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(Vatican Radio) The Italian Bishops Conference (CEI) has sanctioned €1 million for assistance to thousands of Sri Lankans left homeless and without food, following devastating floods triggered by days of torrential rains. The office of Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the president of CEI, is in direct contact with the Archdiocese of Colombo for the aid to the flood victims. The floods forced more than 350,000 people from their homes, though many were returning on Monday. The cost of Sri Lanka's landslides and floods will be between $1.5 billion and $2 billion at the minimum, the government said on Monday, as the Indian Ocean island struggles to recover from its worst natural disaster since the 2004 Asia tsunami. The official death toll has risen to 92 but 109 people are feared to have been buried in landslides.The Italian bishops have also sanctioned another €500,000 for survivors of the April 17 earthquake in Ecuador that has destroyed more t...
IMAGE: GIAMPIERO SPOSITOBy Cindy WoodenROME (CNS) -- When Emmanuele Trincas described Roman Cocco as a"bomber" on the soccer field, they both laughed, but it also gaveCocco the confidence he needed to talk about his experience as a SpecialOlympics athlete."I know it's not modest," Cocco said, but being chosento play in an international soccer tournament May 20-22 in Rome"represents how hard I worked.""I never thought I'd get this far," Cocco said. "We'llsee what the future holds."Trincas and Cocco trained together for two months for the"Project Unify" tournament in Rome, which was sponsored by theKnights of Columbus and Special Olympics Italia. Four teams from Italy took onteams from France, Hungary, Lithuania and Poland.Project Unify brings together athletes with developmentaldisabilities and those without. The two learn to appreciate each other'stalents, realize what they have in common, overcome preconceived ideas and formfriendships.Logan Ludwig, deputy supreme knight of the Kn...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Max Rossi, ReutersBy Junno Arocho EstevesVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- After five years of tension and top-levelsilence, Pope Francis and the grand imam of one of the most important SunniMuslim universities in the world embraced at the Vatican May 23."The meeting is the message," the pope told Ahmad el-Tayeb, the grand imam ofal-Azhar University, as the religious scholar approached him just inside thedoor of the papal library. El-Tayeb's spring visit wasthe first meeting between a pontiff and a grand imam since the Muslimuniversity in Cairo suspended talks in 2011.Established in 1998, theformal dialogue between al-Azhar and the Vatican started to fray in2006, after now-retired Pope Benedict XVI gave a speech in Regensburg, Germany.Al-Azhar officials and millions of Muslims around the world said the speech linked Islam toviolence.Al-Azhar halted the talks altogether in 2011 after the former popehad said Christians in the Middle East were facing persecution. Al-Azharclaimed ...
IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy Father Liam DunneBy Francis NjugunaNAIROBI, Kenya (CNS) -- Missionaries and other Catholicsgathered in Nairobi May 23 for a requiem Mass for a Slovak nun killed in Yei,South Sudan.Holy Spirit Missionary Sister Veronika Theresia Rackova, 58,director of St. Bakhita Medical Center in Yei, was shot the night of May 16 whiledriving an ambulance after taking an expectant mother to the hospital. When theambulance was attacked by soldiers, Sister Rackova was wounded in the hip andabdomen.After two surgeries in Yei, she was evacuated to Nairobi,where she died May 20.Sister Maria Jerly, regional superior for the Holy SpiritMissionary Sisters, told Catholic News Service that Sister Rackova was shot aspeople marked John Garang Day. She added that a motive for the shooting was notknown. Three soldiers were arrested in connection with theincident, and Sister Jerly added, "One of them is said to have admittedhaving shot at Sister Rackova."Six of the order's nuns are servi...
IMAGE: CNS photo/Rafael Marchante, ReutersBy Cindy WoodenVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Sixteen years after the Vaticanreleased the text of the so-called Third Secret of Fatima, rumors cyclically ariseclaiming that the Vatican still is keeping part of Mary's message to three childrenin Fatima, Portugal, secret.The Vatican press office May 21 took the unusual step ofpublishing a communique with reaction from retired Pope Benedict XVI, who -- asprefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith -- oversaw thesecret's publication in 2000 and personally wrote a commentary on it. Heinsisted at the time that the complete text had been published.In mid-May, a blog published a story claiming a Germanpriest, Father Ingo Dollinger, said that then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger hadtold him soon after the publication in 2000 that part of the message was stillsecret.The Vatican communique said: "In this regard, Pope emeritusBenedict XVI declares 'never to have spoken with Professor Dollinger aboutFati...
PARIS (AP) -- The French navy said Monday that one of its ships has arrived in the search area to help look for traces of EgyptAir Flight 804 that crashed in the Mediterranean and especially for its flight recorders....
VIENNA (AP) -- The Latest on Austria's presidential election (all times local):...
VIENNA (AP) -- Left-leaning candidate Alexander Van der Bellen won the election to become Austrian president Monday, but his right-wing rival was only narrowly behind, a result that reflects the growing strength of Europe's anti-EU political movements....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Before deciding if she'll vote for Donald Trump, Martha McSally says she'll spend time "determining what kind of man he is." Mia Love says some comments by the presumptive Republican presidential candidate need "some sort of explanation," while Renee Ellmers backs him because he's "a problem solver."...
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court ruled decisively in favor of a death-row inmate in Georgia on Monday, chastising state prosecutors for improperly keeping African-Americans off the jury that convicted him of killing a white woman....
