News Briefs

Church leaders in India's Orissa state have dismissed a report on anti-Christian violence there as "one-sided," "fictitious" and "premeditated." S.C. Mohapatra, the retired judge who investigated last year's violence, said in his interim report that the attacks were not sectarian but rooted in tribal land disputes, UCA News reported on July 7. • A ruling that removes a federal injunction against a parental notification law for minors seeking abortion means "for the first time in decades Illinois will enjoy an entirely reasonable, if minimal, restriction on access to abortion," said Bob Gilligan, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois on July 14. • Episcopal bishops, priests and lay delegates at their church's triennial convention in Anaheim, Calif., voted July 14 to affirm that their church believes the ordination process is open to all the baptized, including gays and lesbians. More than 70 percent of lay and clergy delegates in the church's House of Deputies approved the action according to reports. The move is certain to provoke further conflict within the Anglican Communion, which has been rocked by divisions over this and other issues. • Pope Benedict XVI underwent a procedure under local anesthesia to repair his right wrist on July 17, which he had fractured during the night of July 16-17, his personal physician said in a statement.