NEWS

VATICAN CITY - The people of the Ivory Coast have a right to know the truth about atrocities committed by both sides after disputed elections led to months of violence earlier this year, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Welcoming Joseph Tebah-Klah as the Ivory Coast's new ambassador to the Vatican Nov. 4, the Pope said the new government and all the country's people must make a firm commitment to promoting reconciliation between citizens who were on different sides of the dispute.

DUBLIN - Ireland will close its Embassy to the Holy See in what has been described by officials as a cost-saving measure.

Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore said the move is not a result of a recent dispute between Ireland and the Vatican, which led Italian Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, papal nuncio to Ireland, to be temporarily called back to the Vatican in late July and later reassigned to the Czech Republic. The Vatican had recalled Leanza citing "certain extreme reactions" from politicians after the Vatican was criticized in a report into the mishandling of clerical abuse in the Irish diocese of Cloyne.

TORONTO - Perhaps they weren't all saints. But they're all together in Toronto's historic St. Michael's Cemetery.

A touring Irish choir from County Galway got a glimpse at Toronto's Irish history touring the monuments at the mid-town cemetery on All Saints Day, Nov. 1. The Dunmore Church Choir was in Toronto to perform a benefit concert for L'Arche Toronto and a concert at St. Paul's Basilica. But time out to investigate the part of Irish history that had reached across the ocean in the 19th century was welcome, said tenor Martin Silke.

"We survived. They were the pioneers," said Silke. "They must have been horrendously brave people, if you can imagine crossing the ocean in a 20-metre boat into the unknown. It's important to remember."

SAO PAULO - Nineteen parishes in Sao Paulo opened their doors to collect guns and ammunition as part of the city-wide Religions United for Disarmament campaign that collected 271 firearms and 173 rounds of ammunition during nine days.

The weapons were collected during the World Week for Disarmament in late October under the direction of the Sao Paulo Metropolitan Civil Guard, the city's police force.

VATICAN CITY - World-renown physicists, who study everything from imperceptible particles to the expanding cosmos, came together for a Vatican-sponsored conference on the "new frontier of physics" -- the sub-nuclear world of electrons, hadrons and neutrinos.

From the ancient Greeks to the Nobel Prize-winning scientists of today, humanity has sought to delve into the nature and origin of matter and discover the basic building blocks of the universe.

The Pontifical Academy of Sciences provided a forum for about 52 experts to showcase the latest discoveries when it hosted an international symposium Oct. 30-Nov. 2 on the future of sub-nuclear physics and the puzzles left to piece together.

VATICAN CITY - The challenge posed to the world by the birth of its 7 billionth inhabitant isn't how to stop population growth, but to find ways to ensure the continued growth can benefit all humanity, said an article in the Vatican newspaper.

According to the United Nations, the world's population hit -- and quickly exceeded -- 7 billion Oct. 31.

At a time when people are talking again about overpopulation, "it's worth asking which overpopulation we're talking about," said Cristian Martini Grimaldi, writing on the front page of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.

OTTAWA - Human trafficking may soon join the list of crimes such as terrorism or child sex tourism that can be prosecuted in Canada even if the offence was committed in another country.

Conservative MP Joy Smith has multi-party support for her latest anti-human trafficking private member’s bill C-310, which had its first of two hours of debate Oct. 25. It would amend the Criminal Code to add human trafficking to the list of offences by Canadians or permanent residents that can be prosecuted here if committed abroad.

DUBLIN - Almost half of Irish people polled say they now have an unfavourable view of the Catholic Church.

Of those with a negative view, three-quarters cite the abuse scandals — the abuse or its cover-up — as a cause. However, 23 per cent say that their negative view is due to the Church's history and structures.

The countdown is on to a Dec. 1 D-Day for the next five years of funding for the Canadian bishops’ international development agency.

The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace has been quietly working the past two years on its proposal to spend almost $50 million of Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) money over the next five years. Development and Peace has been combining CIDA funding with donations almost since the organization was founded in 1967.

OTTAWA - Representatives of 30 faith communities and organizations have asked politicians to mine the world’s religious traditions for the spiritual resources to meet the climate change crisis.

“Climate change is a global crisis and requires global solutions that put the well-being of all people first — especially the most vulnerable,” said the Canadian Interfaith Call for Leadership on Climate Change, issued after a meeting here Oct. 23 and 24 organized by Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ).