Morales has asked for a papal envoy to help calm "rising tensions and a miscarriage of justice".

"I beg you to intervene in the best possible way to quickly resolve this case," he wrote to Francis last week.

"Justice must conclude with the liberation of nine Bolivian functionaries."

Morales told Francis those arrested were being "deprived of their human rights in Iquique, Chile."

The prisoners include seven customs workers and two soldiers. They were arrested in March and accused of robbery, carrying weapons and importing contraband.

This is not the first time Morales has sought Francis's help.

When he hosted Francis during his 2015 visit, he said in his welcoming address "You have arrived in a country mutilated by its lack of access to the sea,".

He then gave him a gift, the "Book of the Sea."

Pope Francis answered, saying "Dialogue is indispensable," and "building bridges instead of building walls."

Bolivia and Chile share a border that is about 650 kilometres long. They don't have diplomatic relations and don't get on well.

Bolivia has not had access to sea routes since 1879, which is part of the problem it has with Chile.

Source

• National Catholic Register
• Crux
• CatholicPhilly
• Image: The New York Times

If accepted, four proposals could end life during the infant's first eight weeks; five other proposals could abort the child at any time during the pregnancy.

Some of the reasons for aborting infants at any stage include situations where their mother's life is at risk.

They can also be aborted if they might be disabled or if their young mother's pregnancy is a result of rape or incest.

Money is also a reason for abortion, suggest the proposals.

Therefore, so long as the infant is in the first eight weeks of gestation, abortions could be given.

Early-stage abortions could be given, for example, where there are no resources to bring up the child; where the mother is a student; or to prevent a risk to the mother's general health.

"As the Church, we cannot accept these premises," said Bishop Aurelio Pesoa Ribera, the Secretary General of the Bishop's Conference.

"The state has the obligation to implement public policies aimed at improving the lives of people and policies of support to pregnant woman, as well as violence prevention."

Ribera said if amended, the law would establish "poverty" as a reason to get away with infanticide and euthanasia.

Source:

• telesur
• Vatican Radio
• Image: Vatican Radio

The Rorate Caeli blog reported that Bishop Krzysztof (Cristobal) Białasik of Oruro made this declaration.

This came after it was noticed that some people received the host, but did not consume it.

These people apparently wished to carry the host away for unknown reasons.

Bishop Bialasik, a Polish Verbite missionary priest, was appointed as bishop by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.

The blog cited two other examples of bishops banning Communion in the hand in a whole diocese during the last ten years.

These were Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani of Lima, Peru, in 2008 (reiterated in 2011) and Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 2011 (reiterated in 2012).

In one of his last acts as bishop in Ciudad del Este, the late Bishop Rogelio Livieres Plano strongly condemned taking Communion in the hand, the blog added.

Last year, Bishop Livieres Plano resigned in the wake of a Vatican-ordered apostolic visitation of his diocese.

A handful of diocesan bishops have required Communion to be given on the tongue under certain circumstances.

Bishop Antonio Carlos Rossi Keller of Frederico Westphalen, Brazil, announced in 2011 that those receiving Communion from him at his cathedral should do so on the tongue, and while kneeling.

Bishop Eduardo Maria Taussig of San Rafael, Argentina, required the same of all communicants at his cathedral the same year.

Cardinal Carlo Caffarra of Bologna mandated in 2009 that in three major churches in his archdiocese, Communion be distributed to the faithful on the tongue only.

Starting from the Solemnity of Corpus Christi in 2008, Pope Benedict XVI began to distribute Communion by placing it directly on the tongue of the faithful as they remained kneeling.

Sources

• Rorate Caeli
• Vatican News
• Image: CruxNow

Speaking at the World Meeting of Popular Movements in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, on July 9, the Pope sounded a warning.

"Time, my brothers and sisters, seems to be running out; we are not yet tearing one another apart, but we are tearing apart our common home," the earth, he said.

"Perhaps the most important" task facing the world today, the Pope said, "is to defend Mother Earth.

"Our common home is being pillaged, laid waste and harmed with impunity. Cowardice in defending it is a grave sin."

"Today, the scientific community realises what the poor have long told us: Harm, perhaps irreversible harm, is being done to the ecosystem," Pope Francis said.

"The earth, entire peoples and individual persons are being brutally punished" by the effects of pollution, exploitation and climate change.

"And behind all this pain, death and destruction there is the stench of what Basil of Caesarea called 'the dung of the devil' - an unfettered pursuit of money," the Pope said.

When money becomes a person's god, he said, greed becomes the chief motivator of what people do, permit or support.

In the end, he said, "it ruins society, it condemns and enslaves men and women, it destroys human fraternity, it sets people against one another and, as we clearly see, it even puts at risk our common home".

In his speech, Pope Francis said the Catholic Church does not have a programme or "recipe" for solving the problems of injustice and poverty in the world.

He said the problems with the current system are obvious and the Gospel contains principles that can help.

Other "great tasks" which the Pope proposed were putting the economy at the service of people and uniting peoples on the path to peace and justice.

Sources

• The Tablet
• Vatican Radio
• Image: Voanews