News Briefs

President Obama on June 14 nominated Ken Hackett, who served for 18 years as the president of Catholic Relief Services, to be U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. • A bill introduced by the Quebec government on June 12 that redefines palliative care to include “terminal medical sedation” and “medical aid in dying” was tabled until the fall. • Pope Francis said on June 14 that he was preparing to publish an encyclical on faith written “with four hands”—his own and those of Pope Benedict XVI. • The federal government announced on June 10 that it will comply with a judge’s ruling to allow girls of any age to buy the morning-after pill without a prescription. • Five days after his 57th anniversary as a priest, retired Auxiliary Bishop Joseph M. Sullivan of Brooklyn died on June 7 of injuries he suffered in a car accident a week earlier. • Marking the World Day Against Child Labor on June 12, Pope Francis said he hoped the international community could find more effective means to stop the exploitation of children in dangerous jobs he called “real slavery” and “a plague.”