World

During his first public address after leaving the Roman hospital where he underwent colon surgery, Pope Francis spoke to the people of Cuba who were eagerly waiting for the pontiff to make a pronouncement on the large-scale protests rocking the Caribbean nation.

We wonder if the new space race between billionaires actually represents progress. In this issue of A Public Witness, we look not toward the stars but back on Earth to consider the moral lessons we can learn from these men so rich they are literally choosing to leave us all behind.

President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday named Attorney General Andre Mendonca, who is also an evangelical pastor, to fill a vacated seat on Brazil’s supreme court, the conservative president’s second appointment to the 11-member court.

About 125 students kidnapped from a Baptist church school in northern Nigeria are especially in danger because of their Christianity and the unwillingness of local authorities to pay a ransom.

Pope Francis insisted Thursday that Lebanon must remain a “land of tolerance and pluralism” as he welcomed the country’s Christian patriarchs to the Vatican to pray for an end to the economic and political crisis that has thrown the country into chaos and threatened its Christian community.

Pope Francis on Sunday decried the suffering of refugees in Myanmar and pleaded that houses of worship be respected as neutral places to take shelter. He told the public that he was joining his voice to that of the Asian nation’s bishops in also calling for humanitarian corridors.

Perhaps the looming transition in Israeli politics from the charismatic leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu to an unprecedented coalition government featuring right, center, left, and even Islamist parties is the chance to interrogate what the attitude of U.S. Christians towards Israel should be.

Like Donald Trump in the United States, Bolsonaro initially dismissed COVID-19 as a “little flu” and made evangelical Christian support a centerpiece of his political strategy. As the pandemic grew more dire through the spring, pastors have had a powerful influence on health policy.

Pope Francis on Thursday denounced “aggressive” nationalism that rejects migrants, and said Catholics should follow the Gospel-mandated call for an inclusive, welcoming church that doesn’t distinguish between “natives and foreigners, residents, and guests.”

Bitter negotiations over Northern Ireland’s status after Brexit have reignited old tensions between Irish Catholic nationalists and pro-British Protestant unionists. Dissident paramilitary groups have also allegedly renewed a bombing campaign against Northern Irish police forces.