COTABATO (UCAN): A year after the end of the conflict in Marawi, in Mindanao, the southern Philippines, over 100,000 children have yet to return to school, according to the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Almost half a million people were affected by the five-months of fighting that ensued after extremist gunmen from the Maute Group attacked the city in May last year.
 

COTABATO (UCAN): Islamic Relief Worldwide, an international relief organisation, distributed at least 3,870 kilogrammes of meat to 1,800 displaced families living in temporary shelters on the outskirts in war-torn Marawi in the southern Philippines to mark the observance of Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) on August 22.
 
Maryann Zamora, a spokesperson for the group in the Philippines, said the animals were slaughtered to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice even his son to God.
 

MARAWI (UCAN) Catholics in the battle-scarred southern Philippine city of Marawi, Mindanao, have joined the predominantly Muslim community in welcoming the start of the Islamic month of Ramadan.
 
A thousand Catholic and Muslim residents participated in the start of the Duyog Ramadan (One with Ramadan) celebration spearheaded by the Catholic territorial prelature in the city’s Datu Saber district on May 13.
 

MARAWI (UCAN): The Saduc-Guimba Grand Mosque in the village of Saduc, in war-ravaged Marawi, has re-opened in time for the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan on May 15, almost a year after terrorist gunmen attacked the predominantly Muslim city in Mindanao, the Philippines.
 
The Philippine military earlier declared the area where the mosque is located, cleared of explosives that might have been left during the five months of fighting.
 

MANILA (UCAN): The 84-year-old St. Mary’s Cathedral in Marawi, Mindanao, will soon fall to the wrecking ball to pave the way for the rebuilding of the war-torn city.
 
Authorities said the cathedral and the bishop’s residence are no longer structurally sound because of bomb explosions, air strikes and exchanges of gunfire during the conflict.
 
Terrorist gunmen set the cathedral on fire on 23 May 2017 and took Father Teresito Suganob, the vicar general, along with several church workers and worshipers hostage.

Euthanasia push robs friends and family of joy says dying mother
SYDNEY (CNS): In March, as 50-year-old former nursing educator Anna Corry, lay dying from an aggressive type of breast cancer, she sent out a request to speak publicly about her opposition to euthanasia. She was diagnosed in January 2016. 
 

MANILA (UCAN): There will be no Holy Week observance this year in Marawi, Mindanao, almost a year after Islamic State-inspired gunmen occupied the southern Philippine city on May 23 last year.
 
St. Mary’s Cathedral, which was desecrated and burned at the height of the five-month conflict that ended in October, remains closed.
 
This will be the first time that Holy Week has not been celebrated in the predominantly Muslim city, where more than 300,000 people remain in temporary shelters.
 

MANILA and COTABATO (UCAN): A group of Muslim leaders from the war-torn city of Marawi in Mindanao, the Philippines, have appealed to Filipinos to stop posting disinformation on social media that might spark discord.
 
Social media posts in recent weeks have claimed that Marawi’s Catholic cathedral would be the first structure to be rebuilt in the city which was reduced to rubble after a five-month conflict last year.
 

MARAWI (UCAN): After several failed attempts, Bishop Edwin de la Peña from Marawi, was able to enter the ruined centre of the city, ravaged by five months of conflict, and visit the remnants of the cathedral together with representatives of the group Aid to the Church in Need on January 11.