News Briefs

Vincent Long Van Nguyen, O.F.M.Conv., was appointed auxiliary bishop to the Archdiocese of Melbourne on May 20, the first Vietnamese-born and the first Asian bishop in Australia. • Pope Benedict discussed world peace and science on May 21 with 12 astronauts on board the International Space Station Discovery and spoke personally with the shuttle commander, Mark Kelly, whose wife, Representative Gabrielle Giffords, of Arizona, was shot by a gunman in January. • On May 25 Australian church leaders joined the global push for the canonization of the U.S. archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. • The Florida Commission on Human Relations found on May 13 that the Diocese of St. Augustine discriminated against Hispanic employees in a staff restructuring after a budget shortfall. • Security forces have detained 300 Tibetan monks in southwestern China since April 21 amid a crackdown sparked by a monk’s self-immolation. • Global solidarity is needed so that every country can guarantee all its citizens access to health care, Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, told the World Health Organization on May 18