![A home fallout shelter near Akron, Mich., captured by an unknown photographer in 1960. (National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency/(397-MA-2s-160)/[VENDOR # 125])](/sites/default/files/styles/image_style_180_120/public/main_image/postwar_080_v125.jpg?itok=S-_JvGm3 "A home fallout shelter near Akron, Mich., captured by an unknown photographer in 1960. (National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency/(397-MA-2s-160)/[VENDOR # 125])")
Does Catholic social teaching permit you to mount a machine gun at the door of your family’s fallout shelter? In 1961, this was not an idle question.
U.S. and Mexican bishops urged “the administration to reverse this policy, which needlessly increases the suffering of the most vulnerable and violates international protocols.”
A combination of a rapidly growing population, extreme poverty, unemployment and armed conflict push people to cross Nigeria’s porous borders in search of a better life.
According to the National Trust for Canada, close to 9,000 churches could be closed within the next decade, citing the fact that they are becoming “surplus to the needs of society.”
Bringing their product from field to coffee bar through these fair trade networks means coffee growers in one of the poorest areas in Mexico are less vulnerable to volatile commodity market price shifts.
Over the past 110 years, the U.S. Catholic population has grown from 14.3 million to 68.5 million. There have been plenty of historical firsts and statistics of note along the way; here is a selection from the archives of America magazine.
From 1944: When President Roosevelt led the nation in prayer on D-Day's night, an event unique in modern history took place.