Fifty of the 303 children kidnapped by gunmen from a Catholic school in Nigeria on Friday have escaped, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria (Can). Can has since clarified that they escaped on Friday and Saturday and have been reunited with their parents in Niger state. However, the police say they haven’t been able…
Armed men attacked a Catholic boarding school in northwestern region of Nigeria and abducted several schoolchildren and staff early Friday. It’s the latest in a spate of abductions in Africa’s most populous country and came just days after 25 schoolgirls were kidnapped in a neighboring state. The latest abduction comes as the country is facing scrutiny…
A Minneapolis couple who live a block from Annunciation Catholic School and the church where two children were killed and 18 other people were wounded Wednesday recalled the moments after they heard the gunfire from their home. Carla and Pedro Maldonado were in their kitchen when they heard the shots and realized after the second…
The 8-year-old killed in the tragic Annunciation Catholic School shooting Wednesday was identified by his father as Fletcher Merkel. He was one of two children killed in the mass shooting in Minneapolis. The other was a 10-year-old whose identity has not been publicly released. “Yesterday a coward decided to take our 8-year-old son Fletcher away…
The church was watched over closely by the late Pope Francis, who spoke daily with its parish priest and once gifted his popemobile to the children there. In a rare and risky visit to Gaza — largely sealed off from foreign officials — Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, and Theophilos III, the…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country “deeply regrets that a stray ammunition” hit Gaza’s only Catholic Church, killing three people sheltering there. “Every innocent life lost is a tragedy. We share the grief of the families and the faithful,” he said in a statement. The incident happened on Thursday when an Israeli…
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which oversees the Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Gaza City, said Thursday that several people were injured in “a raid” on the church, including the Parish Priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli. The patriarchate later said two people were killed in the incident. “With deep sorrow the Latin Patriarchate can…
