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VATICAN CITY – Despite being held in a cool, climate-controlled conference room, some early discussions at a Vatican-sponsored seminar on global warming and climate change got pretty heated. The rifts and tensions still dividing the global debate on the causes of and remedies for drastic climatic shifts were gently simmering in the small microcosm of the two-day Vatican meeting. The seminar, sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, gathered some 80 experts representing the scientific, political, economic and spiritual sides of the climate-change debate at the Vatican April 26-27 to discuss “Climate Change and Development.”

ST. LOUIS – Saying that it sent a “contradictory message” for a Catholic institution to raise funds by featuring a musician who supports abortion and embryonic stem-cell research, Archbishop Raymond L. Burke of St. Louis announced April 25 that he had withdrawn his support for an upcoming benefit for SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center.

VATICAN CITY – The Bible is a source of Christian unity and is evidence of Christianity’s special bond with the Jewish people, said the outline for the next world Synod of Bishops. The theme of the synod, scheduled Oct. 5-26, 2008, will be: “The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church.” While focusing specifically on the Bible, the synod’s outline emphasized Christian belief that Jesus Christ is the fullest expression of the word of God and that the entire Bible can be understood only in reference to Jesus.

When St. William of York, Baltimore, youth minister, Wayne Hipley, started his youth ministry career five years ago, he was told to “go where the kids are “– meaning find out what activities young people are interested in, what music they are listening to and what is “cool” and incorporate it into the youth group program.

On Ann Hennessy’s first day of school at St. Anthony of Padua in Baltimore during the Great Depression, the young girl knew she had better be good or her parents would suffer otherworldly consequences. The pastor had given a rabble-rousing homily a few weeks earlier warning that the flames of hell awaited parents who did not send their children to Catholic school, a theologically dubious position that has long since changed. But back then, the priest admonished that no good Catholic should allow his little ones to be educated “among the heathen.”

A funeral Mass for Sister Mary Ruth Hening, R.S.M., was offered April 28 at The Villa, Baltimore. Sister Mary Ruth died April 25. She was 93.

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Neil Lupton traveled from his home in Boston in early February to attend the Immaculate Conception, Towson, Boy Scout 50th Anniversary Celebration. It was there that he met up with four of his fellow troop members, Robert Carter, David Duley, Ed Bollinger and Michael Topper, whom he hadn’t seen for more than 45 years. The last time the whole group had been together in one place was when they were 11- years-old. Mr. Lupton, 61, said the anniversary celebration was well attended, well put together and an all around great time. He said the men sat around and reminisced about their days in the Scouts and their hiking and camping adventures.

WASHINGTON – A campaign finance reform law that limits certain types of “issue” advertising shortly before elections should not preclude ads that specifically mention a politician facing a tight election, the Supreme Court was told April 25 by the attorney representing Wisconsin Right to Life. In oral arguments on the court’s last day to hear new cases this term, attorneys for the federal government countered that ads placed by Wisconsin Right to Life about Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., were intended to persuade voters to vote against him, not simply to pressure the senator to end a filibuster against judicial nominees. That violates the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, said Solicitor General Paul Clement.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. bishops, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities USA, the National Catholic Rural Life Conference and Network, a Catholic social justice lobby, are joining more than a dozen other religious groups in advocating reforms in federal farm policy that could be implemented through the farm bill now working its way through Congress. The organizations have coalesced into a body called the Religious Working Group on the Farm Bill to propose changes in the legislation that they say would benefit farmers, rural communities and Americans’ nutritional needs.

I enjoyed reading your article “Mission for the Military,” (CR, April 5).