Catholic News Service

Bishops in Colombia's Chocó department are calling for a cease-fire between the Colombian army and rebel groups fighting over drug trafficking routes and illegal gold mines in one of the country's most remote regions.

Catholic bishops said the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating an already grave imbalance in living conditions and opportunities, alongside an "unbridled race to exploit hydrocarbons" in its parks and nature reserves.

Saying the pandemic has taken its toll on discipleship, Bishop Edward J. Burns announced he will convene a synod in the diocese Dec. 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Early projections of results of a Feb. 28 election in El Salvador show the conservative New Ideas (Nuevas Ideas) party en route to winning a majority of seats in the national legislative assembly, giving its founder, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, what amounts to absolute power, if lawmakers grant it.

There is no greater love in the world than the love God has for humanity, Pope Francis said.

The second expert report commissioned to investigate abuse in the Archdiocese of Cologne also incriminates church officials who are still alive and accuses them of mistakes in dealing with cases of sexualized violence, according to its author, Björn Gercke.

Dennis R. DePerro, the 21st president of St. Bonaventure University, died of COVID-19 complications March 1. He was 62.

Pope Francis has appointed Msgr. Jerome Feudjio, vicar general and chancellor of the Diocese of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, to head the diocese.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador began bilateral cooperation talks March 1 with humor, a focus on limiting immigration to the U.S. and talk about Our Lady of Guadalupe.

"Do not remain silent in the face of corruption. Do not tolerate the theft of your money, the fluid borders, the failure of the political class, the chaos in the investigation into the Beirut port explosion, or the imprisonment of the innocent. Do not tolerate the failure in forming a government and implementing reforms," Cardinal Rai said.

Pope Francis said he believes he will die in Rome, either in office or retired, and will not be buried in his native Argentina.

A week before Pope Francis was scheduled to arrive in Iraq, the Vatican nuncio in Baghdad and several members of the staff tested positive for COVID-19 and began self-isolating.

Over a dozen nonprofit organizations, including Catholic Charities USA, praised the American Rescue Plan passed by the U.S. House early Feb. 27 for including "several provisions of importance to the charitable nonprofit sector."

Although it took obvious effort to pronounce each word and sometimes his secretary repeated what he said to make it clear, retired Pope Benedict XVI spoke to an Italian newspaper recently about his retirement and about Pope Francis' planned trip to Iraq.

People should fast from gossiping and spreading hearsay as part of their Lenten journey, Pope Francis said.

The women housed at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Clinton, the only women's prison in the state of New Jersey, seem to have the cards stacked against them.

The German bishops' conference elected a woman as general secretary during a virtual assembly that turned into a crisis meeting focused on the church's handling of sex abuse.

President Joe Biden announced Feb. 24 a reversal of a 2020 proclamation by the Trump administration that sought to keep those applying for permanent residency cards, popularly known as green cards, out of the country because of the pandemic.

The need for "deep, spiritual conversion of all members of the church stands out" as a key theme of the "instrumentum laboris," the working document for Australia's Plenary Council, due to begin in October, said one of its authors.

Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio said Feb. 22 a lawsuit filed against him in New Jersey Superior Court over a claim of abuse that allegedly occurred decades ago "is defamatory."