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This is in response to the Ronald P. Bowers letter concerning church teaching and government obligations…

VATICAN CITY – Industrialized nations “must share clean technologies” with developing nations, as well as curb the demand for goods that damage the environment, Pope Benedict XVI said. Countries with emerging economies and undergoing rapid industrialization “are not morally free to repeat the past errors of others by recklessly continuing to damage the environment,” the pope said in a written message to environmental and religious leaders meeting in Greenland.

INDIANAPOLIS – Sam Madden likes it that when he walks through the halls of St. Roch School in Indianapolis he’s likely to see another member of his family. “It’s pretty cool,” said the 13-year-old. “You can walk down the hall and say hi to them. It brightens up the day.” The seven Madden children – ranging in age from 5 to 13 – entered St. Roch School in Indianapolis Aug. 15 to start an unforgettable school year together.

VATICAN CITY – When Pope Benedict XVI turns on the tap in his Vatican apartment, it’s a reminder that potable water is a precious resource in today’s world. The 109-acre Vatican City does not have its own water source, and it relies on Italy to furnish it with the estimated 5 million cubic meters of water consumed inside the Vatican each year. Although that arrangement is guaranteed by a 1929 treaty, in recent years some Italians have been grousing about the increasingly high cost of keeping the Vatican from going dry.

Let’s face it, if you had a bad hair day on your wedding day the groom would still marry you. Unless it was a really bad hair day … But you’ve found the perfect dress, perfect veil and perfect accessories, and you don’t want to spoil it with a less-than-perfect do. And you won’t, thanks to a trial run well before the big day itself. Michelle Sweeney laughs as she admits she perhaps went a trifle overboard by doing not one, not two, but four trial runs.

When Pete Munsey and Jannifer Anderson-Munsey exchanged marriage vows last year, they considered themselves emotionally and financially secure in making that life-long commitment to one another. And, with Mr. Munsey being 42 and Ms. Anderson-Munsey being 36 at the time of their November, 2006 nuptials, they also felt like they were mature enough for marriage.

WASHINGTON – The University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education program has been placing college graduates as volunteer teachers in Catholic schools since 1994. That means the current participants were in elementary school when the program started and could have been taught by ACE teachers.

ERIE, Pa. – Dottie and Skip Glover could have done what many couples do when they retire: travel, spend more time with friends or take up a new hobby. Instead, they enlisted with Mercy Volunteer Corps, a program of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas that invites women and men to serve people who are economically poor or marginalized. Last summer, the Glovers, now 63, rented their home in suburban Erie and, with the blessing of their four grown children, took off for a year of service in Philadelphia.

MONTCLAIR, N.J. – They’ve traveled a great distance to open doors and touch hearts, one person at a time. Sister Faustine of Jesus and Sister Jeanne Marie, from the Community of the Apostolic Sisters of St. John in Burgundy, France, recently arrived in Montclair to serve as Catholic campus ministers at Montclair State University’s Newman Center. Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, the archdiocese in which the university is located, invited the sisters to serve in the archdiocese several months ago.

Once, the most dreaded question was, “Will you be my bridesmaid?” After all, only a good friend would buy an unflattering, expensive, formal dress, wear it once in front of everyone and then never wear it again. But a trend that’s emerged in the past few years means that bridesmaids actually might be able to wear the dress again. And once they’re done with the dress, they can donate it to the Priceless Gown Project, which matches the dress with girls in Baltimore City who can’t afford a prom dress.