MANILA (UCAN): Several old churches in the province of Pampanga have been closed after a 6.1-magnitude earthquake shook the island of Luzon, the Philippines, on April 22.
 
At least 11 people have been reported killed while 24 others were missing, most of whom were residents of the town of Porac.
 
The Archdiocesan Committee on Church Heritage in San Fernando, about 80 kilometres north of the capital, Manila, announced that all heritage churches were closed to the public.
 

JAKARTA (UCAN): People affected by the deadly magnitude 7.5 earthquake and tsunami that struck Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province on September 28, killing more than 2,000 people and displacing more than 70,000 more, are still in desperate need of relief supplies.
 
Father Joy Derry, who heads Caritas in the Diocese of Manado, said the Church, along with other relief organisations is continuing to provide basic needs.
 

JAKARTA (CNS/SE): Catholic aid agencies were among those working to assess the needs and get relief to the island of Sulawesi after an earthquake and tsunami left more than 1,400 people dead.
 
Among those killed were 34 Christian students trapped while attending a Bible class. Fifty-two other students remained missing in Jono Oge village, according to a report of the ucanews.com.
 

JAKARTA (UCAN): Indonesia’s religious affairs minister, Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, warned volunteers from religious-based organisations offering aid to survivors of deadly earthquakes that recently struck the tourist island of Lombok, against proselytising. The region was hit by three powerful quakes on July 29, August 5, and August 19, killing hundreds of people and displacing thousands more.
 
The September 3 warning came after a video, purportedly showing aid workers allegedly proselytising among child survivors, went viral on social media.

Jakarta (UCAN): At least 10 people were killed by a 6.9-magnitude earthquake that struck the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok on August 19, less than a month after two earlier quakes killed hundreds (Sunday Examiner, August 12).
 
The earthquake, which also hit nearby Sumbawa island, left a further 24 people injured and damaged more than 150 homes and buildings, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.
 

JAKARTA (UCAN/CNS): At least 105 people were confirmed dead as at the time of going to press, after a magnitude seven earthquake struck Indonesia’s Lombok Island on August 5 a week after it was struck a magnitude 6.4 quake that killed more than a dozen people (Sunday Examiner, August 5).
 

JAKARTA (SE): Catholic groups have started to collect aid for thousands of people affected by the deadly 6.4 magnitude earthquake that struck the popular tourist island of Lombok in Indonesia on July 29.
 
The tremor killed at least 16 people, left 355 injured and forced more than 5,100 to flee their homes, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, UCAN reported.
 
The quake also triggered landslides, cutting off hiking trails.
 

Kathmandu (SE): A delegation from Caritas Internationalis visited Nepal at the end of April to take part in a symposium in Kathmandu and to mark the anniversary of the devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck on 25 April 2015, leaving millions homeless, bringing aid and engendering a spirit of solidarity.

KUMAMOTO (SE): “Is this the big one?” a long time resident of Kumamoto City on the southern island of Kyushu in Japan said he thought to himself as his home shook violently at 1.25am on April 14.

He said that although it is not something at the front of his consciousness, the occasional reminder that Japan is an earthquake-prone country leaves the thought of the big earthquake lurking somewhere at the back of his mind and images of Kobe from the 1990s and Fukushima from 2011 are always there.

Vatican (SE): In the wake of the tragic 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck Tainan, Taiwan, on the weekend of February 6, a telegramme of condolence was sent on behalf of Pope Francis by Pietro Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state.

It said the pope was saddened at the suffering caused and sent his prayerful condolences to the families of the dead and the injured, as well as the rescue workers and civil authorities.