NEWS

VATICAN CITY - A few minutes after landing in Africa, Pope Benedict XVI delivered a stern warning against the "unconditional surrender to the law of the market or that of finance" in Africa and throughout the global economic system.

His words were immediately seized upon by those wondering where the German pope stood on a recent Vatican document that proposed the creation of a world political authority to regulate financial markets and rein in the "inequalities and distortions of capitalist development."

COTONOU, Benin - On a three-day visit to Benin, Pope Benedict XVI urged African Catholics to witness the hope of the Gospel in their daily lives and make the church a model of reconciliation for the entire continent.

In a particular way, the church must be "attentive to the cry of the poor, the weak, the outcast," the Pope said at a Mass Nov. 20 for more than 50,000 people who filled a stadium in Cotonou.

"I would like to greet with affection all those persons who are suffering, those who are sick, those affected by AIDS or by other illnesses, to all those forgotten by society. Have courage! The Pope is close to you in his thoughts and prayers," he said.

TORONTO - The concept of being open rather than closed to people of different faiths and backgrounds is in some ways more important than traditional left-right political distinctions, former British prime minister Tony Blair told an audience at the University of Toronto Nov. 17.

Standing alongside six young people of the Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Bahá’í faiths who are the Faiths Act "fellows" stationed in Toronto, Blair said he couldn't think of a better place to do interfaith work than in Toronto. Faiths Act is the Tony Blair Faith Foundation's multi-faith social action program with 34 fellows stationed in five countries around the world.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Serving at the Pentagon crash site and offering prayers for the dead as the remains of those killed in the 9/11 attack there were recovered, Father Robert L. Marciano will never forget the reverence with which the military cared for the remains of those lost in the line of service to their country that day.

So it came as a surprise to the chaplain when the U.S. Air Force acknowledged Nov. 8 that staff at its Dover, Del., military mortuary had lost body parts or mishandled the remains of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan after they were shipped home from the battlefield.

OTTAWA - An all-party Parliamentary committee has named effective palliative care, suicide prevention and elder abuse intervention as the three pillars of care for vulnerable Canadians.

The Parliamentary Committee on Palliative and Compassionate Care report entitled “Not to be forgotten” stresses the need for pro-active measures to make end-of-life care available across Canada.

At a news conference releasing the report Nov. 17, committee co-chair and NDP MP Joe Comartin said only 16 to 30 per cent of Canadians have any access to palliative care. 

Former parishioners at two North Bay, Ont., churches have taken their bishop to court in Rome in an attempt to force him to reopen their already closed, deconsecrated and sold churches.

The groups of former parishioners from St. Rita's and Corpus Christi have submitted long-form appeals to the Congregation for the Clergy asking that the churches be reopened for Catholic worship of some kind. The groups argue that their churches were not closed for a valid and grave reason, as required under canon law.

Leader of the Corpus Christi appeal, Phillip Penna, believes they can persuade Rome to rule in their favour because their case is exactly parallel to that of three parishes in Springfield, Mass. In early November the Apostolic Signatura (Rome's highest court) ordered that the three Spingfield churches must remain open for worship.

MONTREAL - A Quebec priest, Franciscan Father Raymond Mailhiot, has published a harrowing account of an armed holdup that he survived in Haiti.

In a long letter published on Facebook and sent to Catholic News Service, the Franciscan missionary wrote that the group of four or five heavily armed thieves in the Cite Soleil slum even cried, "Let's kill the priest!" when they discovered that the Franciscans had no money.

Mailhiot and three novices were returning from a retreat in southeastern Haiti Nov. 2 when they were surrounded as they drove along the Route de Drouillard, a notorious crime spot as it enters Port-au-Prince from the south of the country.

VATICAN CITY - Hours after the Vatican condemned an Italian ad campaign that depicted Pope Benedict XVI kissing a Muslim leader, the Italian fashion house Benetton withdrew the photo.

The campaign is titled "Unhate" and features doctored images of supposedly antagonistic world leaders in kissing scenes. The Vatican called offensive the image of Pope Benedict embracing Sheik Ahmad el-Tayeb, president of al-Azhar University in Cairo, who announced the suspension of dialogue with the Vatican earlier this year. And the Vatican has instructed its lawyers to take action to block circulation — including in the mass media — of the provocative photo montage

The ads were unveiled Nov. 16, and a few hours later the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, registered a strong protest. He condemned what he called "a completely unacceptable use of the image of the Holy Father, manipulated and exploited in the context of a publicity campaign for commercial ends."

NEW DELHI - Church leaders in Kerala state have expressed shock and outrage over the killing of Sr. Valsa John, who campaigned for tribal rights in eastern India.

Sr. John, 53, a member of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary, was hacked to death at her home in a remote area of the east Indian state of Jharkhand. Earlier reports had said the nun had been shot dead.

The Asian Church news agency UCA News cited unspecified reports that a mob of around 50 people gathered outside Sr. John's home early Nov. 16, shortly before her death.

TORONTO - Over its 10-year history, the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute has developed into a particular kind of voice in the Catholic world, said the institute's founding director, Dr. Bill Sullivan.

As a serious, scholarly and multidisciplinary enterprise, the University of Toronto-based think tank has the potential to engage debate at the leading edge of medical science on the highest levels, Sullivan told the audience attending the institute's 10th anniversary lecture Nov. 16 at Toronto's University of St. Michael's College. Constitutional lawyer Iain Benson delivered the lecture on diversity, accommodation and the law.

But the future depends on the CCBI deepening and broadening its contacts and collaborators, said Sullivan. Housed inside St. Michael's faculty of theology, the CCBI has plenty of philosophers and theologians contributing to its conferences and publications. Sullivan would like to see more scientists and doctors.