News/International

{mosimage}In the wake of what some describe as a tepid climate agreement in Copenhagen, Denmark, Catholic activists say church groups must focus on educating voters and lawmakers about climate science and policy.

Faith, economics and the environment are interconnected, Kathy McNeely of the Maryknoll Global Concerns Office , who was in Copenhagen for the first week of the UN Climate Change Conference , told Catholic News Service.

{mosimage}DUBLIN, Ireland  - Bishop Donal Murray of Limerick has resigned after weeks of pressure over his handling of clerical sexual abuse when he served in the Dublin archdiocese.

Speaking Dec. 17 after the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI had accepted his resignation, Murray told a large congregation in St. John's Cathedral in Limerick, "I humbly apologize once again to all who were abused as little children."

{mosimage}When the 2010 G8 meeting in Huntsville, Ont., morphed into a G20 meeting in Toronto, organizers of the 2010 World Religious Summit were unfazed.

“We saw this coming,” said Canadian Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton. “So we took this into consideration in the planning.”

{mosimage}A “diplomatic surge,”  including talks with willing Taliban leaders, should be the next step in Canada’s mission to Afghanistan, the majority of Canadian churches have told Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The governing council of the Canadian Council of Churches sent a letter and detailed brief to the Prime Minister Dec. 10 urging the government to invest heavily in diplomacy before Canada begins withdrawing troops in 2011.

{mosimage}McGill University has become the first Canadian academic institute, and the fourth university worldwide, to partner with the Tony Blair Faith Foundation’s Faith and Globalization Initiative and expand its research on religious issues.

The foundation was launched by former British Prime Minister Blair in May 2008 to promote respect and understanding about the world’s major religions and show how faith is a powerful force for good in the modern world. 

{mosimage}TORONTO - An Iraqi peace campaigner, on tour after receiving a Canadian human rights award, claims Christian Iraqi refugees — most of them stuck in Syria and Jordan — could safely return home to live in peace in Iraq.

“Let’s be honest. To get accepted here as a refugee, I have to talk about violence,” Ibrahim Ismaeel, chair of the board of directors of the Iraqi non-violence network La’Onf , told The Catholic Register.

{mosimage}WASHINGTON - The underlying tension between the world's largest producers of greenhouse gases and small countries quickly surfaced on the first day of the UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark.

In smaller gatherings after Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen opened the conference with the remark that "a deal is within our reach," the Alliance of Small Island States said it would accept nothing less than a legally binding pact to limit greenhouse gases. A much less demanding but politically appealing agreement would do little to protect its countries from rising sea levels, said the alliance, a coalition of 42 small island nations, low-lying coastal countries and territories.

{mosimage}VATICAN CITY - The Vatican's delegation to the UN climate summit in Copenhagen , Denmark, was being headed by an experienced diplomat and included experts on the environment.

Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican's permanent observer to the United Nations, was to lead the five-person Vatican delegation at the Copenhagen conference, Vatican Radio reported. Migliore is scheduled to speak to the UN during the Dec. 7-18 conference.

{mosimage}World leaders and negotiators participating in the UN Climate Change Conference must remember that the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people will suffer most from environmental factors, church activists say.

“This is a pivotal point for all people of faith and good will,” said Cliona Sharkey, policy and advocacy officer for CIDSE , an international network of Catholic development agencies. “We simply cannot accept the continuation of a situation that is impacting on the people who have contributed least to the problem.”

{mosimage}DUBLIN, Ireland - A report detailing failures of church leaders' handling of sex abuse cases in the archdiocese of Dublin has resulted in calls for bishops' resignations and further investigations and prosecution.

"The Dublin archdiocese's preoccupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid-1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the church, and the preservation of its assets," said the report by the independent Commission of Investigation, headed by Judge Yvonne Murphy. "All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities. The archdiocese did not implement its own canon law rules and did its best to avoid any application of the law of the state."

The report said church officials and police colluded in covering up instances of child sexual abuse by clergy.

The commission investigated the period from January 1975 to May 2004, during which time there were four Dublin archbishops: the late John Charles McQuaid, Dermot J. Ryan and Kevin McNamara and Cardinal Desmond Connell, who retired in 2004 and is now 83.