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(Vatican Radio) Fresh diplomatic talks were were under way Saturday in a new effort to try to end the Syrian conflict which has killed more than 400,000 people and drove hundreds of thousands of refugees into Europe. The meeting in Lausanne, Swizerland, between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and top diplomats from the United Nations and regional powers, is the first since Washington halted bilateral negotiations with Moscow last month. 

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos: 

With the Syrian and Russian governments pressing an offensive against rebel-held parts in Syria's devastated city of Aleppo, no one was predicting 
a quick breakthrough in peace talks.   

Days of deadly Russian air strikes in Aleppo prompted Kerry to end U.S.-Russian talks on Syria, including discussions over a proposed military alliance against militants liked to the Islamic State and al-Qaida-terror groups. 

Last week he accused Russia of war crimes for allegedly targeting hospitals and civilian infrastructure in the Arab country, charges Moscow denies.

CEASEFIRE TALKS 

The top envoys are now looking at how to revive the short-lived cease-fire in Syria, which broke down last month after Damascus launched the new offensive backed by Russian air power.

Yet, ahead of the talks, Lavrov was already quoted as saying he had no "special expectations" for the latest diplomatic effort. 

And U.S. officials said Kerry only hopes "to explore ideas" for ending the five-year conflict, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, including many children.

With peace still far away, aid workers have urged all sides to at least impose a 72-hour ceasefire to deliver much needed aid to the worst hit areas. But even that appeal was met with skepticism by officials participating in Saturday's talks. 

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(Vatican Radio) With several European countries building fences to stop migrants fleeing war and poverty, Croatian animal activists have now raised the alarm about the impact on migratory wildlife: They say Hungary's recently built razor-wire border fence is an ecological disaster threatening thousands of deer and other wild animals as winter sets in. 

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:

Hungary's anti-migration government has denied wrongdoing, but Croatian environmental experts say the structure is blocking the natural migratory patterns of thousands of deer and other wild animals. Large herds of red deer used to roam freely across the Croatia-Hungary border, their numbers steadily expanding in this wildlife-rich corner of Europe. 

But protection activists and hunters in Croatia now warn the numbers have begun declining since the border fence went up last year. Initially deer would get tangled in the wire and killed, but animals soon began recognizing the danger.

Yet the Croatian Society for Bird and Nature protection warns that the fence will once again become a major problem in the winter, when food sources for the deer become scarce. In a statement a spokesperson warns that as "they will be prevented from going to the larger area where there is still some food left, they are likely to grow weak and die."

Female deer typically travel together in herds while bucks stay with a herd only during the breeding season. But experts say this year the bucks'  access to females was blocked. Croatian environmentalists claim the negative trends for wildlife can be reversed only if the fence is removed.

GOVERNMENT DISAGREES

Hungary's right-wing govermment has rejected the concerns. It says that animals adapt well to man-made habitat changes. The statement also noted that deer populations had been growing for decades in Hungary and across Europe, causing crop damage and road accidents.

And, Budapest says, during the decades of the Iron Curtain, which separated the West from Communist-run Eastern Europe, "the scarce presence of people and limited human disturbance allowed wildlife to flourish in the border area."

And the government says that if the "illegal presence" of humans could be controlled near the new border fence, accidents suffered by big game would also cease.

However activists opposing the fence say the painful death of animals is another proof that Hungary's anti-migration fence is not a solution to completely halt migration.

It also comes after the government acknowledged that thousands of migrants managed to cross through border fences along its southern border fences with Serbia and Croatia this year, and activists said many people were injured while trying to cross into Hungary on their way towards more welcoming Western countries. 

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Stockbridge, Massachusetts, Oct 15, 2016 / 04:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Fr. Donald Calloway could give St. Augustine a run for his money, in terms of dramatic conversion stories.

In a recent Vimeo video produced by Spirit Juice Studios and the Knights of Columbus, Fr. Calloway recalled his radical transformation from atheist, drug-addicted high school dropout to Catholic priest.

