Articles by Courtney Mares
Researchers find 'evidence of genocide' against Rohingya
Dec 6, 2018 / 10:50 amAs new evidence emerges of atrocities committed in Burma's Rakhine state, the president of Caritas International visited Monday a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh.
Pope Francis to visit Abu Dhabi in February 2019
Dec 6, 2018 / 05:16 amPope Francis will travel to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates Feb. 3-5 to participate in an international interfaith meeting, the Vatican announced Thursday.
‘A man of faith and humility’ Catholics remember President George H.W. Bush
Dec 3, 2018 / 13:30 pmIn the days following the death of President George H. W. Bush, Catholics around the country remembered the 41st president for his character and family values.
‘We must not hide from suffering,’ Iraqi archbishop says on Red Wednesday
Nov 29, 2018 / 16:00 pmIn Washington’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Catholics and Church leaders from four continents gathered Wednesday to pray solemn vespers for the persecuted Church.
A look at blasphemy laws around the world
Nov 14, 2018 / 03:05 amWhile the world awaits the fate of Asia Bibi, who remains in hiding in Pakistan following the acquittal of her death sentence for blasphemy, religious freedom advocates are calling for an end to blasphemy laws across the globe.
Pope Francis marks World War I centenary with message of peace
Nov 11, 2018 / 05:22 amThe bells of St. Peter’s Basilica rang out in unison with thousands of other church bells around the world Sunday afternoon as Pope Francis commemorated the 100 year anniversary of the end of World War I.
Pope and Assyrian Patriarch: Blood of Middle East martyrs is ‘seed of Christian unity’
Nov 9, 2018 / 12:00 pmPope Francis and the Assyrian Patriarch Mar Gewargis III have pledged ecumenical unity in support of persecuted Christians in the Middle East in a joint statement released Nov. 9.
Pope Francis advocates for global access to clean drinking water
Nov 8, 2018 / 13:01 pmPope Francis spoke of the importance of increasing access to clean drinking water around the world Thursday, calling current statistics “a huge shame for the humanity.”
Catholic mother Asia Bibi moved from prison to Islamabad amid death threats
Nov 8, 2018 / 06:01 amPakistani Catholic Asia Bibi was released from prison and moved to Islamabad late Wednesday as her family seeks asylum due to the riots and death threats following her acquittal of blasphemy charges.
Pope says entrepreneurship needed in face of 'scandalous poverty'
Nov 7, 2018 / 04:47 am“If there is hunger on earth, it is not because food is missing!” Pope Francis said in St. Peter’s Square Nov. 7. “What is lacking is a free and far-sighted entrepreneurship, which ensures adequate production, and a solidarity approach, which ensures fair distribution,” he continued.
Seventy-nine students kidnapped in Cameroon
Nov 6, 2018 / 11:49 amArmed separatists kidnapped 79 students from a Christian boarding school in Cameroon Monday.
Pope Francis: 'A Christian cannot be an anti-Semite'
Nov 5, 2018 / 06:48 amPope Francis strongly condemned anti-Semitism, recalling the living memory of the Holocaust in Europe, during a meeting with rabbis at the Vatican Monday.
Pope Francis mourns victims of attack on Coptic Christians in Egypt
Nov 4, 2018 / 05:13 am“I pray for the victims, pilgrims killed just because they are Christians, and I ask Holy Mary to console their families and the whole community,” Pope Francis said Nov. 4.
Pope Francis offers Mass for souls of 163 deceased cardinals, bishops
Nov 3, 2018 / 06:00 amNine cardinals and 154 bishops have died since November 2017, including Cardinal Bernard Law, the former archbishop of Boston, and Cardinal Karl Lehmann, who led the German bishops’ conference for 20 years.
For All Souls' Day, Pope Francis prays in cemetery for unborn children
Nov 2, 2018 / 10:05 amIn commemoration of All Souls' Day, Pope Francis prayed Friday in a cemetery for unborn children called the “Garden of Angels” on the outskirts of Rome.
Flooding damages St Mark's Basilica in Venice
Oct 31, 2018 / 12:29 pmSaint Mark’s Basilica in Venice flooded with nearly three feet of water this week, damaging part of the 1,000 year old marble mosaic floor inside.
Pope Francis calls faithful married love 'revolutionary'
Oct 31, 2018 / 03:48 amFaithful married love, in which a husband loves his wife like Christ loves the Church, is “revolutionary,” Pope Francis said Wednesday.
Pope Francis ends synod, calls final document 'work of the Holy Spirit'
Oct 28, 2018 / 10:00 amThe 167 paragraph text on young people, the faith, and vocational discernment was voted on paragraph by paragraph Saturday, following nearly a month of discussion on the topic.
Pope Francis prays for victims of synagogue shooting
Oct 28, 2018 / 06:53 am“May the The Most High welcome the dead in his peace, comfort their families and support the wounded,” Pope Francis said Oct. 28.
Synod letter to young people: Our sins must not be an obstacle for your trust
Oct 28, 2018 / 05:36 amIn a letter read out at the synod closing Mass, bishops wrote to young people “our frailties and sins must not be an obstacle for your trust.”