News/International

JERUSALEM - Almost a year after the eruption of the Arab Spring uprisings, the Middle East is a place of hope and fear for Christians, said Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz.

Bishop Kicanas, chairman of the board of the U.S. bishops' Catholic Relief Services, was in Baghdad late last year and visited Egypt prior to his arrival in Jerusalem Jan. 8-12 for the annual Holy Land Coordination meeting with bishops from the United States, Canada and Europe.

"There is a fear among the Christians (in Egypt) whether they will be given human rights and whether they will be treated as equal citizens. There is a sense of wait and see," Bishop Kicanas told Catholic News Service Jan. 11.

VATICAN CITY - Along with statistics on the 22 new cardinals named by Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican press office offered journalists quick biographical notes -- mainly drawn from Wikipedia.

"If we'd had a week, we would have prepared official biographies," Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told Catholic News Service Jan. 9.

The vast majority of profiles handed out Jan. 6 were brief and factual.

QASR EL-YEHUD, West Bank - With 8-year-old grandson Jamal in tow, Hajeh Mattar made her way across a wooden platform alongside the Jordan River. Her plan: to baptize him in the waters of the river at the traditional site of Jesus' baptism.

Jamal's father, Awad, his mother, Manal, and his sister Justine, 6, followed not far behind. For Hajeh, 65, it was the opportunity to fulfill a promise she had made at the site almost a decade ago when she prayed to God to see grandchildren from her son Awad, now 35.

It was her way to observe the feast of the Baptism of the Lord Jan. 8 along with hundreds of Catholic and Orthodox pilgrims who made their way to the site.

DOMREMY, France - French President Nicolas Sarkozy praised his country's patron, St. Joan of Arc, for helping "forge the national conscience."

"For the church, Joan is a saint. For the republic, she's the incarnation of the finest French virtues, including a patriotism that consists of loving one's homeland without resenting others," the president said Jan. 6 after attending Mass at Domremy to mark the 600th anniversary of her birth.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI condemned "religiously motivated terrorism" and restrictions on religious freedom during his annual address to diplomats accredited to the Vatican.

Looking both at signs of promise and areas of concern around the globe, the Pope said human dignity, truth and justice demand governments safeguard all human life and recognize the importance of the traditional family based on the marriage of a man and a woman.

VATICAN CITY - In part to avoid giving the impression that becoming a cardinal is a sacrament or quasi-sacrament, Pope Benedict XVI will use a revised, streamlined prayer service to create 22 new cardinals in February.

"The rite used up to now has been revised and simplified with the approval of the Holy Father Benedict XVI," the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, reported Jan. 7.

The paper said there would not be a "ring Mass" the day after the consistory; the new cardinals will receive their red hats, their cardinal rings and the assignment of their titular churches in Rome during the same ceremony Feb. 18.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI's early January address to the Vatican diplomatic corps, an annual tradition that reaffirms the Holy See's commitment to its relations with foreign states, comes after an especially trying year for Vatican diplomacy.

In November, the Irish government announced that it would close its embassy to the Holy See, to continue relations through an ambassador based in Dublin. The move was ostensibly to cut costs, but its timing, closely following harsh criticisms of the Vatican's record on clerical sex abuse by the Irish prime minister and other officials, strongly suggested that it was really a political rebuke.

MANCHESTER, England - British bishops plan to use the 2012 London Olympic Games to renew interest in the Catholic faith, with initiatives ranging from fighting human trafficking and homelessness to promoting youth ministry and ecumenical dialogue.

The Bishops' Conference of England and Wales is also preparing resources for liturgies and holy hours and will post them on the Internet before the July 27-Aug. 12 games.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI named 22 new cardinals, including one from Canada and two from the United States, and announced a consistory for their formal induction on Feb. 18.

Among those named were Archbishop Thomas C. Collins of Toronto; Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York; and Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien, a former archbishop of Baltimore who now serves as grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem.

The pope's nominations included 10 Roman Curia officials and 16 Europeans, confirming a trend in his cardinal appointments since his election in 2005.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - A Honduran priest known for his work on behalf of human rights and the environment said he and two of his brothers were beaten by police as they rested along a roadside on a trip to visit their parents the day after Christmas.

Father Marco Aurelio Lorenzo told reporters of the ordeal in early January after filing a criminal complaint against eight police officers in the prosecutor's office in the northern city of San Pedro Sula, the Latin American Herald Tribune reported Jan. 5.