Scottish Catholic Observer

VATICAN

Holy Father will make his second Papal trip to Africa on Friday, visiting the West African country of Benin.

Pope Benedict XVI encourages adult stem cell research.

Pope prays for diabetics during Angelus. (video)

Holy Father to use iPad to light up tallest Christmas tree. (video).

UK

Rutherglen and Cambuslang MSP James Kelly writes about anti-sectariain legislation and health initiatives in his latest blog.

A three-year outreach-campaign is being led by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, including a pilot campaign to get people back into the pews for Christmas.

US

US Catholic bishops opened a new front in their fight against abortion and same-sex marriage yesterday, recasting their opposition as a struggle for ‘religious liberty’ against a government and a culture that are infringing on the church’s rights.

Catholic Charities in Illinois, US, announced yesterday that it was ending its legal battle over the state’s civil unions law and no longer was providing state-funded services.

Catholic women gathered in Chicago, US, urged to work to end death penalty.

John F Donoghue, 83, who was a top administrator in the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, US, in the 1970s and ’80s before becoming bishop of Charlotte and later archbishop of Atlanta, died Nov. 11 at a friend’s home in Atlanta.

INTERNATIONAL

After 20 years in the Australian position, Brisbane Archbishop John Bathersby has retired.

Chile judge drops Fr Fernando Karadima abuse case.

In Australia Catholic men between 25 and 54 years were found to benefit from a wage premium of 6.7 per cent compared with men who reported a Protestant affiliation, an analysis of the Household, Income Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey found.

Kerala Catholic church in India has launched ‘Jeevasamridhi‘, a state-wide programme to felicitate families with five or four children.

AND FINALLY

An American tourist who travelled to Ireland to reconnect with her Catholic roots has snapped what she believes to be an image of the face of Jesus Christ in the Cliffs of Moher.

-Cross Wires is the Scottish Catholic Observer blog