St. Mary's Church

El Arzobispo de Valencia (España), Mons. Enrique Benavent Vidal, animó a aprovechar las vacaciones de verano para profundizar en la Regla de San Benito, pues contiene “intuiciones que son útiles” para la vida diaria de todos los cristianos.

Cientos de personas se congregaron esta tarde en las inmediaciones de las Villas Pontificias de Castel Gandolfo, a unos 40 kilómetros de Roma, para dar la bienvenida al Papa León XIV, quien llegó a esta localidad italiano a orillas del lago Albano para iniciar un período de descanso estival.

El Papa León XIV ha recibido como obsequio dos vehículos eléctricos, diseñados con los más altos estándares de seguridad y sostenibilidad, que podrán ser transportados en avión y le acompañarán en sus desplazamientos internacionales.

El Papa León XIV llegará en torno a las 17:00 (hora local) a este complejo estival pontificio —situado a unos 40 km del centro de la capital italiana— donde permanecerá hasta el próximo 20 de julio. Después regresará del 15 al 17 de agosto.

Tras el rezo del ángelus de este domingo, el Papa León XIV rezó en inglés por las víctimas de las inundaciones del condado de Kerr, en el centro-sur de Texas (Estados Unidos), que han dejado más 50 muertos, entre ellos 15 niños, y decenas de desaparecidos, según el balance provisional de las autoridades locales.

El Papa León XIV explicó que la fe no consiste solo en cumplir “deberes religiosos” y dijo que el mundo y la Iglesia Católica necesitan “discípulos enamorados” que den testimonio del Reino de Dios “dondequiera que se encuentren”. 

Cada 6 de julio celebramos la fiesta de Santa María Goretti, la niña italiana de once años que fue asesinada por resistirse a ser ultrajada. María se defendió de su atacante con todas sus fuerzas y este, en represalia, le asestó varias puñaladas que la dejaron muy mal herida. Un día después fallecería en el hospital al que fue trasladada.

El Papa León XIV agradeció el trabajo que desde hace tres años lleva adelante “L’Osservatore di Strada”, la revista que es distribuida una vez al mes en la Plaza de San Pedro con el subtítulo de “El diario de la amistad social y de la fraternidad”.

La Iglesia Católica en Kerrville ha abierto las instalaciones de su gimnasio para refugiar a los damnificados a causa de las inundaciones que han afectado gravemente esta ciudad del estado de Texas.

San Antonio, Texas, Jul 5, 2025 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

Catholics are responding with prayers and aid after record-breaking flash floods in central Texas devastated communities along the area’s rivers and killed at least 27 people. 

The flash flooding began in the early hours of July 4. Heavy rainfall filled the creeks that emptied into the several rivers that wind through the normally arid hills known as the Texas Hill Country, located north and west of San Antonio and Austin.

“At this time it is unknown how many have been affected by rising water levels along rivers and creeks,” the Archdiocese of San Antonio said in a Friday statement.  

“It is our prayer that those impacted by the floods will find the strength to rebuild. We pledge to be with the people in these challenging circumstances. Let us answer Christ’s call to love one another.”

On July 4, the Catholic Charities Mobile Relief Unit turned Notre Dame Church in Kerrville into a shelter where evacuees can find food and water as well as clothing and other supplies, the archdiocese said.

San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller and Auxiliary Bishop Michael Boulette traveled to Kerrville on July 4 as well to minister to victims of the flooding.

‘Totally destroyed’

The Guadalupe River near Kerrville, Texas, rose so quickly that the National Weather Service’s evacuation orders were not issued in time to evacuate. The river swelled over 22 feet in half an hour around 4 a.m. on July 4, according to local officials, devastating parts of the towns of Hunt, Kerrville, and Comfort. 

The river washed away RV parks, cars, homes, and entire cabins at summer camps located along its banks. The total number of missing people is still unknown because of the large number of visitors to area rivers due to the Fourth of July weekend. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared a disaster for 15 counties on July 4, deploying more than 500 first responders, 14 helicopters, boats, high water vehicles, and drones. Over 850 people have been rescued as of the afternoon of July 5.

