News Briefs

In an invitation to pray with U.S. deportees, Kenneth J. Gavin, S.J., assistant international director of Jesuit Refugee Service, said, “The most forgotten and vulnerable people in our country are largely housed in detention centers run by the federal government.” • The U.S. bishops’ program First Fridays for Food Security hopes to raise awareness about domestic hunger. On First Fridays until April 6, 2012, participants will limit spending on meals to the amount specified by the U.S.D.A. Modified Thrifty Food Plan. • In Londonderry, Northern Ireland, the Rev. Michael Canny offered on April 26 to meet “Real I.R.A.” paramilitaries who have threatened to execute Catholic members of Ulster’s police service. • On April 29 a federal appeals panel reversed an earlier decision that had blocked the use of federal funds for human embryonic stem-cell research. • Fifty-two peace activists were arrested on May 2 after blocking the gate at the construction site in Kansas City, Mo., of the first nuclear weapons production facility to be built in the United States in 33 years. • The annual Spring General Assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will begin on June 15 in Seattle.