As teachers are priced out of living in the communities that they serve, it becomes harder to build strong, trusting relationships, which are crucial for effective teaching, student engagement and retention of talent.
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More than 60 men died after a mosque collapsed in Sagaing Township aftera 7.7-magmitude earthquake struck Myanmar on March 28, 2025. / Credit: Courtesy of the Action Against Hunger team in Sagaing
ACI Prensa Staff, Apr 2, 2025 / 18:36 pm (CNA).
Rescue teams have been working against the clock in Myanmar searching for survivors under the rubble after last Friday’s 7.7-magnitude earthquake. But the battle hasn’t just been against time or the high temperatures of over 100 degrees.
“The army isn’t allowing relief teams to operate freely,” a priest from the Diocese of Loikaw in eastern Myanmar told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.
“The Church is also trying to help, but we encounter countless obstacles. We can’t freely access the affected areas because there are military checkpoints everywhere. Supplies are confiscated, volunteers are prevented from entering, and in some areas the army doesn’t even allow victims to receive the assistance they need,” said the priest, who requested anonymity.
He said he fears reprisals from the military regime that seized power in a coup in February 2021 and overthrew the democratically-elected government of the National League for Democracy party.
So far, the official death toll from the March 28 earthquake stands at 2,886, while the number of injured is approaching 4,639, according to the latest figures shared by the military junta. This number is expected to continue to rise.
The devastation is particularly widespread in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, just 11 miles from the earthquake’s epicenter, as well as in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, which is more than 150 miles away, and in the Sagaing region in the northwest of the country.
“Many people are still trapped under the rubble, but time passes and the chances of finding survivors are diminishing. Furthermore, those who managed to escape alive are in deplorable conditions: without food, without drinking water, and without shelter. There is a great need for medical assistance, but there is also no access to adequate hospitals,” the priest related.
“People are desperate. This morning I heard someone say: ‘If you can’t give us anything else, at least give us clean water.’ That shows the gravity of the situation,” he added.
From the very beginning, the Catholic Church has tried to mobilize to assist the victims. Through Caritas Myanmar, teams have been coordinated to distribute drinking water, food, and medicine.
“The Church has been one of the first to respond to the emergency, but we encounter barriers in every attempt to help. There are military checkpoints on the roads, we are required to obtain permission to transport supplies, and in many cases, the soldiers simply confiscate the aid or block its passage,” the priest explained.
The nation, one of the poorest in Asia, has been mired in a civil war for four years, triggered by the 2021 coup by the current military junta in power. The conflict has displaced 3.5 million people, according to the U.N., and has exacerbated poverty and food insecurity.
Despite the humanitarian crisis unleashed after the powerful earthquake, the spiral of violence has not abated.
“The conflict makes it almost impossible to move aid from one region to another. The military junta controls access to main roads, there are checkpoints everywhere, and anyone trying to bring supplies risks arrest or having everything confiscated,” the priest recounted.
The archbishop of Rangoon and president of the Myanmar Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, has called for a ceasefire in his country to facilitate rescue efforts, but his appeal has been unsuccessful.
“We have received reports of fighting in some areas, but communications are damaged, making it difficult to assess the full impact,” said Lisette Suárez, head of the Mental Health and Protection Department of Action Against Hunger in Myanmar, one of the organizations responsible for collecting foreign humanitarian aid and distributing it throughout the country.
“It’s essential to ensure safe and unrestricted access to all affected communities, regardless whose control they’re under,” she emphasized.
The distribution of humanitarian aid has also been hampered because many roads and main thoroughfares “have been completely destroyed” by the earthquake.
“Furthermore, some local airports are still working to restore operations, limiting the air transport of humanitarian aid,” Suárez added.
Added to this infrastructure paralysis are administrative problems, as many government offices have also suffered damage and some of their staff are directly affected by the tragedy, Suárez noted.
“The country was already experiencing a humanitarian crisis before the disaster, with a conflict limiting mobility and safe access to many areas,” she pointed out.
The electricity and running water supply remains disrupted, hampering access to health services and increasing the risk of disease outbreaks spreading through water and food. Furthermore, hospitals are operating at half capacity.
