During the COVID-19 lockdown, Father Louismary Ocha spent a lot of time Father Andrew Struzzieri, pastor of St. Clare Parish in Queens, who was terminally ill with cancer. Father Andy’s example is a pillar of priesthood that Father Ocha now shares with his seminarian students back home in Nigeria.
Roots of Peace founder Heidi Kuhn is on a deadline-driven, life-or-death mission to get her nearly 400 employees out of Afghanistan by Aug. 31. The Taliban took over the organization’s compound in Kabul Aug. 15.
Pope Francis’ upcoming trip to Hungary and Slovakia, while seemingly standard as papal visits go, could prove to be among his most challenging visits at a time when distrust in government authorities and the looming threat of the delta variant are leading the headlines.
Pope Francis held a private audience with Nadia Murad, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and survivor of the Islamic State-led genocide in Iraq, Aug. 26 at the Vatican.
Parishioners who donate to special collections in the Diocese of Brooklyn for Haiti disaster relief can feel confident their donations will reach their intended recipients, despite the turmoil in that nation, officials said.
Just as he did when the Olympic games began last July, Pope Francis on Wednesday referred to the opening of the Paralympic games the day before. The pontiff’s words had a particular significance for a “small yet loud” group of Paralympic athletes who were present in the Paul VI Hall when the Holy Father delivered his remarks.
The International Monetary Fund on Aug. 23 withheld $455 million in emergency COVID-19 relief funding from Afghanistan after the Taliban’s takeover of the country forced the organization to withhold its recognition of the Afghan government.
Pope Francis will be sending nearly a quarter of a million dollars to help people in Haiti, who are struggling in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake during a global pandemic.
After a 57-year stretch of loyalty to the same company, papal travel is set to change this fall with the closure of Italy’s national airline Alitalia, which has taken four popes to a total of 171 countries on all continents.
Of the 500,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine to reach Haiti so far, only about 5%, have been injected into people’s arms. The Aug. 14 earthquake gets a lot of blame for that, but the assassination of Haiti’s president and a hesitancy among people to get their shots have also delayed the distribution, health officials said.
