1+ day, 15+ hour ago (283+ words) For 40 years, Mark Loren has owned his Fort Myers jewelry shop. "We work on a lot of engagement rings, redesigning a lot of pieces for clients who are coming in, necklaces, pendants," Loren said. Of all the jewelry he's worked on in his four decades, this October, he took on one project that was unlike any other. "It was the first time I've ever worked on reliquaries like that before," Loren said. "They were a mess; they really looked like garbage," Sister Mary said. Sister Mary lived at Church of the Ascension on Fort Myers Beach with a group of cloistered nuns. That is, until Hurricane Ian destroyed the church and their belongings. "We saw the water rise until it was over the wall, over our enclosure wall, which is 8 feet high," Sister Mary said. "All of the relics that…...

1+ day, 15+ hour ago (283+ words) For 40 years, Mark Loren has owned his Fort Myers jewelry shop. "We work on a lot of engagement rings, redesigning a lot of pieces for clients who are coming in, necklaces, pendants," Loren said. Of all the jewelry he's worked on in his four decades, this October, he took on one project that was unlike any other. "It was the first time I've ever worked on reliquaries like that before," Loren said. "They were a mess; they really looked like garbage," Sister Mary said. Sister Mary lived at Church of the Ascension on Fort Myers Beach with a group of cloistered nuns. That is, until Hurricane Ian destroyed the church and their belongings. "We saw the water rise until it was over the wall, over our enclosure wall, which is 8 feet high," Sister Mary said. "All of the relics that…...

4+ day, 19+ hour ago (271+ words) A woman in Thailand shocked temple staff when she started moving in her coffin after being brought in for cremation. Wat Rat Prakhong Tham, a Buddhist temple in the province of Nonthaburi on the outskirts of Bangkok, posted a video on its Facebook page, showing a woman lying in a white coffin in the back of a pickup truck, slightly moving her arms and head, leaving temple staff bewildered. He said they heard a faint knock coming from the coffin. "I was a bit surprised, so I asked them to open the coffin, and everyone was startled," he said. "I saw her opening her eyes slightly and knocking on the side of the coffin. She must have been knocking for quite some time." According to Pairat, the brother said his sister had been bedridden for about two years, when her…...

6+ day, 12+ hour ago (366+ words) Williams Memorial C.M.E. Church in High Point, North Carolina, distributed Thanksgiving meal kits to 10,000 people Saturday, an effort that has grown increasingly important due to current economic challenges. "It takes faith for us to believe that we can feed 10,000. We had to put it to work," said Pastor Robert Williams. Volunteers at the church loaded boxes containing everything needed for a Thanksgiving meal into cars, easing the financial burden the traditional meal can pose for families. "There may not be funds for food because you got to make sure you got rent, you got to make sure you got lights and water and car payments, because you got to be able to get to work to make the money," church member Cheryl Yarrington said. "So sometimes food becomes the bottom of the totem pole of things that need to be done....

1+ week, 16+ hour ago (415+ words) Pope Leo XIV on Saturday accepted the resignation of an ailing Spanish bishop who is under church investigation for allegedly sexually abusing a young seminarian in the 1990s, the first known time the new pontiff removed a bishop accused of abuse. A one-line statement from the Vatican said Leo had accepted the resignation of C'diz Bishop Rafael Zornoza, 76. It didn't say why, but Zornoza submitted his resignation to the pope last year when he turned 75, the normal retirement age for bishops. The report, quoting a letter the former seminarian wrote the Vatican over the summer, said Zornoza fondled him and regularly slept with him from when he was 14-21 years old. The former seminarian's letter said Zornoza heard his confession and persuaded him to see a psychiatrist to "cure" his homosexuality. The diocese of C'diz denied the accusations against Zornoza but confirmed…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago (94+ words) Having an audience with the pope is an honor that not many people get to experience. One Maryland student got the chance to ask Pope Leo XIV a question. Search location by ZIP code Maryland student gets opportunity to ask pope a question Having an audience with the pope is an honor that not many people get to experience. One Maryland student got the chance to ask Pope Leo XIV a question. Mia Smothers was one of just five students selected to have a dialogue with the pontiff at the National Catholic Youth Conference....

1+ week, 4+ day ago (145+ words) A food pantry at a Greenville County, South Carolina, church was damaged by a fire Monday night. Beth Costlow is the co-pastor of Lutheran Church of Our Savior on Wade Hampton Boulevard. She said she got a call about 10 p.m. that the food pantry was on fire. When Costlow arrived about 30 minutes later, she said the fire was out but the food pantry was damaged and none of the food was salvageable. "It breaks my heart to know that we're gonna have to slow that down for a while, especially during the holidays," Costlow said. Costlow estimates the damage is about $50,000. She said some food deliveries are arriving as soon as Tuesday and a plan is in place to continue to serve families. Costlow said last month the food pantry served more than 1,100 families in the area....

1+ week, 4+ day ago (145+ words) A food pantry at a Greenville County, South Carolina, church was damaged by a fire Monday night. Beth Costlow is the co-pastor of Lutheran Church of Our Saviour on Wade Hampton Boulevard. She said she got a call about 10 p.m. that the food pantry was on fire. When Costlow arrived about 30 minutes later, she said the fire was out but the food pantry was damaged and none of the food was salvageable. "It breaks my heart to know that we're gonna have to slow that down for a while, especially during the holidays," Costlow said. Costlow estimates the damage is about $50,000. She said some food deliveries are arriving as soon as Tuesday and a plan is in place to continue to serve families. Costlow said last month the food pantry served more than 1,100 families in the area....

2+ week, 23+ hour ago (406+ words) Hollywood stars met Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican, where the pontiff called cinema a "workshop of hope" and lamented declining audiences. File video above: Pope Leo XIV elected as first U.S. pope The line-up of film stars and directors meeting the first American pope on Saturday included Oscar winners Cate Blanchett, known for "Aviator" and "Elizabeth," and Spike Lee, who directed "Malcolm X" and "BlacKkKlansman". All those present in the audience in the Vatican's apostolic palace met Leo personally at the end, with Lee presenting the first American pope with a New York Knicks jersey. Monica Bellucci, who played Mary Magdalene in Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," also met the pope on Saturday, as did actor Adam Scott, of the series "Parks and Recreation" and "Severance," and Sergio Castellitto, who played the "vaping cardinal" Tedesco in the movie…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago (569+ words) A Christian missionary father and his daughter were killed when a small plane bound for a hurricane relief mission in Jamaica crashed in a South Florida neighborhood. Christian ministry organization Ignite the Fire identified the two victims of the Monday morning crash as the group's founder, Alexander Wurm, 53, and his daughter Serena Wurm, 22. The pair were bringing humanitarian aid to Jamaica, according to the organization, when the Beechcraft King Air plane they were flying in crashed into a pond in a residential area of the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Coral Springs, narrowly missing homes. As of Tuesday morning, investigators had not reported any other victims. Ignite the Fire is "dedicated to empowering youth through missions and evangelism across the Caribbean," according to the organization's website. A statement on the group's social media described the Wurm family as passionate about humanitarian…...