“They are treating patients on the streets, with limited resources and without electricity. The few remaining care centers are overwhelmed,” said the worker for Action Against Hunger, an organization that has been operating in the country for 30 years.
Supply problems also affect food. “Markets have collapsed, and there is no access to basic foodstuffs. Thousands of families have lost their livelihoods.”
The earthquake has not only worsened the conditions of those internally displaced by the conflict. “It has affected everyone, without distinction. Displaced communities, those who lived in conflict zones, and those who did not,” explained Suárez, who also emphasized the incalculable psychological impact on a population already traumatized by the war.
“The earthquake has left a profound mark on the mental health of the population. Not only have the communities suffered human and material losses, but also the response teams are working in extremely difficult conditions,” she explained.
Despite the difficulties, international aid has begun to arrive. “Many organizations are using supplies that had been reserved for the monsoon season [June-October], but they probably won’t be enough,” Suárez pointed out.
In any case, despite the devastation, the small Catholic community in Myanmar continues to show great resilience. “Our faith remains strong. Despite the difficulties, we remain united, praying, and helping one another. We cannot lose hope that better days will come,” the priest from the Diocese of Loikaw said.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
University officials stopped and evacuated the “From Combat to Campus” event 15 minutes before scheduled end citing “an inability to maintain the security perimeter.”
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U.S. Supreme Court. / Credit: PT Hamilton/Shutterstock
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 2, 2025 / 18:16 pm (CNA).
The United States Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments for a lawsuit that will determine whether South Carolina and other states can deny Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood for non-abortive medical services.
All three justices appointed by Democrats appeared to empathize with Planned Parenthood in the case, but the six Republican-appointed justices were more nuanced with their questions for the lawyers representing both parties.
Federal Medicaid funds cannot be used to cover elective abortions, but federal law does not restrict abortion clinics, such as Planned Parenthood facilities, from receiving Medicaid funds for other services they offer.
However, in 2016, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed an executive order to block abortion clinics from receiving Medicaid reimbursements for any services, arguing that tax money should not support institutions that perform abortions. This spurred a lawsuit from Planned Parenthood and a patient named Julie Edwards who was receiving non-abortive services at a Planned Parenthood facility through Medicaid.
The bulk of the legal arguments focus on one line in federal law that regulates the way in which state governments must structure their Medicaid reimbursement policies.
Under the federal law, “any individual eligible for medical assistance … may obtain such assistance from any [doctor or health care provider] qualified to perform the service or services required.”
John Bursch, a lawyer with Alliance Defending Freedom representing South Carolina, and Nicole Saharsky, a lawyer representing Planned Parenthood, disputed the meaning of the federal law and whether patients can file lawsuits about the matter.
Bursch told the justices that states have the authority to set their own eligibility requirements and argued that the federal law does not establish an absolute “right” to receive services from any medical provider and patients should not be able to seek recourse through the courts.
“[There’s] a difference between a benefit and a right,” he said and alleged that to assert an absolute right, there would need to be “rights-creating language with … an unmistakable focus on the benefited class.”
Bursch argued that South Carolina has many other alternative health care providers that can provide the services covered by Medicaid and acknowledged that one of the primary reasons the state denied funding to Planned Parenthood was because “they’re the nation’s largest abortion provider.”
Saharsky disputed those claims, arguing that the federal law uses “individual-centric rights-creating language that imposes a mandatory obligation” on South Carolina and all other states.
She said the federal law ensures that a patient “may obtain [these services] from any qualified and willing provider,” which she said prevents health care providers from “being excluded from Medicaid arbitrarily.” She argued that this language has the same effect as it would if Congress had used the word “right” or the language that no person “shall be denied.”
Saharsky referred to South Carolina’s rules as imposing a “magic word test” by asserting that there is no established “right” based on the word choice used.
Justices appointed by Democrats landed heavily on the side of Planned Parenthood during the oral arguments.
“What this language does is the same as the rights language does,” Justice Elena Kagan said.
While questioning Bursch, Kagan asserted: “It’s impossible to even say the thing without using the word ‘right,’” adding: “The right is the right to choose your doctor.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Congress was motivated to pass the law because “states were limiting the choices people had.” She added: “It seems hard to understand that states didn’t understand that they had to give individuals the right to choose a provider.”
