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WASHINGTON – A week after the Vatican announced that baptisms are invalid if they were not administered with the words “in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” the pastor at Christ the King Parish in Haddonfield, N.J., said he had not been inundated with questions from his parishioners.

OXFORD, England – Spain’s Catholic bishops have pledged to cooperate with the newly re-elected Socialist government, but a cardinal warned the church would oppose secularizing reforms.

A Canadian friend recently alerted me to an international petition being organized by Avaaz.org, a “community of global citizens who take action on the major issues facing the world today.” (According to the organization’s polyglots, “‘avaaz’…means ‘voice’ or ‘song’ in…Hindi, Urdu, Farsi, Nepalese, Dari, Turkish, and Bosnian.”) The petition asks “global citizens” around the world to participate in the 2008 U.S. presidential election by signing a petition to the remaining American presidential candidates, urging them to repudiate recent American foreign policy, which has “devastated the world’s respect for the United States as a global leader.”

In our society, there is a great emphasis placed on value. Homes, cars, jewelry – even a college education has a value or worth assigned to it. The process of determining the value of something is often predicated on what an individual is willing to pay for it. What that individual pays is referred to as the “fair market value” and is the basis of the valuation system used to set prices for nearly every commodity.

UNITED NATIONS – A March 7 forum co-sponsored by the Vatican’s Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations looked at the issues involved in the economic empowerment of women and the role Catholic organizations play in helping women have a better financial footing.

William Wells is a gentle man. He is soft spoken, and his eyes embrace you when you speak with him. This may not seem like a description of a highly successful high school basketball coach, but it is.

JERUSALEM – A Palestinian Christian must be prepared to witness to the faith by submitting to daily difficulties “or even by sacrificing his or her life,” said Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem in a pastoral letter marking the end of his patriarchal ministry.