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WASHINGTON – Pax Christi USA has been gathering signatures for an advertisement that will call for “a complete reversal of U.S. policy” in Iraq, including a withdrawal of U.S. troops. “The U.S. is not the honest broker who can craft peace among the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. Our continued military presence is counterproductive,” says the ad, which Pax Christi plans to run in the March 16 issue of the National Catholic Reporter. “Four years after launching an illegal and immoral war, it is time to bring the U.S. occupation of Iraq to an end,” the ad says.

Sugar seems to be in everything from fruit to candy, but are some sugars good for you and others not? According to Barbara Bailey, M.S., R.D., L.D.N., a registered dietitian at the Good Health Center and Good Samaritan Hospital in Baltimore, there are different kinds of sugars in the foods we eat. White table sugar is not the same as the sugar in a fresh orange.

Is there such a thing as a caffeine addiction? Yes, according to a growing number of governors and mayors around the country. And as with any addiction, there’s also withdrawal, according to the latest scientific research.

CHICAGO – The National Catholic AIDS Network, which recently formed a partnership with Loyola University Chicago, has announced that it will close following its 20th annual AIDS ministry conference this summer. The decision comes at a time when more and more people in the United States are living with HIV or AIDS, as the numbers of new infections are holding steady or rising and the death rate has gone down. The number of people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States is now estimated to be more than a million.

St. John Regional Catholic School, Frederick, recently spent a busy Monday reaching out to others…

Most adult Catholics get no religious instruction outside the weekend homilies, a fact that underscores the importance of your article on the need for “solid preaching not fluff” (CR, Feb. 1). I would like to add to Archbishop Dolan’s comments about the epidemic of “sanitized, feel-good, boutique, therapeutic spirituality that makes no demands, calls for no sacrifice…but only soothes and affirms.”

DUBUQUE, Iowa – The “green” efforts of students, teachers and staff at Resurrection Elementary School in Dubuque have paid off. It is the first parochial school to receive the Green Vision Education Award from the Dubuque Metropolitan Area Solid Waste Agency. It was honored for a recycling program. During ceremonies Jan. 29 in the gym, members of the solid waste agency presented the school with the Green Vision flag to hang outside the school, and a banner to display inside the building.

A funeral Mass was offered Jan. 6 at St. Francis of Assisi in Nanticoke, Penn., for Father James Schappert, S.S.J.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI will lead a full slate of Holy Week and Easter liturgies in Rome and at the Vatican, highlighting a busy papal schedule this spring. The Vatican announced Feb. 1 that the pope would preside over eight major events in the week leading up to Easter. The liturgies include a Mass April 2 commemorating the second anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s death. The pope’s Holy Week activities will begin with a procession and Mass in St. Peter’s Square on Palm Sunday, April 1.