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National Catholic Register

Colombia‑Born U.S. Bishop Urges Prayers After Powerful Earthquake

Kena Betancur
Sculptures are surrounded by debris at a partially collapsed church at Palermo neighborhood after a magnitude-7.4 earthquake struck Colombia on Aug. 10, 2026 in Tamesis, Colombia.

Bishop John J. Gomez of Laredo, Texas, confirmed that his family members are safe but that his friends and neighbors have faced hardship due to the earthquake.

Spiraling Down in Speyer

Sebastian Mierzwa
Speyer Cathedral.

COMMENTARY: The root of the German crisis is apostasy: an unabashed denial of what the Catholic Church believes and teaches to be true. And that is what has caused the death of the Diocese of Speyer.

Church in Colombia Prays and Mobilizes to Help Those Affected by Major Earthquake

A woman prays in the street following the earthquake in Cali, Colombia, on Aug. 10, 2026. The Colombian Geological Service and its U.S. counterpart, the USGS, estimated the magnitude at 7.4, with an epicenter at a depth of 100 km (60 miles) in the western part of the country. Colombia had initially estimated it at 6.6.

Local Church leaders called on the faithful to respond with prayer, generosity, and solidarity.

The Forgotten History of the First Poor Clare Community in Rome

This 15th-century Madonna with Child fresco by Antonio del Massaro, which also depicts Sts. Francis and Clare, is located in the church of the first Poor Clare monastery in Rome.

Behind a modern hospital in Rome’s Trastevere region stands the remains of a nearly-800-year-old monastery that once housed Franciscan nuns.