Barb Fraze

After Hurricane Helene hit in North Carolina, priests were called on for practical and spiritual help as the region was without electricity, water or telecommunications, and crews were gradually clearing roads.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network predicts that by July, parts of nine countries will be at internationally recognized emergency levels of food insecurity. Catholic agencies spoke to NCR about what drives food insecurity.

The situation in the Gaza Strip is "extremely catastrophic," and people are dying not only from violence but from preventable illnesses, said the CEO of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

More than a year after floods submerged one-third of Pakistan, "women in particular are (still) being impacted," said Gul Wali Khan, the head of programming for Catholic Relief Services in the country. More than 33 million people were affected by the 2022 floods, caused by a severe heatwave that melted glaciers, followed by heavier than usual monsoon rains.

Jerry Filteau, one of the premier reporters on the Catholic Church for more than 40 years, died April 4. Filteau covered the church for National Catholic Reporter from 2007 to 2013, when he retired for the second time: Before that, for 37 years, he worked for Catholic News Service as a reporter, foreign editor and Rome bureau chief.

When Pope Francis apologized to Canadian Indigenous for the ways in which many members of the church and of religious communities cooperated in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation at residential schools, Native Americans, like many Canadian Indigenous, said forgiveness was hard -- despite their Catholic faith.

The head of the German bishops' conference responded to an open letter from more than 70 bishops from four continents and expressed surprise at some of what they said — and did not say.

The president of Caritas Ukraine is an American citizen — the daughter of Ukrainian refugees — and yet she has not left Ukraine, even after the U.S. government advised Americans to leave.

Putin did not invade Ukraine out of concern that NATO would encroach on his borders, but concern about "the disease of democracy that could spread like a virus, and that's deadly for oligarchies and authoritarian rulers," said the archbishop who serves as a "foreign minister" for the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

Advocates, political leaders and a Maronite Catholic bishop gathered on Zoom for a virtual seminar to express support for Lebanon's Maronite patriarch, who came under pressure after calling for the Lebanese army to take control of the southern part of Lebanon, where Hezbollah is engaging in skirmishes with Israel.

Ethiopia is now managing nearly a million refugees from South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan, Yemen and even Syria, said Ethiopian Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel. Because so many Ethiopians are refugees, those who remain in the country work to make newcomers feel welcome.

As rumors fly of an imminent Vatican-China deal on the appointment of bishops, a Belgian priest known as an expert on China said he thinks an agreement might really happen.

Two prominent Mideast church leaders told a U.S. audience that they were looking to the United States for leadership to obtain peace in the Middle East.