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VATICAN CITY – Continuing an 80-year-old papal tradition, Pope Benedict XVI is canceling regular audiences and clearing his calendar to make a weeklong Lenten retreat. The spiritual exercises not only shut down the normal business of his pontificate, but also place the pope in the unusual position of doing all the listening and none of the talking. Judging from his own remarks in recent years, Pope Benedict doesn’t mind giving up center stage and reflecting on someone else’s insights.

VATICAN CITY – During a 90-minute question-and-answer session with pastors from the Diocese of Rome, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged the priests to face challenges with trust that God’s love will have the last word. The pope’s remarks were punctuated by applause and laughter, including his own, as he responded Feb. 22 to questions about youth ministry, prayer, eucharistic adoration, religious art, Scripture, theology and the activities of new church movements. The laughter and applause came not only when the pope pointed out that several of the questions were really minispeeches, but also when he confessed that he, too, found it difficult to fulfill the biblical call to work during the day and pray at night.

ST. LOUIS – The need for states to help inmates turn their lives around was a central but undisputed part of a case before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis Feb. 13. But the question before the judges, including retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, was whether it violates the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution to use a faith-based approach to facilitating prisoners’ turnaround. Americans United for Separation of Church and State had sued Prison Fellowship Ministries and the state of Iowa, charging that the ministries’ InnerChange Freedom Initiative, a faith-based prisoner rehabilitation program, violated the separation of church and state.

WASHINGTON – At the end of a Feb. 15-19 meeting in Tanzania, the primates of the world Anglican Communion warned of “fracture” in the U.S. Episcopal Church and urged it to abide by a 1998 Lambeth Conference resolution that defines marriage as heterosexual and rejects the blessing of same-sex unions. They asked the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops to “make an unequivocal common covenant” that they will not authorize blessings of same-sex unions in their dioceses. They also asked the bishops to affirm that any candidate for bishop who is living in a same-sex relationship “shall not receive the necessary consent (for ordination) unless some new consensus on these matters emerges across the communion.”

St. Ignatius, Baltimore, will celebrate its 150th Novena of Grace beginning March 4, with the traditional nine days of prayer to the Jesuit missionary St. Francis Xavier. Daily novena services will be held at the 7:25 a.m. and 12:10 p.m. Masses at the historic Calvert Street church. Missionary Francis Xavier – who was born 501 years ago – labored in India and Japan during the 16th Century.

When the Catholic Family Network began hosting its Catholic Family Expo 17 years ago, the Woodstock group had a small following of mostly home-school advocates looking to broaden their Catholic horizons. Fast forward to 2007 and the organization is planning to host more than 2,000 Catholics at its four-day expo at the Baltimore Convention Center this summer featuring local speakers, Catholic scholars from throughout the U.S. and international celebrities. The co-presidents of the non-profit organization have also helped launch similar conventions in this country and abroad, many of which are making their debut this year. “The growth is very exciting, I have to admit,” said Miki Hill, who with her husband Tim established the Catholic Family Network at their Woodstock home in 1990.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The California Catholic bishops are joining with a coalition of medical, ethical and disability rights groups to fight a new effort to legalize assisted suicide in the state. The Web site of the California Catholic Conference, the public policy agency of the state’s bishops, includes a link to Californians Against Assisted Suicide, formed to work for the defeat of AB 374, called the Compassionate Choices Act, in the California Legislature.

ROME – Pope Benedict XVI urged Catholics to rediscover the traditional “penitential weapons” of prayer, fasting and works of charity in order to make Lent a time of inner renewal. He made the comments during an Ash Wednesday Mass Feb. 21 at the Basilica of Santa Sabina in central Rome. The liturgy began with a procession from the nearby Church of St. Anselm on the Aventine Hill.

Bernard Stabb, 62, is a very healthy eater, exercises almost daily and lifts weights regularly, and he had no idea he was at risk for serious heart problems. This self-described health nut said he saw an ad in his local paper for St. Joseph Medical Center’s new online heart awareness test. After logging on to www.stjosephheartaware.com and taking the seven-minute test, which includes questions about cholesterol, blood pressure and family history, Mr. Stabb was contacted by a St. Joseph nurse. The nurse explained to him the results of the online test warranted a closer look at his heart. Immediately after his CT scan, Mr. Stabb met with a cardiologist. He had a large amount of calcium built up around his heart and yet he had no symptoms.

Her name was Jeanne Stewart. Her walk was different from the other kids. She threw her left leg out and her right hip seem to rise behind her as she labored with every step she took. The left leg was thinner then her right, and her exaggerated limp made walking a struggle. It was 1950, I was 7 years old and polio was the horrific disease of children that either killed you or left you maimed for life.