On Aug. 19, Fr. Anthony Narisetty, S.A.C. entered Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church for the first time in nearly a month.

Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church still stands after wildfires tragically devastated the township of Jasper, Alta., and the adjoining and renowned Jasper National Park of Canada for nearly a week late last month.

Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church withstood the devastating wildfires that ravaged the municipality of Jasper and the adjacent Jasper National Park.

Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith’s heart is with the people of Jasper, Alta., and tourists forced to evacuate from the wildfire wreaking desolation on the small alpine town and the neighbouring famous Jasper National Park since last night.

Bishop Jon Hansen spoke to an “essentially full” St. Patrick’s Co-Cathedral on Sept. 10, in front of Yellowknife Catholics eager to congregate after nearly a month of being deprived of their home and parish community due to the rampant wildfires.

Art program helps displaced northerners take their minds off wildfires.

People jumping into a lake to escape being consumed by flames. Roadways jammed with vehicles on the move. Kilometre-long line-ups to airstrips offering evacuation flights.

Wildfires wreaking devastation across British Columbia and the Northwest Territories have apparently spared Catholic churches, though numerous other buildings cannot say the same thing.

Catholic churches have thus far been spared from the more than 200 wildfires sweeping through the Northwest Territories, according to Bishop Jon Hansen of the Mackenzie-Fort Smith diocese.

"For us, it's like a miracle," Msgr. Terrence Watanabe, the Honolulu Diocese's vicar of Maui and Lanai, said about Maria Lanakila Catholic Church in the town of Lahaina being seemingly untouched by the fierce Maui wildfires Aug. 8-9.

Catholic Charities Hawai'i in the Honolulu Diocese has appealed for donations to help the agency meet housing, food and other needs of what could be thousands of victims from wildfires raging on the island of Maui that wiped out an entire town and drove people to seek refuge in the ocean.

As Nova Scotians received a welcome dose of good news on June 5 that the overall wildfire situation across the province has been contained and many of the evacuees were authorized to return to their homes, the Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth continued to call for prayer for those affected.

Heavy rainfall throughout the province of Alberta over the May long weekend potentially signaled a hopeful turning point in the effort to quell the 2023 wildfire state of emergency.

So far Catholic parishes in the path of devastating wildfires that have swept across Alberta have only been evacuated as a precaution, with no parishes reporting any damage by mid-month.