World

The eruption of the La Soufrière volcano on Friday left the population on the main island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines without clean water. Local churches and international relief groups quickly started mobilizing aid.

Amid widespread disgust with traditional politicians and an extremely fragmented electorate, Frepap, the political arm of a messianic religious group called the Israelites of the New Universal Pact, has emerged as a potential favorite in legislative elections Sunday.

Across the country and the globe, World Vision is continuing a multi-pronged effort to meet the needs of people facing the health crisis and the secondary effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Globally, the crisis that began more than a year ago has claimed 2.89 million lives.

The attitudes of Christian religious leaders in the Middle East and North Africa towards the Arab Spring have differed. While these religious leaders in Egypt and Syria opposed the 2011 uprisings, their counterparts in Iraq and Lebanon have been supportive of the wave of protests since 2019.

Christians in the Holy Land are marking Good Friday this year amid signs the coronavirus crisis is winding down, with religious sites open to limited numbers of faithful but none of the mass pilgrimages usually seen in the Holy Week leading up to Easter.

Two attackers blew themselves up outside a packed Roman Catholic cathedral during a Palm Sunday Mass on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, wounding at least 20 people, police said. 

Pope Francis on Sunday urged more efforts to ensure all people have access to drinking water. He made his remarks ahead of World Water Day on Monday, which the United Nations uses to highlight the need for access to fresh water. 

Luis Palau, an evangelical pastor who was born in Argentina and went on to work with Billy Graham before establishing his own powerhouse international ministry, died Thursday. He was 86.

Pope Francis urged Iraq’s Christians on Sunday to forgive the injustices against them by Muslim extremists and to rebuild as he visited the wrecked shells of churches and met ecstatic crowds in the community’s historic heartland, which was nearly erased by the Islamic State group’s horrific reign.

Standing in the Assyrian Catholic cathedral in Baghdad where 50 worshippers, clergy, and policemen were killed in a 2010 terrorist attack, Pope Francis on Friday made an appeal for “forgiveness, reconciliation, and rebirth” in the struggling Middle Eastern nation.