Science

Catholic aid organizations in the Galveston-Houston Archdiocese confirmed they cannot get to work just yet because of the power outage that left about 2.5 million people in the dark following Hurricane Beryl's landfall July 8 that cut a damaging path through eastern Texas and left at least eight people dead. Weather officials said "exceptionally warm ocean temperatures" were effectively rocket fuel for Beryl's rapid development.

Mayreu is one of the smallest inhabited islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It's so small that it's barely visible — a dot on the map of the Caribbean. Hurricane Beryl nearly erased it from the map.

In his first public address since Hurricane Beryl visited the Caribbean's Lesser Antilles region as the earliest formed Category 5 hurricane on record, the bishop of St. George's in Grenada took to social media to offer a spiritual message of hope and resilience following the July 1 landfall there.

Experts say thunderstorm-related deaths are increasing in Bangladesh due to changing weather patterns, more lightning, and deforestation that has cut down tall trees that could absorb the impact of strikes.

"I find working with youth and refugees very rewarding because both groups are eager to engage in training and are willing to learn from their peers," writes Sr. Zipporah Ngoiri Waitathu of Uganda. 

Pope Francis appointed two special commissioners to start work on building an agrivoltaic system on a Vatican property outside of Rome that could supply the whole of Vatican City's energy needs.

The coastal Nigerian community of Ayetoro was founded decades ago and nicknamed "Happy City," meant to be a Christian utopia that would be sinless and classless. But now its remaining residents can do little against the rising sea.

The pope's remarks came during an audience at the Vatican June 20 with cosmologists, theoretical physicists, astronomers and other experts who were attending a June 16-21 conference organized by the Vatican Observatory and dedicated to the latest questions, theories and research being done regarding black holes, gravitational waves and space-time singularities.