News Briefs

Cuba’s President Raul Castro joined that country’s Catholic bishops as they inaugurated the San Carlos and San Ambrosio Seminary on Nov. 3, the country’s first major church-related construction since the revolution. • Addressing the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace on Nov. 4, Pope Benedict XVI said that lay Catholics have a responsibility to promote social justice and charity in a world often marked by injustice and inequality. • The Vatican has asked the world’s bishops to be vigilant over the activities of Opus Angelorum, a “wayward movement” trying to revive banned practices that focus on angels. • Seventy-three percent of the British public think banks should have ethics policies that prevent them from doing business with companies with poor records on the environment and human rights or that are involved in arms manufacture. • Later this month a parish in western Poland will dedicate what it says is the world’s largest statue of Christ, 35 feet taller than the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. • Church humanitarian workers rushed aid on Nov. 8 to thousands fleeing to Thailand from Burma to escape fighting between the ethnic Karen militia and the Burmese military.