Vatican says papal trip to Iraq is 'an act of love'
- Mar 3, 2021
A Catholic Relief Services project is helping residents returning to Iraq’s Ninevah Plain rebuild their lives, communities and trust, which were ripped apart by Islamic State militant destruction. It’s an area Pope Francis plans to visit on his historic papal trip to Iraq March 5-8.
Catholic relief agencies in Ethiopia welcomed a move by the government to allow more access in Tigray, the semi-autonomous region in the north, where a military operation displaced millions and left an unspecified number of people dead.
Catholic Relief Services has praised President Joe Biden’s decision to rescind Donald Trump’s so-called “Muslim ban,” which forbid the immigration of people from 13 Muslim-majority countries.
The extremist violence in Burkina Faso linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group is fueling an increase in sexual assaults against women, especially those displaced by attacks. Many are preyed upon as they attempt to collect belongings they left behind.
Two U.S. bishops’ committee chairmen and the head of Catholics Relief Services asked the Biden administration Feb. 10 to grant Temporary Protected Status for 18 months to foreign nationals from Central America in the United States and to provide aid to their hurricane-ravaged countries.
A leading Catholic aid agency has condemned what it calls “cyclical violence and continuing human rights abuses targeting civilian populations in North Kivu and Ituri Provinces” of the Democratic Republic of Congo.