Jonathan Luxmoore

The Laudato Si' Research Institute, based at Oxford's Campion Hall, seeks to utilize its research prowess to empower those working for global eco-societal change.

A Polish diocese apologized after its lawyer suggested a former altar server could have enjoyed being sexually molested by a priest.

In response to early January riots in Kazakhstan, the country's bishops called on priests to "continue praying for an early resolution and the reestablishment of peace and prosperity."

People are "afraid of a real escalation," says Bishop Sobilo of Kharkiv-Zaporizhia. "There are many mixed Ukrainian-Russian marriages here, so the front line runs through families, and our parishioners are praying for peace."

Volha Zalatar denies charges of extremism. Her lawyer and rights groups say she is a political prison and has been tortured.

During ad limina visits last month, Polish bishops questioned whether clergy in their country are being treated more harshly in sex abuse cases than elsewhere. The crisis coincides with growing criticism of the church's role in public life and fuels a sense of drift among Catholics.

U.K. Catholic and other faith groups are urging Prime Minister Boris Johnson to show leadership in holding the world to its conservation targets when the U.N. climate conference opens Oct. 31 in Glasgow, Scotland.

Africa's Catholic bishops have criticized the appropriation of land, natural resources and other economic assets by private companies and called on national governments to show greater concern for local community.

The president of the Polish bishops' conference said that in meetings with a Vatican official, several church leaders criticized "disproportionate punishments" inflicted on bishops accused of cover-ups in comparison with convicted abusers.

Many Polish Catholics are mourning the death of Archbishop Henryk Hoser, a former Vatican envoy who helped rebuild the church in post-genocide Rwanda and later represented the pope at the Marian shrine in Medjugorje, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In Greece, nearly 600 fires have gutted hundreds of homes and scorched at least 200,000 acres of land.

With an ad limina visit set for October, Polish reports say the country's bishops have been specially summoned to the Vatican because of a spate of sexual abuse cases that have rocked the Polish church.

"People are trying to leave, fearing whole areas could fall under Moscow's control — this conflict has already lasted years, and they simply can't cope with such conditions," Ukrainian Bishop Jan Sobilo told NCR.

"Nothing has changed — the great bulk of Russian forces are still here, as fighting flares intermittently and people still die," said Bishop Stanislav Szyrokoradiuk of Odessa-Simferopol.

Across the 27-country European Union, in places like France, Slovakia and Scotland, have been complaints that coronavirus restrictions are being used to push through measures that could compromise religious rights.

A Polish cardinal, former secretary to St. John Paul II, could face jail time after a Polish state commission accused him of ignoring sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

A prominent Russian professor urged his nation's bishops to condemn police violence against protestors supporting opposition leader Alexei Navalny, but the Moscow archdiocesan chancellor refused.

The sudden departure of Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz from conflict-torn Belarus, just 10 days after his return from regime-imposed exile, has provoked surprise and anger among the region's Catholics.

When two priests were arrested in Belarus on Dec. 8 amid protests against President Alexander Lukashenko, there were fears of a full-scale campaign against the minority Catholic Church.

Two European Catholic commissions warned that Arctic warming is intensifying competition over the region's resources and urged tougher policies to protect its biodiversity and Indigenous communities.