NEWS

Well, I've survived the first cut to get media accreditation to observe Pope Benedict XVI during his first visit to the United States, April 15-20, 2008. Come Tuesday, April 15, when Pope Benedict arrives at Andrews Airforce Base at roughly 4 p.m., I will be present in the U.S. capital city, well briefed and prepared to report.

This itself is no mean feat. Some 5,000 people applied to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for accreditation. I made it through the first cut. Now it's a bit of a waiting game to find out which of the Pope's dozen or so events I will be able to attend. The media folks at the USCCB are doing a bit of triage as they try to squeeze as many of us demanding journalists and observers into the actual space available at each venue. I pity them.

Well, I've survived the first cut to get media accreditation to observe Pope Benedict XVI during his first visit to the United States, April 15-20, 2008. Come Tuesday, April 15, when Pope Benedict arrives at Andrews Airforce Base at roughly 4 p.m., I will be present in the U.S. capital city, well briefed and prepared to report.

This itself is no mean feat. Some 5,000 people applied to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for accreditation. I made it through the first cut. Now it's a bit of a waiting game to find out which of the Pope's dozen or so events I will be able to attend. The media folks at the USCCB are doing a bit of triage as they try to squeeze as many of us demanding journalists and observers into the actual space available at each venue. I pity them.

{mosimage}CAPE TOWN, South Africa - Anxiety is growing in Zimbabwe, where the results of March 29 elections are not yet known and the opposition has claimed a resounding victory over President Robert Mugabe, church officials say.

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - Papal visits tend to bring out special interest groups, and one already has surfaced in the United States.

Physicians and Nurses Against Tobacco, a Rhode Island-based organization, is asking Pope Benedict XVI to support its campaign for a tobacco-free society.

{mosimage}TORONTO — The people who want to hold Ontario’s Liberal government to its poverty reduction promises are plotting their strategy April 14.

{mosimage}TORONTO — For doctors who know the opposite of medicine is not prayer, the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute has organized three days of workshops and discussion. “The Vocation of the Catholic Physician: Integrating the Practical, the Bioethical and the Spiritual” will run April 25 to 27 at the University of St. Michael’s College.

{mosimage}OTTAWA - They haven’t retired his jersey but Carleton University’s Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs is raising Christian peace activist Ernie Regehr up into its pantheon of public policy stars.

{mosimage}TORONTO - Until at least 2010 Canada’s ecumenical social justice agency is going to be thinking, talking, organizing and campaigning on one over-riding issue. From here on out it’s all about fossil fuels for KAIROS.

{mosimage}TORONTO - While the Canadian government plans to increase the number of Iraqi refugees resettled in Canada by decreasing numbers accepted from other troubled areas, the archdiocese of Toronto has doubled its overall refugee sponsorship targets in recognition of the extraordinary circumstances of approximately 4.5 million displaced Iraqis.

{mosimage}WASHINGTON  - Sen. Barack Obama's speech on race March 18 at Philadelphia's National Constitution Centre may or may not significantly affect his prospects for being elected president in November, but either way it charted a new course for how race can be discussed in the United States.