America’s State Department has officially designated Boko Haram as a ‘terrorist’ organisation. The move has implications for how the United States and its military can now engage with the radical Islamist group in its global ‘war on terror’ and may signal an increase in the assistance offered to the Nigerian government in combating the group…

The parliamentary inquiry into the mishandling of abuse by the Catholic Church in the Australian state of Victoria has issued a report scathing of the local Church. Betrayal of Trust, the final report of the cross-party inquiry, launched in 2012, covers incidents of abuse by clergy from 1960 to 1985 and details what inquiry chairwoman…

The faithful of the country are mourning the passing of Fr Luigi Pezzoni, an Italian missionary who spent nearly 50 years working with lepers as a member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions. Fr Pezzoni, who was 82, was ordained in 1958 and first travelled to India in 1966. By 1973 he had founded…

United States – A number of senators have issued a joint letter to President Barack Obama urging him to again intervene in the case of Christian Pastor Saeed Abedini, imprisoned in Iran for his faith. Praising Mr Obama for having previously raised the pastor’s case with Iranian President Hasan Rouhani during the pair’s historic telephone…

More Christians persecuted now than ever, Pope warns

Germany – Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has instructed the Archdiocese of Freiburg to withdraw a policy under which it signalled its willingness to offer Communion to divorced and remarried Catholics. The Communion move was undertaken by diocesan officials shortly after the departure of Archbishop Robert…

Time is running out for Irish Catholics to express their views to the Vatican on controversial issues around marriage and the family.