News Briefs

On April 24 more than 3,500 attended the first traditional Latin Mass in decades at Washington’s Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, celebrated by Oklahoma’s Bishop Edward J. Slattery. • Economic woes and human rights abuses have thrust Cuba into the most difficult situation “we have experienced in the 21st century,” said Havana’s Cardinal Jaime Ortega Alamino. • President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Bishop Michael J. Bransfield of Wheeling-Charleston gathered April 25 with thousands in tribute to the 29 miners who lost their lives at the Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, W.Va. • The Sisters of Notre Dame have produced an opera that tells the story of the order’s 75 years in Indonesia, performed as a fundraiser for a boarding house for girls in West Timor. • The Vatican may take legal action against a company that failed to acquire a promised forest in Hungary, a project that was supposed to make Vatican City the first carbon-neutral country in the world. • On April 22 Christians in Bhopal, India, protested attacks on prayer meetings, and on April 15, Bhopal’s Archbishop Leo Cornelio reminded the government of its “duty to protect all citizens, regardless of caste, religion or other type.”