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NEW DELHI – The Catholic Church in India has petitioned the country’s Supreme Court to protect Christian lives and property in Orissa state.

ROME – Former Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt said it was “a dream come true” to meet Pope Benedict XVI.

John and Gat Meredith planned on marking the first anniversary of their daughter’s death quietly.

Hai Dang Nguyen’s world was crumbling around him in April 1975. The Communists were on the verge of completely overrunning South Vietnam and Mr. Nguyen knew he had to get his family out of the country.

When Gene Hoffman sat down to check his e-mail Aug. 27, a story from the Catholic News Service about a Bible camp in Jamaica waited in his inbox.

THURMONT – Just as Jane Sprague finished heaping creamy globs of homemade potato salad into a large bowl, it was time to fill another – and then another and another. Hundreds of hungry visitors had gathered in the parish hall in eager anticipation of the chicken dinner at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Thurmont Sept. 1, and Ms. Sprague was one of 40 volunteers who worked feverishly to keep up with the round-the-clock demand. The doors opened at noon during the parish’s annual Labor Day Festival, and the ravenous crowds kept coming for five hours straight.

Hai Dang Nguyen’s world was crumbling around him in April 1975. The Communists were on the verge of completely overrunning South Vietnam and Mr. Nguyen knew he had to get his family out of the country.

NEW ORLEANS – Though it appeared Sept. 2 that the Archdiocese of New Orleans sustained minimal damage to its buildings and operations from Hurricane Gustav, New Orleans Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes feared the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux was battered the hardest of Louisiana’s seven dioceses during the Labor Day-weekend storm.

MEXICO CITY – Manuel Ramirez last saw his daughter Monica in December 2004, shortly before she was kidnapped in this sprawling metropolis of more than 20 million people.

WASHINGTON – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, selected by Sen. John McCain Aug. 28 as his vice-presidential running mate, won the praise of Catholic leaders earlier this year for embracing the arrival of her fifth child, born with Down syndrome in April.