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PONCITLAN, Mexico – Francisco Jacobo left his hometown in 1975, two years after a mudslide buried dozens of inhabitants as they slept. With the local economy in shambles, he headed north for Tijuana and eventually Los Angeles, where he found work in a water-bed factory and later a bakery.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The Hurricane Recovery Office for Catholic Charities of Arkansas is continuing to assist hurricane evacuees with settling in Arkansas, but money and time are running out. The office announced it will remain open until March 31, six months longer than expected, thanks to a grant extension from the federal government.

PISCO, Peru – When Carlos Cortez arrived in Pisco days after the city was struck by a magnitude 8 earthquake, he was particularly struck by the children in one of the tent cities set up for people who had been left homeless.

If you see a giant nun looming in front of you, you’re not having flashbacks to your Catholic school days. The larger-than-life photographic cutouts of the Sisters of Mercy, posted on street corners by Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore, are helping hospital visitors find their way to the Saratoga Street parking garage.

After Rose Mary Cherry’s 27-year-old nephew, Michael Riston, was murdered nearly four years ago, the tragedy shook her Catholic faith. Coming only four years after her husband, Lynn Cherry, also died, Ms. Cherry said the loss of two beloved people in her life was very difficult. But through it all, she never abandoned her faith.

WASHINGTON – The number of Americans living in poverty went down slightly last year, according to the Census Bureau’s annual report, but the number of uninsured Americans rose a bit.

HARARE, Zimbabwe – Zimbabwe’s bishops called attacks on Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo “outrageous and utterly deplorable” and an attempt to divert attention from the catastrophe that Zimbabwe has become.

VATICAN CITY – God gave people the duty to take care of the earth, but they “often abuse creation and do not exercise” their responsibility to be stewards of nature, Pope Benedict XVI said.

In honor of their upcoming 200th anniversary in 2008, Mount St. Mary’s University, Emmitsburg, opened their vault to remove the school’s historic chalices to use at the founder’s Mass Aug. 24 and for further Masses celebrating the anniversary.

During a recent trip to the emergency room at Good Samaritan Hospital in Baltimore, 9-year-old Kyla Roberts was given a homemade fleece blanket to cuddle with to battle the fear and loneliness children often experience while waiting for treatment.