Forecasts for cloudy skies cast shadow over North American solar eclipse
Reuters Cloudy skies forecast for Monday could spell disappointment for many of the millions of North Americans hoping to glimpse the continent’s first total solar eclipse since 2017, possibly turning this spellbinding celestial phenomenon into a dud. Some regions that more typically experience fair skies in April within the “path of totality” – the narrow […]
Cuba guarantees food rations in bid to defuse tension after protests
Havana, Cuba Reuters Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said this week his communist-run government has secured supply of key subsidised food rations as he moved to defuse tensions just two weeks after protesters took to the streets over widespread shortages. Diaz-Canel, who appeared on the mid-day TV newscast on Thursday, said his government had undertaken an […]
An Argentine judge recognises gender abuse suffered for years by 20 nuns in a breakthrough ruling
Buenos Aires, Argentina AP An Argentine judge on Friday ruled that 20 cloistered nuns had suffered abuse for more than two decades at the hands of high-ranking clergy in the country’s conservative north, and ordered the accused archbishop and church officials to undergo psychological treatment and training in gender discrimination. The ruling in the homeland of Pope Francis cast […]
Kenya court sentences priest convicted of abuse to preach on sexual crimes
Nairobi, Kenya RNS In a rare ruling, a Kenyan high court has sentenced a Catholic priest found guilty of assaulting a 16-year-old girl to spend the next three years preaching about the country’s sexual crimes law. Rev Dominic Muli Nzioka, a priest who served a parish in Mivumoni, in the Archdiocese of Mombasa, was ordered […]
Peru President blasts Rolex scandal amid probe, but admits some error
Lima, Peru Reuters Peru’s President slammed a scandal over her use of luxury watches and pricey designer jewelry on Friday, saying the items were loaned to her, she did admit exercising bad judgment, a week after police raided her home and office on suspicion of corruption. The scandal marked the latest political crisis for President […]
Solar eclipse: US watchers may use church parking lots to look toward the heavens
ADELLE M BANKS, of Religion News Service, reports on how some US churches are participating in Monday’s event…
Catholic parishes disproportionately closed in poor, Black and Latino neighbourhoods in the US
United States RNS While the number of US Catholics is increasing, the total number of Catholic parishes nationwide declined nine per cent between 1970 and 2020, according to a new report by Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. In 10 of the 11 dioceses studied, those closures are disproportionately happening in Black […]
Biden surveys collapsed Baltimore bridge, pledges help
Washington DC, US Reuters President Joe Biden took an aerial tour on Friday of the collapsed Baltimore bridge that is blocking a key East Coast shipping lane, and he pledged federal help in rebuilding the span, an idea some Republican lawmakers in the US Congress have resisted. A cargo ship crashed into the Francis Scott […]
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia hit by Russian missiles, four dead, 20 injured
Reuters Russia fired five missiles on Ukraine’s southern city of Zaporizhzhia on Friday, killing at least four people, injuring 20 and damaging residential buildings and industrial facilities, the Regional Governor said. Two journalists covering the aftermath of the strikes were among those wounded in the city, which is near the frontline in the war with […]
UN chief calls for independent investigation into 196 aid worker deaths in Gaza; US welcomes Israel moves on Gaza aid but says “proof is in the results
United Nations Reuters UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday called for independent investigations into the deaths of all 196 aid workers killed in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war and said he hopes Israel quickly and effectively boosts aid access. Global outrage at the humanitarian crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory of 2.3 million […]