“You’re not quite calling it a ‘magic word,’ but you’re coming pretty close,” she added.
Alternatively, Republican-appointed justices assumed a more nuanced approach when addressing the lawyers.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, for example, said he’s “not opposed to magic words” if it could provide clarity on “the words that are rights-creating.”
“One of my goals coming out of this will be to provide that clarity,” Kavanaugh said.
As Pesach arrives once more, eyes will inevitably turn to the Haggadah’s centuries-old short prayer known as Shefoch Chamatcha, in which readers call for God to “Pour out Your wrath against the nations who do not know You.”
The post On Passover, Do We Ask God to Pour Wrath or Love? appeared first on Jewish Journal.
(RNS) — A federal judge has dismissed a gender discrimination lawsuit brought against Abyssinian Baptist Church by a onetime candidate to be the historic Harlem church’s senior pastor, the sole female candidate among finalists for the role.
The Rev. Eboni Marshall Turman, an associate professor at Yale Divinity School, filed the complaint in 2023. The church had asked a judge to dismiss the case on the grounds of “ministerial exception,” under which religious institutions are given more latitude in personnel and other matters.
“There is no way for this Court to resolve Dr. Marshall Turman’s employment discrimination claim without becoming entangled with Abyssinian’s ecclesiastical innerworkings,” ruled U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho in a Monday (March 31) opinion for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
“It is therefore not premature to apply the ministerial exception at the motion to dismiss stage of this litigation. Accordingly, because the ministerial exception applies, Dr. Marshall Turman’s employment discrimination claim against Abyssinian is dismissed.”
The ministerial exception, in some cases, prevents courts from interfering with “the employment relationship between a religious institution and one of its ministers,” according to Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court case that Ho cited in his decision.
The judge wrote that Marshall Turman’s petition was “a somewhat close case,” noting her claim that ministerial exception did not apply because the church said in its advertisement for the pastoral position that “The Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City Inc. shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, age, or sexual orientation.”
RELATED: Abyssinian Baptist Church’s Kevin Johnson has history of following prominent clergy
But Ho determined that the “boilerplate antidiscrimination statement” was not sufficient to demonstrate that the church was waiving its First Amendment rights under the ministerial exception, based on the facts of Marshall Turman’s case.
The judge also dismissed Marshall Turman’s employment discrimination claim against Valerie S. Grant, the pulpit search committee chair, saying the ministerial exception also applied to that claim.
The church welcomed the judge’s ruling.
“We are grateful that the members of Abyssinian can continue to worship, heal and embrace their new Senior Pastor Rev. Dr. Kevin R. Johnson who has already helped to grow the historic church,” said spokesperson LaToya Evans in a statement. “Under Rev. Dr. Johnson’s leadership, Abyssinian’s congregation has already experienced meaningful growth and renewed spiritual connection.”
Evans said 255 people have joined the church, which has about 3,000 members, since Johnson’s first sermon as the 21st senior pastor on July 14, 2024.
Johnson succeeded the Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, who died in 2022 after serving as minister at the church for 50 years.
Marshall Turman, who served as an assistant minister among other positions at Abyssinian from 2010 to 2012, told RNS in a Wednesday statement that she is “prayerfully preparing” an appeal.
“The case was not dismissed on its merits but on a technicality — religious exception — which contends that the church has a right to discriminate, even though the Bible says, ‘in Christ there is neither male nor female,’” she said in the statement. “My moral claim still stands: gender discrimination, against me or anyone else, has no place in God’s house.”
In a Tuesday statement on her Facebook account, she added her gratitude for those who have offered her support.
“To the Black women who, even in their silence, have rallied behind sexism and misogynoir; and to the Black men who have viciously and thoughtlessly attacked me in their attempt to maintain aspirational patriarchy in the Black Church, ‘the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23),’” she wrote.
Abyssinian is the subject of another lawsuit filed in October by some members of the church seeking to have the “purported election” of Johnson annulled. A GoFundMe page, titled “Help Us To Restore Integrity at Abyssinian,” has raised more than $104,000 toward a $200,000 goal to pay for the legal costs of that suit.
