme Court decision to declare "unconstitutional" laws prohibiting the use of recreational marijuana.

The June 19 attacks terrorized Reynosa — a city just south of McAllen, Texas, and long plagued by drug cartel violence — as marauding gunmen killed people going about their daily lives in three neighborhoods. The victims included a taxi driver, a nursing student and a group of bricklayers, according to Mexican media.

During a trip to Mexico, the Vatican secretary of state called on Mexicans to overcome divisions and the violence afflicting the country — something he said he prayed for at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.