News Briefs

Outside the White House on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 22, members of the Catholic Worker demonstrated for repentance and conversion of “ourselves, our society and our churches to the Gospel way of justice, nonviolence and a reverence for all life and creation.” • After elevating 22 men to the rank of cardinal on Feb. 18, Pope Benedict XVI announced that Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha and Blessed Marianne Cope of Molokai would be canonized at the Vatican on Oct. 21, along with five others. • On Feb. 22 a federal court struck down a Washington State rule that requires pharmacists to dispense the morning-after pill even if it violates their religious beliefs. • Catholic Charities USA President Rev. Larry Snyder presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Nancy Wisdo, the former associate general secretary of the United States Council of Catholic Bishops, on Feb. 16. • Former Salvadoran Army Col. Inocente Orlando Montano Morales, implicated in the 1989 assassinations of six Jesuit priests, is fighting criminal charges for allegedly lying on immigration papers that have allowed him to live quietly in the United States for the last 10 years.