Pope Francis delivers the Angelus address in St. Peter's Square, July 31, 2022. / Vatican Media
Denver Newsroom, Aug 4, 2022 / 15:12 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis has asked the Catholic Church to pray for small businesses during the month of August.
“As a consequence of the pandemic and the wars, the world is facing a grave socio-economic crisis,” the pope said in a video message released Aug. 2. “And among those most affected are small and medium-sized businesses.”
He added that “despite the difficulties, they create jobs, fulfilling their social responsibility.”
Among those hit the hardest, the pope mentions stores, workshops, cleaning businesses, transport businesses, and others “that don’t appear on the world’s richest and most powerful lists.”
The Holy Father applauded the dedication of small businesses to change things from the bottom up through “an immense creative capacity.”
“With c
An Afghan woman who escaped Kabul in July on a Special Immigrant Visa with her family is working alongside other refugees in the U.S. to resettle new arrivals.
ABC News(NEW YORK) Muzhgan Azizy escaped Kabul just weeks before the swift Taliban takeover and chaotic U.S. evacuation, but adjusting to her new freedom in America has been difficult. "The resettlement journey for me was not easy. Actually so many challenges. It was a struggle, for sure," Azizy, 36, told ABC News. "From finding a proper spot to do my grocery shopping, to paying my bill in our apartments' portal. It's like the worst only because the system in the U.S. is completely different from what I used to back home." Having worked for the U.S. State Department in Afghanistan for five years, she said she was extraordinarily grateful to obtain a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) for her husband and 13-year-old son after waiting more than three years to get approved. In July, Azizy and her immediate family went straight from Dulles International Airport in Virginia to an empty apartment she found online while still in Afghanistan, as Taliban fighters cl