A bombing on Sunday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Jolo, the capital of Sulu Province in the southern Philippines, left 20 people dead and 81 wounded. One of the IEDs exploded inside the church as Mass was going on, while another went off in the parking lot outside where most churchgoers had fled after the first blast.
While memories of the gusting winds, catastrophic rain downpour and devastation that followed are vivid in the lives of those who were affected in New York and New Orleans, a similar chain of events were also felt by a resident across the world who lived through Super Typhoon Haiyan that struck the Philippines five years ago in November 2013.
Bishops and some politicians reacted negatively after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte questioned the logic of the Bible creation story and called God “stupid.” Ucanews.com reported that, speaking during a technology summit in the southern city of Davao, Duterte questioned how Adam and Eve brought about “original sin.”
Sister Patricia Fox, superior of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion in the Philippines, center, fighting a deportation order, is blessed during a May 19 Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Manila.
There will be no Holy Week observance this year in Marawi almost a year after extremist gunmen occupied the southern Philippine city.
Pilgrims climb to touch the Black Nazarene during a Jan. 9 procession in Manila, Philippines.
The Filipino community at Incarnation parish, Queens Village, opened the church doors in the early afternoon Dec. 10 as they celebrated one of the most long-standing Christmas traditions in the Philippines known as Simbang Gabi.
Cardinal Ricardo Vidal of Cebu, Philippines, died Oct. 18 at the age of 86 after a series of health complications.
Caritas in the Philippines is appealing for help for 400,000 people displaced in Marawi as fears grow of malnutrition and displacement problems resulting from ongoing terrorist attacks.
A senior Philippine priest taken hostage by Islamic State-inspired militants in the southern city of Marawi has been freed after almost four months of captivity.
