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WARSAW, Poland – Poland’s Catholic bishops criticized legislators’ rejection of proposed constitutional amendments that would have protected life from the moment of conception. “Arbitrary parliamentary arithmetic has won the upper hand over each person’s elementary right to life,” said the bishops in a statement April 13. “The church in Poland will go on supporting actions by all people of good will to care for the most defenseless,” they said. The “negative result” of the vote should not weaken “efforts to obtain agreement in the Polish parliament on such a fundamental question for our nation’s future as the inviolability of human life.”

COLOGNE, Germany – Pope Benedict XVI has said that he sees no conflict between faith and science in the exploration of the universe’s development, but he has criticized those who see evolution as an explanation for everything. The remarks, made in a discussion he hosted at Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, with some of his former students in September last year, have been published in a German book titled “Schoepfung und Evolution” (“Creation and Evolution”). The book was published April 11 by the Sankt Ulrich Verlag publishing house.

JERUSALEM – In a reversal of an earlier decision, the papal nuncio to Israel attended a Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial ceremony after receiving a personal letter from the memorial’s chairman. Archbishop Antonio Franco said he decided to attend the ceremony April 15, the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, after receiving assurances from Chairman Avner Shalev regarding the memorial’s willingness to review any new documentation regarding Pope Pius XII’s actions during the Holocaust.

The St. Matthew, Northwood, Immigration Center is holding a fundraiser April 23 at Gertrude’s Restaurant at the Baltimore Museum of Art in Charles Village called “Savor the World,” and it will celebrate a menagerie of cultures.

When Tonya Watts was growing up, her father sold drugs and her home was never a very responsible place to be. She became addicted to drugs and it wasn’t until years later that she realized she needed help to get her life back together. “I started to feel like I was losing my spirit,” said Ms. Watts, 35. “I thought there was something bigger in life for me.”

The April 29 inauguration of a Nigerian woman’s group is expected to attract about 40 natives of the African nation to St. Matthew, Northwood, in an effort to foster moral and Christian family values and help new immigrants adjust to life in the United States. The women of the Nigerian Igbo Catholic Community have been preparing for the 1:30 p.m. foundational ceremony of the Catholic Woman’s Organization for the past two years.

Fallston resident Marge Rupp sees no reason to end her 40 years of work at St. Michael the Archangel School, Overlea, just because she recently celebrated her 80th birthday.

All it takes to make Maureen Cannon cry is a good country or love song, especially “if I couple it with another situation going on in my life,” said the St. Francis Xavier, Hunt Valley, parishioner. “I think it’s extremely therapeutic to cry. Once I’ve cried, I have a better perspective and outlook on a situation.”

CHICAGO – Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George returned home from the hospital on Easter after falling and breaking the upper part of his right leg while blessing food baskets a day earlier. Cardinal George, 70, apparently slipped on water on the marble floor at St. Ferdinand Catholic Church April 7, landing on his hip and breaking the top of his femur, according to an April 9 statement from the archdiocese. Cardinal George uses a brace on his right leg because of complications from polio and has said it’s not uncommon for him to fall because of the brace, so he resumed the service. As that proved painful, however, he later was taken to the Loyola University Medical Center, where the break was found.