A group of 14 states, legal experts, sidewalk pro-life counselors, and pregnancy centers are urging the Supreme Court to take up the case of Debra Vitagliano, a Catholic challenging a law in Westchester County, New York, that prohibits her sidewalk ministry outside abortion clinics.
Nearly a year has passed since a rare “hundred year flood” devastated the Appalachian region of eastern Kentucky, an area known as “the mountains” that was already stricken by extreme poverty and unemployment.
Catholics make up less than 1% of the population in Eastern Kentucky, but local churches are stepping up in a big way to help victims of the devastating floods that hit the region on July 27.
The rains began late July 27 and went into the next day, causing massive flooding that destroyed hundreds of homes and wiped out entire communities, according to news reports. Search and rescue teams, with the help of the National Guard, began searching for missing people July 29. As of Aug. 1, 660 air rescues and hundreds of boat rescues had been conducted.
One thing that foster parents desire more than anything else is support, said the founder and president of Borrowed Hearts Owensboro in western Kentucky.
It’s been about four months since the Resurrection Parish community in Dawson Springs, Ky., relocated into a 20-by-20 foot steel shed after a tornado destroyed their church, and parishioner Rhonda Mills says there are still Masses where a wave of emotion comes over everybody for the simple reason that they’re worshiping together.
Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville on Jan. 8 and appointed Bishop Fabre, the bishop of Houma-Thibodaux in southeastern Louisiana, as his successor.
Families across western Kentucky continue to face the impact of the December tornadoes that roared through several communities as one Catholic Charities agency accompanies them along the way.
On Friday, Dec. 17, the scene at the parish center of Christ the King Catholic Church in Madisonville, Ky., was organized chaos anchored on a single purpose: to meet the needs of those reeling from devastation.
On Saturday, Dec. 18, Elko was out in front of his house loading a U-Haul truck with whatever he could save from his home, which was crushed by a fallen tree. His neighborhood was in the direct path of the tornado, only about a mile from the candle factory where eight people died.
