The Mexican Catholic bishops' conference has criticised federal police for bursting into a Mass in Mexico's western Michoacan state to apprehend an alleged drug-cartel lieutenant.
The bishops said in statement signed by Auxiliary Bishop José González González of Guadalajara, conference secretary-general that "Nothing explains this kind of action inside a religious place and much less in these moments where Mexico is noted internationally as an insecure and violent country."
The August 1 raid marked the first time that police officers have burst into a parish to arrest suspects linked to organised crime, said Father Mateo Calvillo Paz, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Morelia, which is in Michoacan.
Since then the Secretariat of Public Security apologised to the Mexican bishops' conference, Bishop Miguel Patino Velazquez of Apatzingan, and the faithful "for the circumstances in which the operation had to be carried out."
Honduran bishop defends Zelaya
Bishop Luis Santos Villeda of Santa Rosa de Copan in western Honduras said members of the country's wealthy elite were behind the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya. He also said the country needs a dialogue between the elite and Honduras' poor and working-class citizens.
"Some say Manuel Zelaya threatened democracy by proposing a constitutional assembly. But the poor of Honduras know that Zelaya raised the minimum salary. That's what they understand. They know he defended the poor." The bishop was speaking to Catholic News Service.
Albanian push for same-sex marriage
Citing the "standards of other European countries," Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha has announced that his governing party supports a bill to legalise homosexual marriage. "We cannot accept that law, we are categorically against it," said a Church spokesman in the nation's capital of Tirana.
Pope deplores latest killings
Pope Benedict XVI deplored the killing of eight Christians in Pakistan by a Muslim mob and urged the minority Christian community not to be deterred by the attack.
The Christians, including four women and a child, were either shot or burned alive on August 1 when a crowd attacked the eastern Pakistani town of Gojra, setting fire to dozens of Christian homes.
Authorities said tensions were running high in the area, fuelled by a false rumour that a Quran, the sacred book of Islam, had been desecrated. A telegram sent in the Pope's name said the pontiff was "deeply grieved to learn of the senseless attack" on the Christian community.
Christian request denied
Despite a personal request from Pope Benedict XVI and repeated requests by Christian leaders in Turkey, the Turkish government has decided that the only church in Tarsus, the city of St Paul's birth, will remain a government museum. The Church of St Paul, built as a Catholic church in the 1800s and confiscated by the government in 1943, was used throughout the 2008-2009 year of St Paul for prayer services by Christian pilgrims. After the end of the yearlong celebration commemorating the 2,000th anniversary of St Paul's birth, the Turkish government decided the building could not be used exclusively for worship.
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)