The child of a military family, Donald (his family called him Donnie), moved from Virginia to Southern California with his parents at the age of 10.

He was enticed by the lifestyle of Southern California, and by the age of 13, was living solely for pleasure, a pursuit that would eventually lead to a downward spiral landing him in rehab, jail, and with suicidal thoughts.

When his dad announced one day that the family would be moving to Japan, Donnie became “enraged” at the thought of leaving.

Once in Japan, Donnie sought out friends who were into the same things he was.

Those friends soon became his connection to the Japanese mafia organization called the yakuza.

 “I was a little Caucasian boy that they could fill up my backpack with all these drugs and money, to run to different casinos on the big island of Honshu, the main island of Japan,” he recalled in the video.

Donnie was wanted by the Japanese government and the United States government, including the U.S. military presence in Japan.  

“They literally kicked me out of the country with two military police officers handcuffed at my feet and my hands, and I was released into the custody of my father,” he said.  

Donnie was placed into a rehabilitation center, but relapsed immediately after he was released. At that point in his life, happiness was equivalent to feeling good, which meant never coming down from being high. He tried to never be sober.

Occasionally he would wonder about the meaning of life, but it was always in terms of achieving and maintaining the high of those experiences, it wasn’t in a religious context.

Then one night, an almost-21-year-old Donnie was spending a quiet night at home in his room. Without the distraction of music or the noises of a party, his thoughts soon turned dark - to panic and suicide. Looking for a diversion, he grabbed a random book from his parent’s bookshelf, which happened to be about Marian apparitions.

Although his mother was a devout Catholic, he had rejected religion for so long that he had no idea who the Blessed Virgin Mary was.

But he started reading, and he was hooked.

“It talked about a beautiful woman named Mary who was the mother of Jesus, and that she was beautiful, so beautiful that she would make little children cry and fall on their knees because of her femininity and her loveliness. That fascinated me,” he said.  

“I think God used the beauty of the Virgin Mary to get me, and it was a brilliant method because it worked. I read the whole book in one night, and that began my radical falling in love with Jesus Christ.”  

In his book “No Turning Back: A Witness to Mercy”, Fr. Donald recalls what happened the next morning.

Barely able to spit out his experience to his mom, because of his embarrassment and lack of religious vocabulary, he eventually convinced her that he had had a sincere religious experience. She immediately started calling every priest she could think of that would meet with her son.

But it was just after 6 a.m., and most priests were not awake, or were not up for a very early morning appointment.

“...the priest did not comprehend the urgency of the situation — the need for a meeting at 6:30 a.m., with no prior notice. In his mind, what could be so important that it couldn't wait a couple of hours? Unwilling to give up so easily, my mother called a second priest but got much the same response. ‘Can we put off the meeting until 8:30 or 9:00 a.m.?’ he asked.”

“As she was dialing a third priest, I interrupted and said, ‘Mom, isn't there one of those ... .’ My voice trailing off much as it did before. I didn't even know what to call it. We were living at Norfolk Naval Air Station, and I didn't know if the place I was thinking of was called a church or a chapel. I said, ‘Isn't there one of those things just inside the main gate?’” he recalled in his book.

“Understanding what I was referring to, she looked me right in the eye and said, ‘Yes, Donnie. Run!’”

Soon after, he was able to meet with a priest, who invited him to come and watch him celebrate Mass. After Mass, the priest gave Donnie a painting of Jesus.

“I was shocked that (Jesus) was not looking at me like he was going to crush me. The image was of him in a gesture of blessing. I began to cry. I realized that I was loved and that I was wanted by God,” he said.

Eventually, Donnie became a priest with the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. He often travels to speak about his remarkable conversion story.

“I often tell people that I’m Exhibit A of Divine Mercy - it works. I’ve done so many bad things and hurt so many people, and yet there’s mercy for someone like me. And if that’s true, and it is, then the whole world, there’s an ocean of mercy waiting for us,” he said.  

“Jesus loves you, and he came for you. God is madly in love with you, he’s longing for your friendship, he’s panting for your heart. Give it to him, and trust in him.” 

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