News Briefs

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham, England (right), as archbishop of Westminster. • The Rev. Andrew Wadsworth of the Diocese of Westminster, England, has been appointed executive director of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, the body that prepares English translations of liturgical texts. • Richard J. Goldstone, the former chief prosecutor of two U.N. criminal tribunals, will lead an investigation into violations of human rights and international law during the recent conflict in the Gaza Strip. • The Council on Foreign Relations has launched a new Web page as part of its Religion and Foreign Policy Initiative: www.cfr.org/religioninitiative. • A Florida-based Christian aid agency announced it has secured the release of 69 nonviolent inmates just in time for Easter. Prisoners in Jamaica, Guyana, Haiti and Honduras who committed nonviolent offenses—but were incarcerated because they lacked funds to pay the required fines—will be released in time to spend Easter with their families. • As many as 150,000 new or returning Catholics are expected to join or return to the Catholic Church in 2009 in the United States. Many of them will do so in parishes across the country during the Easter Vigil on April 11.