News Briefs

The attorney general of Virginia, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II, issued an advisory opinion on April 8 that while “personal protection constitutes a good and sufficient reason” under commonwealth law to carry a concealed weapon into church, it was still acceptable for places of worship to restrict or ban handguns from their premises. • Roy Bourgeois, a Maryknoll priest, refused in a letter on April 11 to recant his belief that women should be ordained to the priesthood and now faces dismissal from the order and laicization. • James Martin, S.J., author of The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything and America’s culture editor, will be honored with a Christopher Award at the 62nd annual ceremony in New York on May 19. • On April 12 the Vatican ordered the former bishop of Bruges, Roger Vangheluwe, 74, who admitted to sexually abusing his nephew, to leave Belgium and undergo “spiritual and psychological treatment” as a final decision on his status was prepared. • On April 6 Virginia became the seventh state to bar abortion coverage from being offered by private insurance companies joining its proposed state-run health insurance exchange, which is mandated by last year’s health care reform legislation.