Pope Francis' pilgrimage to Iraq helped to show pastoral solidarity with his suffering Christian flock, call for peace and reconciliation for the Iraqi people and establish improved relations between Christians and Muslims.
In a recent interview, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the second-highest official at the Vatican, addressed the institution's recent financial scandals, the pope's upcoming trip to Iraq and the Vatican's controversial deal with China.
Cardinal Louis Sako said Pope Francis' March trip to Iraq is still on and that the pope plans to meet personally with Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, leader of the country's Shiite Muslim majority.
U.S. organizations that work to resettle refugees fear that an upcoming battle with the Trump administration over the number of displaced people allowed into the country may be the fiercest yet.
Without immediate action from the international community, Christians in northern Iraq could be endangered with extinction, warns a new report from the pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need.
Across the Middle East and parts of South Asia, bereaved families have faced traumatic restrictions on burying their dead amid the pandemic. Religion and customs that require speedy burials in the largely Muslim region have clashed with fears of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, and government-mandated lockdowns.
A group of priests in Lebanon have quarantined themselves while a pair of their elders are fighting coronavirus. A Catholic hospital in another part of the tiny Mediterranean country has also seen a spread of the COVID-19 as fear of the disease grips the cash-strapped nation.
George Packer's portrait of the legendary diplomat and ambassador is fueled by extensive research as well as a "friend's" personal knowledge, putting it on the cutting edge of the new modern biography.
In an April 12 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, the CEO of the Knights of Columbus said that "Christian towns in Iraq increasingly look neither Christian nor Iraqi — but Iranian."