Abbott pledged at a press conference in Kerrville on Friday that rescuers “will stop at nothing” to find every victim of the catastrophic flooding. 

A girls’ Christian summer camp in the area, Camp Mystic, reported more than 23 people missing, including an entire cabin of 8- and 9- year-old girls, who are feared to have perished.

Social media was filled with images of the missing young girls on July 4. By the evening, reports began to come in of the recovery of several bodies, including some of the young girls. Rescue efforts continued throughout the night and into the morning of July 5.

Camp Mystic director Dick Eastland is also reported to have perished after attempting to rescue some of the campers, according to a parent of a camper who wished to remain anonymous. 

One camper said she was “heartbroken” but thankful to be alive, describing the camp as “totally destroyed” after her safe return to her home in Houston in the early hours of July 5.

Henry Chaudoir, 12, who was rescued from Camp La Junta, a boys’ camp in Hunt, told CNA he had prayed a decade of the rosary and the St. Michael prayer the night before the flood. He and his fellow campers felt “terrified” when flashes of lightning revealed “an ocean of water” covering the camp, he said, but he was “grateful to God to be alive.”

Chaudoir’s cousin, Jackson Adams, 18, a counselor at Camp La Junta, told CNA that he and all the other counselors decided to stay in their cabins as the water rose because of the strong current outside. 

Adams, whose 13-year-old brother Harris was also rescued from the camp, said the water “only went up to our waists in our cabin” before starting to recede. He told CNA, however, that it rose to the ceiling in another cabin filled with 7- to 9-year-old boys. The counselors lifted the boys onto the rafters, rescuing several who fell off after a wall collapsed.

Adams said the swiftly moving river carried away the Casita, a cabin that housed Camp La Junta staff. After the Casita collided with the cabin in which the boys were sitting in the rafters, it made a hole, which enabled the staff from the Casita to rescue the boys. All of them survived.

“Praise the Lord the Casita hit the cabin!” Chaudoir said.

One of the counselors from the cabin with the boys in the rafters tried to go for help but was swept off his feet by the current, Adams told CNA. The counselor caught onto a nearby tree and was rescued after several of the older counselors formed a “monkey chain” and dragged him to safety.

Adams said a young girl from Camp Mystic was carried by the river onto Camp La Junta and was rescued by the camp’s maintenance and stables director, Katie Cain. The girl said the water sucked her and “two or three” other campers out of their cabin after a counselor opened a window.

Cain also rescued most of the camp’s horses by breaking a fence, allowing them to run to safety as the waters rose.

Adams said he plans to return to Camp La Junta to assist with rescue and cleanup efforts.

One man in the town of Center Point heard a 22-year-old woman crying for help in the early hours of July 4 and called rescue workers, who plucked her from a tree she had clung to after reportedly floating more than 20 miles on the raging Guadalupe River from Hunt.

The flooding is the result of a slow-moving storm system that dumped 10-15 inches of rain on the Texas Hill Country, with some areas seeing up to 20 inches. 

The rivers continued to rise through the holiday weekend. In the early hours of Saturday, July 5, the Guadalupe River rose to a record 47.4 feet in Bergheim, Texas, about 50 miles from Kerrville.

The Llano and San Saba rivers have also risen, leading to road closures and evacuations of towns along their banks.

Tina and Luke Gunter, who live near the San Saba River about two hours north of Kerrville, had to evacuate their home after quickly rising waters dislodged part of their home and carried it away.

Neighbors allowed the Gunters, who have three young children, to stay in their guesthouse overnight, and other friends began to bring the family meals and offered other supplies.

The Gunters plan to repair their home, which they built themselves, as soon as possible.

“We will have a lot of work to do,” Tina Gunter told CNA. 

“But we are grateful we are all OK. It’s just a house. Better to lose a house than a child,” she said.