News Briefs

Bishop álvaro Ramazzini Imeri of San Marcos, Guatemala, will receive the Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award on Oct. 2 at St. Ambrose University from Bishop Martin J. Amos of Davenport. • Hundreds of Catholics gathered at the oldest cathedral in the Americas in Columbus Plaza, in Santo Domingo’s colonial zone, on Aug. 8 to mark the 500th anniversary of the first Catholic dioceses in the Western Hemisphere. • The diocese of Da Nang in central Vietnam has pledged to continue giving material and spiritual support to people with AIDS despite the loss of funding from several foreign charities. • Nine former soldiers in El Salvador’s army surrendered on Aug. 8 to authorities, three months after their indictment in Spain for the killings in 1989 of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter. • Sister Florence Deacon, a Franciscan, is the new president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, elected at the closing of the organization’s annual assembly on Aug. 9-12. • The Princeton Review’s list of colleges with the most and least religious students scored Brigham Young University at the top; the title of “least religious school” went to Bennington College in Vermont.