News Briefs

A small group of Teresian Carmelites from Kerala, India, began working in the Diocese of Bismarck, N.D., in February, the first time members of the congregation have served in the Western Hemisphere. • Jesuits in Honduras have demanded an investigation after Carlos Mejia Orellana, 35, marketing director of the Jesuit’s Radio Progreso, was stabbed to death at his home in El Progreso, on April 11. • Credere, an Italian magazine run by the Pauline Fathers, reported on April 24 that an alleged miracle needed for the beatification of Pope Paul VI would be considered by the Congregation for Saints’ Causes on May 5. • The World Day Against Malaria, April 25, draws attention to a disease that annually kills over one million people, 75 percent of whom are African children. • The apostolic nuncio to Syria, Archbishop Mario Zenari, complained on Easter Monday that many were near starvation in the Yarmouk district of Damascus because humanitarian agencies were unable to enter owing to a lack of security. • As an investigation begins into the abuse of children in western Australia, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, S.D.B., of the Archdiocese of Perth wrote to the Catholic community in April, “humbly [asking] forgiveness from those whose lives have been so deeply and badly damaged.”