Vatican: Collapse of Regime Offers Opportunity for IraqAs Baghdad and other Iraqi cities fell to U.S.-led forces, the Vatican said the collapse of President Saddam Hussein’s regime was an opportunity for the Iraqi people and offered to help in the massive humanitarian task that lies ahead. At

Experts Say New Immigration Controls Not Much HelpFormer F.B.I. and C.I.A. counterterrorism experts said on April 3 that most of the immigration restrictions imposed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have done little to improve national security and wouldn’t have kept any of the men implica

Charity Groups Protest Military Oversight of Iraqi AidThe Catholic Church’s top charity officials are protesting coalition military plans to oversee humanitarian aid distribution in Iraq, seeing it as part of a worrying trend in recent years toward militarizing aid. Two weeks into the U.S.-led

Vatican: Both Sides to Blame for Failure to DisarmExpressing deep pain at the start of U.S. military strikes on Iraq, the Vatican said both sides were to blame for failing to achieve the peaceful disarmament of Iraq under international law. In a statement on March 20, just hours after U.S. missiles

Bishops’ Conference President on War and Wartime ConductJust before the United States began war with Iraq, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops expressed “deep regret that war was not averted” and called on U.S. troops and their allies to “value the lives

Confessional Seal Under Attack In Several StatesThe crisis in the U.S. Catholic Church caused by the scandal of sexual abuse by clergy has sparked a variety of state legislative initiatives to strengthen child abuse laws, including efforts in five states to force a priest to violate the seal of conf

Papal Envoy Meets BushA papal envoy met with U. S. President George W. Bush and reiterated the Vatican’s opposition to a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, saying a war without U.N. approval would be “immoral, illegal, unjust.” Italian Cardinal Pio Laghi, who delivered a personal message f

Pope Says No to War; Church Opposition to Iraq Attack MountsIn a private audience with one of the staunchest supporters of possible military action against Iraq, Pope John Paul II urged British Prime Minister Tony Blair to make every effort to avoid war and spare the world new divisions. The encount

Vatican Backs Efforts to Prevent Iraq War, Disarm SaddamWith diplomatic moves and moral encouragement, the Vatican backed international efforts in mid-February to prevent a new war in Iraq and promote the country’s peaceful disarmament. Meanwhile, Catholic leaders and organizations joined a gr

Pope’s Envoy Presses Iraq to Cooperate With InspectorsPope John Paul II appealed again for a peaceful settlement of the crisis in Iraq and sent a high-level envoy to Baghdad to press for greater Iraqi cooperation with U.N. weapons inspectors. Cardinal Roger Etchegaray left for Baghdad on Feb.