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IMAGE: CNS photo/Barbara FraserBy Barbara J. FraserJAMA, Ecuador (CNS) -- Ask Jose Santos about the earthquake that struck the northern coast of Ecuador in April and he paints a vivid picture."The ground moved like waves on the ocean," he recalls, while a pall of sulfurous-smelling haze rose over the town.Santos' welding shop collapsed, destroying the tools on which he depended for a livelihood. At his home in the village of Bigua, a few miles away, his wife and their children fled their house as the walls cracked.After the quake, they slept outdoors, afraid that one of the more than 150 aftershocks might bring the house down. Now, they and nearly 80 neighbors have temporary homes in 10- by 20-foot tents donated by the Catholic Church.Four months after the April 16 earthquake -- which killed more than 670 people, injured nearly 5,000 and left as many as 80,000 homeless -- residents of northern Ecuador are slowly rebuilding. But the disaster exposed long-standing problems that will t...
NEW YORK (AP) -- The fall television season has been an annual rite since viewers were splitting their time between the trio of networks on their black-and-white TVs....
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Storms caused a big spike in the number of trees blown down or severely damaged in forests where migrating monarch butterflies spend the winter in central Mexico, experts reported Tuesday....
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- A South Carolina mother charged with killing her newborn son by putting him in the refrigerator for several hours was expected to appear before a judge on Tuesday....
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- Turkish artillery shelled Islamic State targets across the border in Syria for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, a senior Turkish official said, amid reports that Turkey-backed Syrian rebels are preparing an offensive against an IS-held border town....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is making his first visit to flood-ravaged southern Louisiana as he attempts to assure the many thousands who have suffered damage to their homes, schools and businesses that his administration has made their recovery a priority....
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent a message, signed by Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, to the Bishop of Castellaneta, Claudio Maniago on the occasion of the 67th National Liturgical Week in Italy which takes place in Gubbio.Below is a Vatican Radio translation of the MessageYour Excellency,On the occasion of the 67th National Liturgical Week, which this year takes place in Gubbio, in the mystical and calming scenery of Umbria, the Holy Father Pope Francis is happy to send good wishes to you, to the CAL collaborators and to all those taking part in the significant study days.The choice of this place, inspired by the celebration of 1600 years of the Letter of Pope Innocent I to Decentius, Bishop of Gubbio (cf.. PL 20, 551-561), is particularly appropriate during the Holy Extraordinary Year of Mercy. In this document, in which the Roman Pontiff offered clarifying answers to questions posed by pastor eugubino, there is some interesting news abo...
(Vatican Radio) The International Criminal Court (ICC) has opened proceedings against an Islamist militant from Mali for ordering the destruction of Timbuktu’s religious and cultural heritage.The ICC says the trial wants to send the message that attacks on religious sites constitute war crimes.Listen to Devin Watkins' report: The International Criminal Court has seen two ‘firsts’ in a single trial: the first war crimes proceedings for the destruction of cultural heritage, and the first confession and apology of a defendant.Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi is on trial for ordering the destruction of religious and cultural monuments in Mali’s capital of Timbuktu.Nine mausoleums and a mosque were destroyed by armed groups during Mali’s civil war in 2012, at least one of which was a World Heritage Site.Al Madhi was a member of the Ansare Dine rebel group which seized control of the capital in conjunction with Al Qaeda.He enforced the rulings of the Islami...
Sir 3:17-18, 20, 28-29; Heb 12:18-19, 22-24a; Lk 14:1, 7-14Most Rev. Paul-Émile Léger served as Archbishop of Montreal from 1950 to 1968, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1953 by Pope Pius XII. He was one of the most powerful men in Canada and within the Catholic Church. He was a man of deep conviction and humility. Then on April 20, 1968 he resigned his office and leaving his red vestments, crosier, miter, and pallium in his Montreal office, disappeared. Years later, he was found living among the lepers and disabled, outcasts of a small African village. When a Canadian journalist asked him, "Why?" here is what Cardinal Léger had to say: "It will be the great scandal of the history of our century that 600 million people are eating well and living luxuriously and three billion people starve, and every year millions of children are dying of hunger. I am too old to change all that. The only thing I can do which makes sense is to b...
Berlin, Germany, Aug 23, 2016 / 03:04 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The plummeting number of priestly vocations in the Catholic Church in Germany is raising questions about the roots of the problem, and whether the situation has been manufactured to promote non-priestly ministry.According to figures published by the German bishops' conference, never before have so few priests been ordained in the Church in Germany: a total of 58 men became priests in the country in 2015.Within the last decade, the number of ordinations has dropped by half: In 2005, a total of 122 diocesan priests were ordained. And five decades ago, in 1965, the number was 500.Whilst there were almost 20,000 Catholic priests in Germany in 1990, today their number has dropped to 14,000. And this drastic decline is set to continue, judging by the figures: last year also marked the first time in history that the number of new seminarians dropped to double digits. Only 96 new students were registered in 2015. At the same tim...
