News/International

TORONTO - The outgoing president of the North American Academy of Liturgy and a leading Catholic liturgist has told The Catholic Register the most recent translation of the Roman Missal is "a step backwards" for ecumenical relations.

OXFORD, England - Polish Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus of Warsaw resigned just two days after formally taking office, after admitting that he acted as an informer for Poland's former communist secret police and that his co-operation harmed the church.

VATICAN CITY - 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.

ROME - Unless the Catholic Church can show the world concrete models of male-female co-operation in positions of responsibility and decision-making, the church will continue to struggle against charges that it is chauvinistic, said Mary Ann Glendon.

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican could approve the new English translation of the main Mass prayers as early as mid-2007 if the work of its advisory committee proceeds as planned, the committee said.

BEIJING, China - She sat at the hospital bed, her baby face brightening as visitors came to hold her hand, tell her stories and shower her with gifts of s'mores, pizza and, most of all, roses.

BEIJING, China - They came clutching their shopping bags, curious newcomers who pushed and shoved their way to get a closer view. As regular worshippers celebrated in silence, the visitors chatted and filed in and out of the overflowing cathedral throughout the service.

TORONTO - Canada's twin goals of military success and humanitarian aid in Afghanistan are doomed to failure, the president of Caritas Internationalis told The Catholic Register as he visited the international aid network's Canadian partner.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Closing out a four-day pilgrimage of dialogue in Turkey, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass with the tiny Christian community in Istanbul and encouraged it to live in harmony with the Muslim majority.

"Brothers and sisters, your communities walk the humble path of daily companionship with those who do not share our faith, yet profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us adore the one, merciful God," the Pope said in a sermon.

ISTANBUL, Turkey  - During his four-day trip to Turkey, Pope Benedict XVI, known for his precise and incisive words, showed he was also a master of the spontaneous gesture.

While his scholarly words in a September lecture in Germany offended millions of Muslims, his prayer in an Istanbul mosque surprised and delighted many of them.