News/International

SAN SALVADOR - The Diocese of Comayagua is working with prison authorities to try to help survivors of one of the world's deadliest prison fires.

Bishop Roberto Camilleri of Comayagua, where more than 350 people died overnight Feb. 14, said he visited with survivors and took them water, "because some small aid has started to come to our diocese."

"I talked with them because our presence is important to give them spiritual support," Bishop Camilleri told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview Feb. 16.

MEXICO CITY - The prison in Comayagua, Honduras -- scene of a fire that killed more than 300 inmates -- was holding more than three times the population it was designed to house, said the prison chaplain, Father Reinaldo Moncada.

Father Moncada told Catholic News Service Feb. 15 that conditions in the prison were "inhumane" but said, unlike some other fires, it was not related to fights between rival criminal gangs inside the prison.

DUBLIN - Pope Benedict XVI's new representative to Ireland has promised to strengthen relations between the country and the Holy See.

Archbishop Charles Brown, a native of New York, spoke while presenting his credentials as apostolic nuncio to Ireland and dean of the country's diplomatic corps to President Michael Higgins.

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican budget forecast for 2012 pleased an international group of cardinals who advise the Vatican on economic matters, but the cardinals still expressed concern about the impact of the global economic crisis on central church offices.

The Council of Cardinals for the Study of the Organizational and Economic Problems of the Holy See met at the Vatican Feb. 14-15 to review the budget forecast for 2012 and the initial preparation of the final budget report for 2011.

VATICAN CITY - A Sudanese bishop said the world has forgotten people in his diocese, where thousands of people have sought shelter from a government bombing campaign and aid agencies cannot gain access.

"There is an ongoing forgotten massacre on the Nuba Mountains" where "people are dying of starvation and bombings," said Bishop Macram Max Gassis of El Obeid, Sudan.

VATICAN CITY - Strengthening its ties to the Vatican will help the United Kingdom in its efforts to confront the global challenges of poverty, arms proliferation, climate change, regional conflicts and threats to religious freedom, said a high-ranking British government official.

"The Holy See and its views can be very influential and can be very supportive of what we in Britain are trying to do," said Lord David Howell, minister of state in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

OTTAWA - A fiery debate over contraception and religious freedom has pitted the Catholic bishops in the United States against President Barack Obama’s health care policy, but a Canadian Catholic health expert said such a debate is unlikely in Canada.

Obama’s Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate would force all Catholic institutions, including universities, hospitals and charities, to offer insurance to employees that offers contraception, which is against Church teaching.

MANCHESTER, England - A "deeply intolerant" militant secularism is taking hold of Western societies, said a senior British government minister heading a delegation to the Vatican.

Such secularism "demonstrates psimilar traits to totalitarian regimes -- denying people the right to a religious identity because they were frightened of the concept of multiple identities," said Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, a Muslim. She said Europe must counter the threat by becoming "more confident and more comfortable in its Christianity."

VATICAN CITY - As a sectarian conflict in Syria intensified, Pope Benedict XVI called on all Syrians to begin a process of dialogue and reminded the government of its duty to recognize its citizens' legitimate demands.

In Beirut, the patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church warned against toppling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, calling for dialogue to solve the crisis in the country.

VATICAN CITY - A high-profile U.S. lawsuit accusing Pope Benedict XVI of covering up sexual abuse has been withdrawn.

Lawyers for the plaintiff in John Doe 16 v. Holy See filed a notice of voluntary dismissal Feb. 10, bringing the case effectively to an end.

The lawsuit was filed in April 2010 in the U.S. District Court in Milwaukee by an unnamed Illinois man who claimed he had been molested by Fr. Lawrence Murphy during the latter's time on the staff of Milwaukee's St. John's School for the Deaf. The lawsuit claimed that the Vatican "has known about the widespread problem of childhood sexual abuse committed by its clergy for centuries, but has covered up that abuse and thereby perpetuated the abuse."