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VATICAN CITY (CNS) — At first glance, the ambassadors accredited to the Vatican seem to be a group of elegant, older men gracefully ending their diplomatic careers in a posting filled with pomp and circumstance. The suits with tails, the swords, the plumed hats, sashes and medals highlight the formality of public occasions and the long tradition of nations sending envoys to the Vatican, said Giovanni Galassi, dean of the Vatican diplomatic corps and San Marino’s ambassador to the Holy See. “But we also must have something real to say; we must serve the world in some way,” Galassi said Jan. 3, the 20th anniversary of the day he presented his credentials as ambassador to Pope John Paul II.

ANNAPOLIS – With the Jan. 10 start of the 423rd session of the Maryland General Assembly, leaders of the Maryland Catholic Conference have high hopes the new legislature and the newly-elected governor will give attention to issues they believe have been neglected in recent years. Chief among them are a long-sought repeal of the death penalty, an expansion of programs benefiting the poor, the establishment of a business tax credit to help nonpublic schools and a ban on human cloning. The political lobbying arm of Maryland’s Catholic bishops will also seek $1 million for a new program aiding women in crisis pregnancies and a restoration of funding to the textbook/technology loan program for students in nonpublic schools. Although Gov.-elect Martin J. O’Malley will inherit a $1.3 billion surplus when the Democratic mayor of Baltimore leaves City Hall for Annapolis Jan. 17, long-term structural deficits are projected for coming years as the gap between revenues and spending is expected to widen. That will mean MCC leaders will spend much of their time convincing lawmakers to spare the poor and vulnerable from the budget-cutting ax.

St. Ann, Grantsville, pastor Father James Hannon, associate pastor Father Ty Hullinger, and parishioners Camilla and David Rawe stood for some time in shock Dec. 23 as they watched dozens of firefighters battle an early-morning fire at the nearly 30-year-old Garrett County church. No one was injured in the blaze, which caused thousands of dollars in damage, destroying a portion of the church. “The part of the parish plant that was used for religious education, meeting space, sacristy and liturgy space was heavily damaged by the fire,” said Father Hannon, who has served as pastor for six months. “Books, vestments, computers and many liturgical items were lost to the fire.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Executing someone guilty of a crime “is not the way to restore justice and reconcile society,” the Vatican spokesman said after Saddam Hussein was hanged Dec. 30. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi said, “A capital execution is always tragic news, a motive for sadness, even when it involves a person found guilty of serious crimes.” In a formal statement issued shortly after Saddam’s death was announced, Father Lombardi said, “The position of the Catholic Church against the death penalty has been reaffirmed many times.” The death penalty not only will not restore justice in Iraq, but also can “increase the spirit of vengeance and sow new violence,” he said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Repeating a remark he often has made since former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was captured in 2003, Cardinal Renato Martino expressed hope that the deposed dictator would not be executed. “There is no doubt” that Saddam was a ruthless dictator responsible for hundreds of deaths, said Cardinal Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. “But one does not compensate for one crime with another crime,” the cardinal told Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper Dec. 28. Iraq’s high court Dec. 26 denied Saddam’s appeal of his November conviction for killing 148 people in northern Iraq in 1982.