BATON ROUGE, La. – The numbers are staggering. Each year in the U.S. alone, some 300,000 minors are victims of sex trafficking.

BATON ROUGE, La. – Goodbye house, car and treasured items that evoke favorite memories. Gone also for some people are their sense of safety, security and peace after August floodwaters took away much of what was familiar and dear to them in southwest Louisiana.

BATON ROUGE, La. – Water lapped at the heels of Father Michael Galea, steady rain an arduous reminder of Mother Nature's unfinished business.

BATON ROUGE, La. – As Louisiana's governor announced the federal government had declared a major disaster for the state Aug. 14, Catholic churches in the Baton Rouge Diocese called for volunteers to help those displaced by extreme flooding and asked flood victims what assistance they needed.

BATON ROUGE, La. – Jerri Marino's greatest fear was realized July 17.

BATON ROUGE, La. –As tragic events have unfolded in the Baton Rouge area, the Catholic community has been at the forefront of helping to spread the message of peace.

Earlier this month, we were driving to Minnesota to visit relatives on the night a black man was shot dead by police in a St. Paul suburb after being stopped for a broken tail light. That was a day after another black man was killed by police in Baton Rouge.

BATON ROUGE, La. – Baton Rouge Bishop Robert W. Muench renewed a call for a diocesan-wide week of prayer, fasting and reflection after the latest fatal shootings in the city, which this time took the lives of three law enforcement officers.

In the wake of a string of racially tinged shootings, majority white churches — even those quiet in past years about racial prejudice — have begun to find their voices.

BALTIMORE – The National Black Catholic Congress July 13 issued a prayer and call to action following a week of violence across the United States that saw police in Louisiana and Minnesota shoot two suspects and a sniper in Dallas kill police officers.

BATON ROUGE, La. – Bishop Robert W. Muench of Baton Rouge is urging the local community to be "ministers of healing to a hurting world" while protests are taking place about the police shooting of a black man outside a convenience store in Baton Rouge July 5.

BATON ROUGE, La. - Ten years later the memories still linger for Carol Spruell, as if they happened yesterday but perhaps were a lifetime ago.