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Those who complain that they don’t make quality films “like they used to” should get out more often and see what a rich palette of films – both domestic and foreign – are available, provided one chooses carefully. And, so too, the performances this past year by such present-day luminaries as Will Smith, Renee Zellweger, Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Naomi Watts and Laurence Fishburne bear favorable comparison with the stars of old. There was a surfeit of superior films in 2006, with solid moral underpinnings, so much so that narrowing the field down to 10 was more difficult than ever. From powerful anti-war films to inspirational true-life (though highly disparate) stories to a superior adaptation of a literary classic, they ran the proverbial gamut.

WASHINGTON (CNS) – A church aid worker in Darfur said 2006 was tough for humanitarian workers but noted that the United States and United Nations have increased their efforts in the western Sudanese region. Mark Snyder, head of the North Sudan program for Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ international aid and development agency, said U.N. observers and logistical staff have been deployed to Darfur. The Sudanese government has agreed to set up a “protection force,” he said, without providing further detail.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The resignation of a Polish archbishop over spying revelations has highlighted a tension between judgment and forgiveness in the church, one that has taken on new meaning in post-communist Europe. In the broadest sense, it’s a tension found in the teaching of Christ, who preached forgiveness but told his followers to “judge justly” the wrongs of society.

When they learned from a member of the board of education that local school children were returning from summer vacation thinner than when they left, parishioners of Ss. Peter and Paul in Cumberland wanted to do something about it. Working with members of nearby Emmanuel Episcopal Church, they came up with an innovative lunch box program that gets healthy food into the stomachs of hungry children. Five days a week during the summer, volunteers pack about 150 lunches that are left in a cooler at a popular playground where children take the sandwiches, apples and bananas without feeling embarrassed. The unique outreach, now entering its fourth year, is just one component of Ss. Peter and Paul’s St. Anthony Place, a growing service ministry that celebrated its 10th anniversary Jan. 7.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNS) — Retired Bishop Fernando Lugo Mendez of San Pedro, Paraguay, who resigned from active ministry to run for president, said he hopes to foster a “great social pact” to achieve national reconciliation in a country with deep divisions. “I believe in collective leadership. … I’m no messiah,” Bishop Lugo, who is leading in opinion polls, told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview in mid-January. “Paraguay has a lot of very qualified people.”

WASHINGTON (CNS) – A pro-life official of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops criticized House passage Jan. 11 of a bill that would expand federal funding of stem-cell research that involves the destruction of human embryos, but expressed confidence that an expected presidential veto of the “misguided and unethical legislation” would stand. Richard Doerflinger, deputy director of the bishops’ Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, said in a statement that the 253-174 vote indicated that there were not enough votes to override the veto that President George W. Bush has promised.