LIMA, Peru – Felicita Chipana was at work when the Rimac River began to rise. By the time she got home, her kitchen was gone, swept away by floodwaters that left scores of families homeless on the east side of this sprawling capital city.

PIURA, Peru – On the occasion of the worldwide “24 Hours for the Lord”, the Archdiocese of Piura encouraged priests to visit and bring aid to the victims of the natural disasters in northwestern Peru.

LIMA, Peru – Evangelina Chamorro was swept away for over a third of a mile by an avalanche of mud on the coast south of Lima. But she survived and said that thinking about “God and her daughters” gave her the strength.

I never imagined that meeting two nuns at a Chinese Catholic camp last September would lead me two months later to the home of my parish’s patron saint, Rose of Lima.

WATERLOO, ONT. - Students at St. Jerome’s University don’t have to wonder where their coffee is made.

TORONTO - Having their views heard on a world stage has made students from a Toronto Catholic high school realize their voice on climate change does matter.

OTTAWA - Though liberation theology developed many streams, many shrouded in controvery, its principal founder said it remains anchored in the commitment to the poor in the Gospel.

LIMA, Peru - Half-hidden behind palm trees at the end of a once elegant avenue in a now rundown neighborhood, the Convento de los Descalzos -- the Convent of the Barefoot Friars -- has witnessed half a millennium of Peruvian history.

Age, economic woes and benign neglect have taken their toll, and the convent has fallen on hard times. But Alberta Alvarez, the director of a foundation established less than a year ago to revitalize the convent, is trying to change that.

SICUANI, Peru - Church leaders in Peru called for dialogue and expressed concern about the detention of two human rights workers in the southern Andes Mountains during violent protests over a copper mine.

Two people have been killed and dozens, including police officers, have been injured in demonstrations against the Tintaya Mine, owned by Xstrata, a Swiss company. On May 28, the government imposed a 30-day state of emergency after the protest, which began the week before, turned violent May 27.