News Briefs

Thousands are mourning the death on Feb. 13 of the Mother Teresa of Meghalaya State, Sister Amalia Pereda Ortiz de Zarate at age 84, who revolutionized health care in rural northeastern India. • María del Mar Muñoz-Visoso, assistant director of media relations at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was named executive director of the Secretariat for Cultural Diversity in the Church as of Feb. 27. • On Feb. 15 Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston called on the Senate to resolve conscience protection problems with the federal health reform law by passing the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act. • St Joseph’s Church in the Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, seized by Communist authorities in 1949, will at last be fully restored as a place of worship after a 20-year court battle that ended with possession returned to the church. • The Archdiocese of Denver’s Theology on Tap program is seeking a new venue after a lecture on religious liberty by Auxiliary Bishop James D. Conley on Jan. 26 generated consternation and complaints among some patrons and staff at the hosting tavern. • The Rev. Jeffrey N. Steenson became a monsignor and head of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston, Tex., on Feb. 12.