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VATICAN CITY – Two months after Pope Benedict XVI’s first choice as archbishop of Warsaw, Poland, resigned amid accusations of collaborating with communists, the pope named a 57-year-old bishop to take the post. Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz, who had been bishop of Koszalin-Kolobrzeg, was named archbishop of Warsaw March 3. Newspapers have published quotations from the file that communist Poland’s secret police kept on the cleric, saying that he repeatedly had refused to cooperate. A Polish priest’s new book describes how the secret police attempted over the course of 12 years to recruit Archbishop Nycz as an informer but gave up in the face of his refusals.

Testifying in favor of a constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, Richard J. Dowling told members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee it is proper to codify a historical definition of marriage that has withstood the test of time.

WASHINGTON – A Jesuit priest is to be reinstated as a chaplain at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center after a federal board ruled that he was fired because of religious discrimination. Father Henry Heffernan, 76, was ordered to be reinstated at the NIH clinic in Bethesda, Md., by the Merit Systems Protection Board, a federal agency that hears personnel disputes. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled in January that Father Heffernan was wrongly suspended and fired in 2004. The merit systems board, a quasi-judicial entity, upheld the decision in a Feb. 23 order.

For three children at Ascension School in Halethorpe, the 2006 Cardinal’s Lenten Appeal guaranteed a Catholic school education this year. The outpouring of contributions from Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore last year was just “pennies shy” of the $6 million Cardinal William H. Keeler sought for philanthropic endeavors in the region, and he is hoping to raise the full amount this year by Easter Sunday, said Kathleen M. Whitelock, marketing director for the archdiocesan Department of Development.

CHICAGO – Church teaching on end-of-life issues is much more than “dilemmas and controversies,” a priest-physician told a gathering of Catholic health care ethicists in Chicago March 1. “Don’t let people hijack our church anymore,” said Jesuit Father Myles N. Sheehan, a geriatric oncologist who is senior associate dean for educational programs at the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University Chicago.

BUCHAREST, Romania – Historians and communist-era diplomats have cast doubts on a former Romanian general’s claim that he helped with a KGB plot to portray Pope Pius XII as a Nazi sympathizer in order to weaken the Catholic Church. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, a Romanian intelligence chief under dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, said that between 1960 and 1962 he recruited three Romanian spies to disguise themselves as priests and gain access to the Vatican Secret Archives. Their objective was to steal documents for the KGB, the former Russian secret police and intelligence agency, so the documents could be manipulated as evidence against Pope Pius, who died in 1958, said Mr. Pacepa.

WASHINGTON – In a case that hinges on procedural questions of when a taxpayer has the legal standing to challenge how the administration spends money appropriated by Congress, the Supreme Court is being asked to open the door to legal fights over President George W. Bush’s faith-based initiative. The only question before the court is the fairly dry issue of whether taxpayers have standing under the Establishment Clause of the Constitution to challenge actions of the executive branch that are only indirectly financed through general appropriations by Congress.

In a press conference at Towson High School Feb. 26, St. Joseph Medical Center, Towson, The Maryland State Department of Education and Congressman Elijah Cummings announced an anabolic steroids and supplements awareness campaign. This new campaign will address the issue of anabolic steroid abuse and educate Maryland middle and high school students, parents, coaches and teachers. A new Web site, www.poweredbymemd.com, has been developed to inform individuals of the danger of steroids and supplements while offering safe alternatives. A speaker’s bureau and special events have been created to reach out to the medical community, youths, parents and educators.