Despite intense bombing and severe food shortages, several Carmelite nuns are refusing to abandon the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo and have appealed for urgent aid.
“The bombs are falling all around us, but we are not going to leave the people in their suffering,” said Sister Anne-Francoise, a French nun from a community of Discalced Carmelites in Aleppo. “The people here are suffering and dying.”
The 2018 Winter Olympic Games, the 17-day athletic love-fest kicking off to the beat of the Korean janggu drum in Pyeongchang on Feb. 9, are a secular endeavor featuring more fanfare than faith, more spectacle than spirit.
But it was not always so.
On the seventh day, Simone Biles rests.
That’s the day the world gymnastics champion, who has a clear shot at the medal podium in Rio, goes to church with her family.
Biles, a first-time Olympian, is a Catholic. She has said she routinely lights a candle to St. Sebastian, the patron saint of athletes and of Rio, before each meet.
1. President Obama: ‘This Is What a Feminist Looks Like ’
On his 55th birthday, the president penned a column in Glamour talking about his role as father to Sasha and Malia: “ …It’s important that their dad is a feminist, because now that’s what they expect of all men.”
2. Apple Adds More Gender-Diverse Emoji in iOS10
Female athletes and professionals, plus additional family representation options roll out in iOS10.
3. What’s a Class Revolution Without Black People?
“It’s black Americans, not would-be white revolutionaries, who’ve led a successful movement to claim power and rights in this country. And it’s black people who are going to be the beneficiaries. If they're missing — which they are — it suggests both that the movement is getting something wrong, and isn’t long for the political world.”