News Briefs

Pro-life leaders condemned the Sept. 11 murder of a Michigan man who was protesting against abortion outside a public high school in Owosso, Mich. • Members of a U.S. Catholic bishops’ delegation visiting southern Africa said they were impressed with the church-run programs that care for AIDS orphans and those infected with H.I.V. • As part of its longterm clean-energy initiatives, the Vatican has installed high-tech solar collectors to help heat and cool its buildings. • The Catholic Task Force on Africa has launched a new Web site (www.yesafricamatters.org) to report on conditions in Africa in anticipation of the Second African Synod of Bishops to be held from Oct. 4 to 25. • The Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross, also known as the Crosiers, launched its 800th anniversary year with a Mass on Sept. 13 in St. Cloud, Minn. • At a prayer service on the eve of the opening of the 64th General Assembly, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York said the United Nations should embrace the notion of “the human person as the heart of all institutions, laws and works of society.”