NEWS

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI has named U.S. Msgr. Charles J. Brown, a longtime official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as the new apostolic nuncio to Ireland.With the appointment, he was named archbishop of the titular see of Aquileia.

The appointment, announced by the Vatican Nov. 26, comes at a delicate moment in Vatican-Irish relations. In July, the Vatican recalled its previous nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, after Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny and others sharply criticized the Vatican's handling of clerical abuse.

TORONTO - After two decades of annual report cards on child and family poverty, Campaign 2000 is still waiting for the federal government to play a role in poverty reduction, said Laurel Rothman as she unveiled the 2011 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty Nov. 23.

"Don't let anybody tell you that it really is any better than in 1989 when the Parliament of Canada vowed to come up with an immediate plan," said Campaign 2000 director Rothman.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa - A 35-year-old priest was brutally murdered in South Africa's Eshowe Diocese.

The body of Father Senzo Mbokazi, parish priest of St. Pius Church in the village of Melmoth, was found Nov. 20 by parishioners waiting for him to celebrate Mass.

Father Mbokazi had been strangled and was found with his hands tied behind his back and with stab wounds on his face and neck, Bishop Xolelo Kumalo of Eshowe said in a Nov. 23 telephone interview.

GALLUP, N.M. - For some, Father Emil Kapaun may be a footnote in a conflict many have come to know as the "Forgotten War," but for John Moore of Gallup, the Korean War chaplain's heroic exploits deserve the attention of congressional and Vatican officials in a movement to have the Kansas priest honored with the Medal of Honor as well as sainthood.

For his part, Moore, 61, embarked on a 630-mile pilgrimage Sept. 11 from the National Cemetery in Santa Fe to Pilsen, Kan., Father Kapaun's rural hometown in the Wichita Diocese, where Moore arrived the morning of Nov. 11, Veterans Day.

OTTAWA - Catholic human rights advocates welcome federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson's support for a bill that would repeal Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Nicholson announced his support for Conservative MP Brian Storseth’s private member’s Bill C-304 during question period Nov. 16, when Storseth asked what the government’s position would be.

“Canadians across the country are increasingly concerned that Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act infringes upon our most important human right, namely the freedom of expression,” Storseth told the House.

OTTAWA - Opponents of euthanasia have slammed a Royal Society of Canada expert panel report advocating decriminalization of assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia.

Margaret Somerville, founding director of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, called the “End-of-Life Decision Making” report “a “pro-euthanasia manifesto” and “thinly veiled euthanasia and assisted suicide propaganda.”

The report, released Nov. 15, failed its mandate to provide a balanced review of arguments pro and con, Somerville said, adding five of the six authors are well-known euthanasia advocates.

VATICAN CITY - Mexico's high level of violence is of deep concern and will surely be addressed by Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the country next year, said a Vatican official.

The Vatican missionary news agency Fides reported that during a news conference in Merida, Mexico, Nov. 22, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to Mexico, said the Pope's visit will provide hope for the country and bring a message of "peace and encouragement" to people suffering from violence.

TORONTO - A new report says the number of abortions in Canada has fallen below 100,000, but instead of being pleased with the numbers, pro-lifers are doubting their accuracy.

Campaign Life Coalition project manager  Jack Fonseca says the studies don’t represent the national picture because there are no statistics from British Columbia, New Brunswick and Manitoba. Also, reporting is voluntary for private abortion clinics, he said.

Fonseca believes a more accurate estiamte is 106,000 abortions annually in Canada.

CHARLOTTETOWN, PEI - Pro-lifers in Prince Edward Island are taking on an aggressive campaign that aims to restore abortion services in Canada’s island province.

The PEI Reproductive Rights Organization has launched the campaign to allow abortion in PEI, a province that has been officially abortion-free since 1986. In a compromise solution reached at the time, off-island, in-hospital abortion costs are covered if the procedure is recommended by two doctors, while abortions at the private Morgentaler clinic in Fredericton, N.B., which cost roughly $800, are not covered. Travel is a personal expense.

Plans to put an outdoor, industrial recycling facility next door to the Martyrs' Shrine have shocked the Jesuits and galvanized a campaign to protect the environmentally sensitive Wye Marsh.

The Jesuits are asking Midland, Ont.'s town councillors to reverse their decision to rezone a site to allow Recycling Specialties Inc. to bring in truckloads of metal, paper, cardboard, wood, plastic and other material for sorting and processing.

Neither the Jesuits who run Martyrs' Shrine nor Sainte-Marie Among the Hurons — a provincial park built around a recreation of the first Christian settlement in Ontario and the graves of St. Jean de Brébeuf and St. Gabriel Lallemant — were notified before the zoning change on April 26.  Previously zoned highway commercial, the land directly across from the front steps of the shrine is now zoned industrial. The direct neighbours of the site fell outside of the Ontario Planning Act's mandatory 120-metre notification zone and on the other side of the town's border with the Township of Tay.