LOS ANGELES --- An immediate check of parishes and schools in the east San Gabriel and Pomona Valley portions of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles discovered no injuries or damage from a 5.4 earthquake that struck shortly before noon July 29, 30 miles east of downtown L.A. Although much shaking of buildings and nerves was reported, archdiocesan parishes and high schools nearest the epicenter of the quake --- three miles southwest of Chino Hills in the San Bernardino Diocese --- incurred no damages, officials told The Tidings. The same was true at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Chino Hills, one of the San Bernardino Diocese's largest parishes.

Bishop Amat hosts baseball camp
LA PUENTE --- The Hit and Run Baseball School for children in kindergarten through eighth grade will host its summer Youth Baseball Camp, Aug. 4-8 at Bishop Amat High School in La Puente. Coordinated by Andy Neto, head baseball coach at Bishop Amat, the camp will teach baseball fundamentals --- throwing, catching, hitting and running. The weeklong camp runs daily, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., and costs $200. For information, call (626) 818-3142.

Health care union says labor-friendly religious order blocking ballot
WASHINGTON (CNS) --- A health care workers union and its allies picketed a California order of women religious historically known for its support of labor causes, protesting what the union claims are harassment and intimidation tactics in an effort to keep a union from forming in several of the hospitals run by the sisters. The picketing came as the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange gathered for prayer, planning and a conference during their annual community days at their motherhouse in Orange, July 20-26. Protesters from United Healthcare Workers, employees from the St. Joseph Health System, high-profile political activists and politicians called on the nuns to allow their employees to vote if they want to form a union without coercion from their supervisors. A spokeswoman from the St. Joseph Health System told Catholic News Service July 28 the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange are not anti-union, but will not enter into a mass organizing agreement until the union can demonstrate that at least 35 percent of the employees want the union, a requirement set by the National Labor Relations Board.

Vatican tells traditionalist Anglicans it is studying unity request
OTTAWA (CNS) --- The Vatican has assured a group of traditionalist Anglicans that it is studying seriously their request for full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. Cardinal William J. Levada, head of the Vatican's doctrinal congregation, also linked the issue of corporate unity for the Traditional Anglican Communion to larger issues within the Anglican Communion. "The situation within the Anglican Communion in general has become markedly more complex," Cardinal Levada said in a letter to Archbishop John Hepworth of Blackwood, Australia, primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion. "As soon as the congregation is in a position to respond more definitely concerning the proposals you have sent, we will inform you." Last October, Traditional Anglican Communion bishops from around the world met in plenary session in Portsmouth, England, and signed a letter "seeking full, corporate, sacramental union" with the Holy See. The Traditional Anglican Communion, formed in 1990 as a worldwide body, represents so-called continuing Anglicans who left the Canterbury-led Anglican Communion over the ordination of women.

Pope prays for those who cannot take summer vacation
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) --- Before beginning his vacation, Pope Benedict XVI offered special prayers for the elderly, prisoners and the poor who do not have an opportunity for a summer period of rest and relaxation. Reciting the Angelus July 27 with visitors gathered in the courtyard of his summer villa, the pope told vacationers that he hoped they would enjoy "peaceful days of beneficial physical and spiritual relaxation." He reminded the visitors to remember "those who are not able to benefit from a period of rest and vacation; I am thinking of the sick in hospitals and convalescent homes, prisoners, the aged, those who are alone and others who pass the summer in the heat of the city," he said. The papal Angelus took place the day before he flew by plane to Bolzano in northeastern Italy and traveled by car to the seminary in nearby Bressanone, where he was scheduled to stay until Aug. 11. Located in the Italian Alps, the seminary is a place where the pope vacationed as a cardinal.

Archbishop says Iraqis must live with no idea of what future holds
ROME (CNS) --- The Chaldean Catholic archbishop of Kirkuk, Iraq, said his city was calm a day after a suicide bombing left dozens dead, but he also said people in the area are forced to live with absolutely no idea of what the future holds. "I went on the radio and said that dialogue is the only way to resolve our problems," said Archbishop Louis Sako. "I wish people would listen; I wish they would listen to the voice of conscience." Interviewed by telephone July 29, the archbishop said calm was restored to the city fairly quickly July 28 after a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a Kurdish political demonstration in Kirkuk. Archbishop Sako said demonstrators ran toward a center run by ethnic Turkmen, who thought they were under attack and began firing. Thirty-eight people were dead from the day's violence "and there are many injured," he said. The political situation in Kirkuk is in turmoil as ethnic Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen quarrel over sharing power in the region's government.

Indian Catholics express excitement over nun's upcoming canonization
BANGALORE, India (CNS) -- Indian Catholics have expressed excitement over the Oct. 12 canonization of a Franciscan Clarist nun who will be the country's first saint born of Indian parents. "This is the biggest event in the history of the church in India" because of Blessed Alphonsa Muttathupandathu's Indian heritage, said Bishop Joseph Kallarangatt of Palai in Kerala state, where the nun's shrine and tomb are located. Thousands of pilgrims flocked to the shrine in Bharananganam as her July 28 feast day approached. Father Francis Vadakkel, vice postulator and chaplain of the shrine, described the woman as "a mystic nun and all those who interacted with her could experience it." Born Aug. 19, 1910, Blessed Alphonsa was so set on becoming a nun that at the age of 14 she burned her feet in a bonfire to persuade her family to stop setting up marriage proposals for her. She joined the Franciscan Clarist Congregation at age 17. She died in 1946 at age 35 after years of poor health. Pope John Paul II beatified Blessed Alphonsa during his visit to Kerala in 1986, and Pope Benedict XVI will canonize her on Mission Sunday at the Vatican.

In the Syrian desert, the language of Jesus lives on
MAALOULA, Syria (CNS) --- Aramaic, the language of Jesus that flourished in villages thousands of years ago, is being kept alive in the Syrian desert, about an hour's drive from Damascus. Today, Aramaic is spoken in Maaloula, an ancient mountainous town with two historic monasteries, Catholic and Orthodox, both built into the cliffs. Georgette Halabi, a tour guide at St. Serge Melkite Catholic convent in Maaloula, grew up speaking Aramaic. "I don't write it," she said. "But I want to learn." Local residents' Arabic education has never offered formal instruction in written Aramaic, but they have managed to pass down the spoken language from one generation to the next -- a point of pride for Maaloulans, who are quick to note that they speak "the mother of Semitic languages." Aramaic also is spoken in two other towns in the area --- Jabaadeen and Serkha --- but with its historic churches and monasteries, Maaloula is the center of Aramaic culture.