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VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI congratulated the finance ministers of Italy, Great Britain, Canada and Russia for their efforts to promote the development of vaccines to reduce child mortality in poor countries.

There’s no bigger proponent of exercise than Kelly Wojtowicz. For some 20 years, the registered nurse and certified personal trainer has devoted herself to helping others get in shape and develop healthy lifestyles.

PITTSBURGH – Inmates at the Allegheny County Jail in downtown Pittsburgh who get accepted into a program to help them straighten out their lives know “they’ve got to put some work into it,” said the chaplain who heads the program. “It’s very much about self-discipline. They have to get up, make their beds, keep their shirts tucked in, they cannot swear. The rules are pretty stringent,” said the Rev. Lynn Yeso. The United Methodist pastor is head chaplain at the jail. For two years she has been director of Potential HOPE, which stands for Helping Open People’s Eyes.

The Loyola College Chapel Choir will sing and play in a concert featuring Catholic songwriters and performers David Haas, Lori True and Paul Tate on Feb. 23. The three composers are well-known in Catholic music, each having been published in major hymnals in the United States, said George Miller, the associate director of campus ministry and choir director at Loyola College in Maryland, Baltimore.

Having noticed that men have become a vast minority in Northeast Baltimore Catholic parishes, St. Anthony of Padua parishioner Paul Gerhardt and a group of his friends decided to unite with a mission to lure members of his gender back to church. So was born the Northeast Catholic Brotherhood a little more than a year ago, and with about 25 men from three area faith communities participating, the group has ignited a movement that inspires religious and community involvement. “We’re a pretty informal group, but we’re serious about getting men back in the church and contributing to the community at large,” said Mr. Gerhardt, 50, of Gardenville. “I’m really enthused by what we’ve accomplished in the last year and I think our outreach efforts are only going to grow.”

WASHINGTON – Young adult Catholics have a strong Catholic identity but do not feel much of a commitment to the institutional church or its moral teachings, two sociologists said Feb. 6 in Washington. The seemingly paradoxical assessment came from James A. Davidson of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., and Dean R. Hoge of The Catholic University of America in Washington at a Woodstock Forum on the campus of Georgetown University.

VATICAN CITY – A bishop can turn to Catholic lay movements not only when he needs an organized group to implement his pastoral plans, but also when he needs to care for his own soul, Pope Benedict XVI said. When a movement gathers its “bishop-friends” together, it helps them experience “a more intense communion of hearts, a stronger mutual support and a greater shared commitment to showing that the church is a place of prayer and charity, a house of mercy and peace,” the pope said. Pope Benedict spoke Feb. 8 at a joint audience for 80 bishops participating in a conference sponsored by the Focolare movement and 110 bishops attending a meeting organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio.