The persecuted church By Deborah Gyapong Catholic News Service OTTAWA, Ontario — There is no room for fear in the life of Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa, Congo. “A cardinal does not have fear,” said the outspoken leader of one of most violent and volatile countries in Africa. “It is a mission to defend […]
On the Zambian streets, the kids know her as Mama
By Dave Hrbacek Catholic News Service MAPLE LAKE, Minn. — Carol McBrady has no biological children. Yet on the streets of Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, she is known as Mama Carol. It started 16 years ago when she was invited to visit Africa to help care for children with AIDS. She was supposed to […]
On the brink of famine
For 20 million people, conflict added to drought causing the largest humanitarian crisis in more than 170 years By Bronwen Dachs Catholic News Service Conflict and drought are threatening more than 20 million people in four countries with the prospect of famine, and the U.N. has called this food crisis the largest humanitarian crisis since […]
In Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, no food, children are dying
By Bronwen Dachs Catholic News Service When people talk about potential famine, they mention South Sudan. But about 1 million people who live just over the border, in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, also face a food emergency. “I call it famine,” said Bishop Macram Max Gassis, retired bishop of El Obeid, Sudan. The “hunger the people […]
Two priests kidnapped in Congo’s troubled North Kivu province
By Godfrey Olukya Catholic News Service ARU, Congo — Armed men kidnapped two Catholic priests in the troubled North Kivu province. Congo’s bishops have asked security agencies to try to rescue the priests, who served at Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church in Bunyuka. Sgt. Philip Longwa, a police officer in Beni, said gunmen attacked […]
Thousands of pilgrims trek to Ugandan shrine to recall 22 martyrs
By Godfrey Olukya Catholic News Service NAMUGONGO, Uganda — Walking more than 250 miles to keep a religious commitment is the least anyone can expect of Anna Aciro. Aciro, 62, has walked the entire distance from Aru, a village in Congo, to the Uganda Martyrs Basilica and Shrine in Namugongo to honor the memory of […]
South Sudanese threatened by famine, worsened by war, CRS says
By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Some 5 million people in South Sudan — half of its total population — are on the brink of starvation and a quarter of a million children are already severely malnourished, a representative from the U.S. bishops’ Catholic Relief Services said. Famine has already gripped 100,000 […]
Murdered priest called ‘martyr of truth’
WORCESTER, Mass. — A Congolese priest serving in the U.S. said he believes his colleague, a Boston University alumnus gunned down in Congo, was “a martyr of the truth.”
At Bangui mosque, pope prays for ‘salam,’ peace
Pope Francis ended his visit to the violence-torn Central African Republic with cries for peace and pleas for a mercy that seeks and grants forgiveness.
Honor your martyrs by putting faith into action, Francis tells Ugandans
By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service KAMPALA, Uganda — As Pope Francis encouraged Ugandan Christians to draw inspiration from the 19th-century Ugandan Martyrs, he carried with him graphic images of the horrors the 45 Anglican and Catholic martyrs endured. The pope made an early morning visit Nov. 28 to the Anglican shrine and museum located […]