A March 25 update on the page referred to the funeral of Grammy-winning singer Roberta Flack, held at the church earlier in the month, and noted that Johnson had called the church the “Black Vatican” on that occasion.
The update added: “a well-attended celebrity funeral does not erase or correct the many wrongdoings that have occurred over the past year concerning the pastoral election process.”
RELATED: Calvin Butts, leader of Harlem’s historic Abyssinian Baptist Church, dies at 73
NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — Although the All Saints Anglican Cathedral in Khartoum suffered huge damage in the two-year battle for the Sudanese capital, the country’s archbishop is relieved the structure was never bombed.
Speaking on Tuesday (April 1), days after the Sudanese Armed Forces, the national army, had recaptured the city from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, Ezekiel Kondo, the archbishop of the Episcopal (Anglican) Church of Sudan, told RNS he had received information about the state of the cathedral and the damage it had sustained.
“The damage is huge. Archbishop’s residence, dean’s house, and offices are all destroyed and looted. Praise God the building is not bombed,” Kondo, 68, told RNS from Port Sudan, in eastern Sudan, where he had been forced to flee two years earlier. “It will cost millions of dollars to repair the church.”
According to the archbishop, Christians are yet to return to the cathedral because the army has not declared the area safe.
“There may be land mines left behind by the paramilitary. Basic services such as water and electricity have not been restored,” said Kondo.
On March 26, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces, announced that his forces had taken the city back from Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and the Rapid Support Forces, raising hopes that the bloody civil war between the two factions of the military government might move on from the area.
However, a month earlier, in Nairobi, the Rapid Support Forces and allies had announced plans to form a parallel government. The Sudanese Armed Forces now controls the north and the east, while the Rapid Support Forces controls the south and the expansive Darfur region in the West, creating an impression of a split in Africa’s third largest country. Dagalo is a former leader of the Janjaweed, a group of Arab militias widely accused of committing mass atrocities in the Darfur region, recognized by the United Nations as genocide in 2004.
Like other churches and some mosques, the All Saints Anglican Cathedral has been caught in the fight for control of Khartoum and northeastern Sudan.
On April 15, 2023, Kondo, along with other church leaders and their families, had been in the cathedral preparing for the Sunday service when the paramilitary seized the church building and turned it into a military base. This past September, the archbishop told RNS the paramilitary had turned the cathedral compound into a graveyard, chopping pews for use as firewood.
In Sudan, an estimated 5% of the 50 million population are Christians. The rest, 95%, are Sunni Muslims.
While the war has forced the shutting of an estimated 165 churches, some mosques have also been targets. On March 24, the paramilitary allegedly shelled a mosque in Khartoum, killing at least five people and injuring dozens of others.
According to reports, the militaries have also arrested numerous Muslim clerics who have advocated for peace. At least 12 mosques in Khartoum, El Fasher and El Geneina have been affected.
“The religious sites and the clerics are being caught in the crossfire in a war between two generals who are Muslims. It is not a religious war,” said Sheikh Abdullah Kheir, an imam and a senior university lecturer in various Kenyan universities. “When you look at what is happening, it is not only Christians who are suffering, but Muslims too. I have seen Muslim women being bombed as they try to flee.”
Church sources indicate that St. Matthew’s Catholic Church in Khartoum has also been badly damaged, with the interior and exterior affected. However, the structure is still standing. The 1908 cathedral, near the El Mek Nimir Bridge, is the seat of Archbishop Michael Didi Adgum Mangoria of Khartoum. Mangoria is also living in Port Sudan after having been forced out by the war.
“The building is intact, but there are no benches in the sitting area. Instead, there is rubbish,” said the Rev. John Gbemboyo Joseph Mbikoyezu, the coordinator of the South Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
Despite persistent calls by church leaders for peace, there is no ceasefire agreement in sight, and the two generals are promising to fight on.
The exact death toll in the Sudan conflict is still unknown, but organizations have put the figure between 61,000 and 150,000 people. The conflict has displaced an estimated 12 million people and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, according to the U.N.