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HARARE, Zimbabwe -- The Archdiocese of Harare has released a pastoral plan to instigate smaller community cells aimed at fostering an intimate Christian experience.

It's "back to the catacombs!" for Catholics in China as the underground church is "doomed to disappear" and the faith will be sustained at the family level, Cardinal Joseph Zen said in an interview with CNA.

BENIN CITY, Nigeria -- A Catholic priest was kidnapped in Nigeria Friday. Father Nicholas Oboh of the Diocese of Uromi has been abducted by gunmen in the state of Edo in the southwest region of the country.

HONG KONG  -- The architect of the three-year cross removal and church destruction campaign in the Chinese province of Zhejiang has been appointed to head the Office of Hong Kong and Macau Affairs.

HONG KONG -- Only days after infections from the respiratory virus now known as COVID-19 appeared to be at least flattening out if not peaking, a reclassification by Chinese authorities saw a midweek spike in numbers and the disease’s upwards trajectory continuing.

Muslim clerics and government officials in several regions of Indonesia have called on youths not to celebrate Valentine’s Day as it contradicts Islamic teaching.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Cardinal Joseph Zen, the bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, has said that the situation of the Church in China is dire. The cardinal also predicted the end of the underground church. 

VATICAN CITY -- No Christian can be a "missionary disciple" if he or she thinks another person is not worth saving, said Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami.

SAO PAULO -- Feb. 12 was the 15th anniversary of Sister Dorothy Stang's assassination in the Amazon region of Brazil. The U.S.-born nun is remembered as a crusader for the poor and the landless and for her love of the land and the Amazon forest.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, 66, announced that at the full plenary session of the German bishops' conference in early March, he will not be a candidate for another term as president.

A first-class relic of St. John Henry Newman was stolen from the Birmingham Oratory sometime in late January, the Oratory announced in its weekly newsletter.

Philippine prosecutors have exonerated four Catholic bishops charged with plotting to overthrow President Rodrigo Duterte and his administration.

MEXICO CITY – Jesuit provincials have demanded that Nicaraguan authorities end a “campaign of slander and aggressions” against the Jesuit-run Central American University in Managua and its rector, Jesuit Father Jose Alberto Idiaquez, “as well as other institutions and people linked to the Society of Jesus in Nicaragua.”

Pope Francis told a group of U.S. bishops that people focused on the possibility of ordaining some married men and women deacons for service in the Amazon will be disappointed in his apostolic exhortation.

Uncertainty over flight schedules and possible quarantine on arrival were among reasons cited to cancel the Jakarta event.

In a private meeting with Pope Francis, Catholic patriarchs of the Middle East had an opportunity to sound the alarm regarding the survival of Christians in the region as a result of persecution, extremism, economic insecurity and immigration to the West.

Pope Francis has appointed a new administrator of the Manila Archdiocese following the Feb. 9 departure of Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle to assume a new post at the Vatican.

VATICAN CITY -- Celebrating Mass at the tomb of St. Peter and professing the Creed there reminds bishops of the importance of God's love and mercy and the need always to promote the unity of the church, said Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

KOCHI, India -- Father Varkey Kattarath, who founded the Vincentian Congregation in southern India, has been declared a "Servant of God," placing him on the first step toward canonization. “People flocked to him for prayers," his community said. "Many people with chronic illness were miraculously healed, and farmers got relief from attacks of insects that destroyed crops.”

CATAMARCA, Argentina -- To commemorate the anniversary of a statue of the Virgin Mary being discovered in Argentina, 400 small grottos are being constructed in one region of the country. ​​​​​​​