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VATICAN CITY – Two months after taking over as head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy, Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes has issued a strong and lengthy defense of priestly celibacy. “Priestly celibacy is a precious gift of Christ to his church, a gift that must continually be meditated upon and strengthened, especially in the deeply secularized modern world,” Cardinal Hummes said. The cardinal made the comments in a full-page article he wrote for the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano. It was published Feb. 14 under the headline “The importance of priestly celibacy.”

LONDON – The size of the Catholic Church in the British capital is being boosted by waves of illegal immigrants, according to a new report. Undocumented or irregular migrants now make up more than three-quarters of the congregations of at least three London parishes, said “The Ground of Justice: The Report of a Pastoral Research Inquiry Into the Needs of Migrants in London’s Catholic Community,” published Feb. 14. Many migrants live in abject poverty and fear of deportation, said the report by the Von Hugel Institute of St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge.

VATICAN CITY – An Italian legislative proposal that would grant some legal rights to unwed couples – including same-sex partners – has set the stage for a major church-state showdown. On one side is a wide spectrum of Italian social and political forces, including many lay Catholics, who say the bill would end discrimination against unwed couples in areas of health care, pensions, housing and employment. On the other side is the Italian bishops’ conference, which has argued that the law would undermine marriage and the traditional family. Some bishops have warned Catholic legislators that they are duty-bound to vote against the proposal.

HONG KONG – Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong has reiterated the need for negotiations to resolve the issue of Catholic bishops’ ordinations in mainland China and to find a bilaterally acceptable way of normalizing relations. Cardinal Zen said illegitimate episcopal ordinations have created new obstacles for the dialogue between China and the Vatican and the normalization of their relations, and he called for an approach acceptable to both sides.

WASHINGTON – Freedom of religion, and all freedom, can be placed at risk by an “aggressive secularism” that asserts its dominance in society, Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago warned in a Feb. 13 talk at the Library of Congress. In his talk – titled “What Kind of Democracy Leads to Secularization?” – Cardinal George weighed in against both legal and cultural expressions of secularism that marginalize the importance of religion in society. It is, the cardinal said, “an issue of great importance for our life together in a democratic republic.” Religion “can remain a necessary and legitimate actor in our affairs,” he added.

PHILADELPHIA – Men and women across the country who are members of a little-known community that is open to people with disabilities – as well as those without – are imitating the crucified Christ by drawing on their own suffering to minister to others. “Handicapped people are not worthless,” said Maria Burke, 53, a parishioner at St. Catherine of Siena in Horsham who has multiple sclerosis. “We have something to give to the world. We can still contribute.” Ms. Burke is one of 24 women and six men who have become Franciscan Missionaries of Jesus Crucified, a secular institute for laypeople, many of whom have disabilities.

The Mid-Atlantic Catholic Schools Consortium (MACSC) appointed its first executive director, Dr. Mary Ellen Hrutka, former vice provost and dean of the School of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Maryland University College. The Archdiocese of Baltimore is one of six mid-atlantic dioceses in the newly formed MACSC, whose mission is to make Catholic schools the schools of choice for all Catholic families and to find solutions to common challenges shared by Catholic schools within the six archdioceses in the areas of funding, leadership and governance.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Death penalty opponents in Tennessee are applauding Gov. Phil Bredesen’s decision to temporarily halt state executions to study the state’s protocol for carrying out death sentences, but they say it “doesn’t go nearly far enough.” Alex Wiesendanger, associate director of the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing, called the move “a great first step,” but said “a full study of the entire system is needed” beyond the 90-day study of the state’s death penalty procedures.

When Speaker Nancy Pelosi proclaimed last month that this would be a Congress that remembers the children, I couldn’t help but think that this smart, savvy grandmother of 6, who now wields the most powerful gavel in the world, was forgetting someone – millions of unborn children.

There are few topics that will ignite tempers like religious beliefs, but a panel of spiritual leaders representing Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Hindus and Muslims challenged about 75 people at St. Ignatius, Baltimore, to read the holy books of faiths other than their own. Ignorance of religious beliefs has not only created friction among neighbors throughout the history of the world, it’s resulted in the war-related carnage and bloody holocaust, members of the panel agreed, during a Feb. 12 discussion called “Building Community Across Religious Lines.”