News Briefs

The millions of refugees and migrants in the world are not numbers but “men and women, young and old, who are looking for a place they can live in peace,” Pope Benedict XVI said on Jan. 15. • On Jan. 8, the Maryknoll Sisters, the first U.S.-based congregation of women religious dedicated to foreign missions, marked its 100th anniversary with a special Mass by New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan at its world headquarters in Ossining, N.Y. • The Rev. Marco Aurelio Lorenzo, a Honduran priest known for human rights and environmental advocacy, said he and two of his brothers were beaten by police the day after Christmas during a trip to visit their parents. • Just days before authorities searched church offices in four dioceses, Belgium’s Catholic bishops pledged a “culture of vigilance” against future sexual abuse by priests and said guilty clergy must compensate their victims even if their crimes are no longer punishable by law. • Catholic bishops in Texas applauded a federal appeals court decision on Jan. 11 that allows the state to require abortion providers to offer women the opportunity to view the ultrasound images of their unborn children.