International News

An English Catholic bishop said he supported the decision of a judge to jail a woman for two years after she aborted her baby almost a month before she was due to give birth.

The British girl whose injuries were "life-threatening" after a stabbing attack on the playground in Annecy, France, was awake and recovering, France's President Emmanuel Macron confirmed June 9. He said the condition of the children who were attacked while playing with their parents in Le Paquier park is "heading in the right direction."

When it comes to peace in Ukraine, Pope Francis is not giving up hope, said Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the papal envoy recently returned from the war-torn nation.

Among the many messages Pope Francis has been getting over the course of his first full day recovering from abdominal surgery at Rome's Gemelli hospital, his favorite, so far, was a large card from a Peruvian family he met during his last hospital stay.

Pope Francis was scheduled to undergo surgery at Rome's Gemelli hospital June 7 to treat a hernia that had developed at an incision of a previous operation, the Vatican said.

Pope Francis' peace envoy to Ukraine, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, was finishing his two-day visit to Ukraine June 6. He met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy amid breaking news of the destruction of a critical dam and hydroelectric power plant along the front lines in southern Ukraine that Zelenskyy blamed on "Russian terrorists." The Russian side accused Ukrainian forces of blowing up the dam. Ukraine accused Russians of committing what it called "ecocide."

Washington Nationals starting pitcher Trevor Williams, known for his devout Catholic faith and prominent tattoos, expressed his disappointment with the Los Angeles Dodgers' decision to re-invite and honour a controversial group called the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

Ukrainian church leaders have voiced skepticism over a planned Vatican "peace mission" to their war-torn country and have complained of being left in the dark about Rome's intentions.

When Pope Benedict XVI instituted the Day of Prayer for Catholics in China in 2007, Aloysius Jin Luxian was bishop of Shanghai. That year, an article in The Atlantic monthly described Bishop Jin as "arguably the most influential and controversial figure in Chinese Catholicism of the last 50 years."

Pope Francis has asked Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi of Bologna to lead a mission "to help ease tensions in the conflict in Ukraine," the Vatican press office said.