“All of us are praying for rain, but all we see are rain clouds in the distance. We never see any rain.”
— Msgr. John Anderson, vicar general for the Diocese of Las Cruces, N.M., regarding a “D4” level drought — the most intense level on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s scale — affecting most of Texas and significant portions of New Mexico and Oklahoma

“It is humbling that the Lord would use me just the way I am and that he trusts me. So I will pray that the Lord and the church won’t be disappointed in me. I will do my best.”
— Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Wypych, speaking before his Aug. 10 episcopal ordination at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago; Auxiliary Bishop Alberto Rojas was ordained at the same ceremony

“I do not consider myself a hero. If there was a hero, it was the 34th person. God brought us together. It was God who guided us through this whole journey.”
— Jose Henriquez, one of the 33 Chileans rescued last year, 69 days after a mine collapse, speaking at an Aug. 3 press preview for the new exhibit “Against All Odds: Rescue at the Chilean Mine” at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

“There are parents whose little children have died, and children who have been orphaned. They are suffering from hunger, thirst, disease and drought. We see millions of people being forced from their homes.”
— From a joint statement by Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops president, and Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., Catholic Relief Services board chairman, on the ongoing drought and famine in East Africa