Peru

In the spotlight: papal meeting with artists, Ukraine shelling, Brazil mudslide

In the spotlight: Bishop Andrew Cozzens’ installation, Kentucky tornado damage, Dorothy Day sainthood cause

The Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square this year will have a distinctly Indigenous, Andean look with the centerpiece being a “Hilipuska” baby Jesus, that is, one wrapped in a blanket bound with a long cord known as a “chumpi.”

Closing the borders in Peru to erect a barricade against the coronavirus opened a gulf between myself and my father, 3,500 miles away in a senior residence in Baltimore.

Less than two months after Pope Francis spoke out about environmental destruction in the Amazon basin during a visit to Peru, bishops from Latin America and the Caribbean have issued a pastoral letter calling the region’s Catholics to an “integral ecological conversion.”

Unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean off Peru is causing heavy rains on the usually arid coast, swamping cities that have poor drainage and destroying wood or mud-brick houses not built to withstand a downpour.