News Briefs

Msgr. Francis D. Kelly, a priest of the Diocese of Worcester, Mass., was installed on Jan. 20 as a canon of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, becoming the first U.S.-born canon in almost 50 years. • Anti-abortion groups from 20 different countries launched a petition in January to ask the European Parliament to recognize that life begins at conception. • Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi assured a delegation of visiting U.S. senators in Cairo on Jan. 16 of his respect for monotheistic religions after reports surfaced of anti-Semitic statements about Jews and Zionists he made in 2010. • The number of suicide deaths in the U.S. military surged to a record 349 in 2012—more than the 295 Americans who died fighting in Afghanistan that year. • The 112th Congress, adjourned in January, was the least productive in history, with just 219 bills passed, compared to an average of 420, and the least popular, with an approval rating of 10 percent (lower than “Communism”). • After two eviction-related suicides in Spain, members of the locksmiths union in Pamplona took just 15 minutes to decide that they would no longer assist Spanish banks in the execution of evictions."ajensonpro-bold">"ajensonpro-bold">"ajensonpro-bold">"ajensonpro-bold">"ajensonpro-bold">"ajensonpro-bold">