International News

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican has instituted new measures and closures to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican health clinic was closed temporarily after a person tested positive for the coronavirus, the Vatican announced.

JERUSALEM -- The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem urged its faithful to cooperate with the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health, following its order March 5 to close all schools, universities, mosques and churches, including the Church of the Nativity and Shepherd's field.

GENEVA -- A United Nations report addressing gender-based violence and discrimination connected to religious beliefs "is now attacking the very reality it is called to defend," a Vatican representative told a U.N. meeting in Geneva.

AMMAN, Jordan -- Turkey and Greece are trading blame following the deaths of Syrian refugees trying to flee to Europe, but some observers believe Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is weaponizing the Syrian refugee humanitarian crisis.

MOSCOW, Russia (CNA) -- A definition of marriage as between a man and a woman is among several amendments to the Russian constitution proposed by president Vladimir Putin.

OXFORD, England -- Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced out of their homes in Burkina Faso as Christian communities are targeted in a spiral of Islamist killings.

ROME -- As the number of people testing positive for the coronavirus in Europe continued to grow, the French Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes announced that pilgrims were still welcome, but the pools the sick bathe in hoping for healing would be closed temporarily.

MANCHESTER, England -- Catholics are preparing for the historic rededication of England as "Mary's Dowry" in the hope that it will spur the re-evangelization of their country.

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Ethiopian Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel and his delegation were barred from entering neighboring Eritrea, a development that underlines the souring relations between the church and the Eritrean authorities.