From Catholic News Service

Mexican dioceses gather info for Pope JP II's canonization

MEXICO CITY (CNS) -- The Mexican bishops' conference has embraced the process to canonize Pope John Paul II, with several dioceses gathering evidence of miracles attributed to the late pontiff. The Mexico City Archdiocese's Commission for the Causes of the Saints is preparing a book intended to support the canonization cause, the bishops' conference said June 28. Earlier the same day, the process to beatify and canonize Pope John Paul opened in Rome. "In such a short time, we already have ample information on testimonies of favors -- which the corresponding authorities will judge if they are authentic miracles -- and which would open the path toward beatification and soon afterward toward canonization," Bishop Jose Martin Rabago of Leon, president of the Mexican bishops' conference, said in a statement.

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Pope told Orthodox ready to resume dialogue

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Orthodox churches are set to revive what has been a stalled theological dialogue with the Catholic Church, said the head of an Orthodox delegation on a visit to the Vatican. "All the Orthodox churches have now responded positively to the request of the Ecumenical Patriarchate" to appoint delegates to a mixed commission on theological dialogue, said Metropolitan John of Pergamum in a June 30 address to Pope Benedict XVI. Metropolitan John was in Rome to represent Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople at the June 29 celebration of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. In a June 30 audience with Pope Benedict, Metropolitan John said the Ecumenical Patriarchate had asked the Orthodox churches to appoint two delegates each to the mixed international Catholic-Orthodox commission that had been established in 1980.

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Church leaders seek 'decisive action' by G-8 to end poverty

LONDON (CNS) -- Church leaders from the United States, Britain and Africa have called on the world's richest nations to take "decisive action" to end global poverty. Delegates attending the Transatlantic Forum on Global Poverty at Lambeth Palace, London, issued a joint declaration June 29 in which they said that "God judges nations by what they do to the poorest." The representatives of Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and evangelical churches said they met ahead of the Group of Eight summit that will run July 6-8 in Gleneagles, Scotland, to urge a stronger commitment to end extreme poverty. The summit brings together leaders of eight industrialized nations, the United States, Britain, Japan, Canada, Russia, Germany, Italy and France. "For the first time in history, humanity possesses the information, knowledge, technology and resources to bring the worst of global poverty virtually to an end," they said in a statement.

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Pilgrims return to Indian shrine, ready to move on after tsunami

VAILANKANNI, India (CNS) -- The thousands of pilgrims who come to the Basilica of Our Lady Good Health at Vailankanni are a sign that Indians are trying to move on with their lives some six months after tsunamis killed more than 1,000 people near the shrine. Many pilgrims who looked for accommodation in the scores of hotels around the basilica were disappointed in May -- when the shrine draws its largest number of pilgrims -- to find that rooms were unavailable. On a Thursday in May, which is typically a lean day at the shrine, the basilica was packed to capacity for one of four daily Masses. "All our halls (dormitories) are full. Everything is almost back to normal," said Father P. Xavier, rector of the shrine staffed by a dozen priests under the auspices of the Diocese of Thanjavur. The sprawling shrine complex has the capacity to accommodate more than 6,000 pilgrims; hotels in the area have accommodations for about 1,000 more.

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Filipino's release from Iraq leaves concerns over safety of migrants

DAVAO CITY, Philippines (CNS) -- The tearful homecoming of a Filipino accountant held hostage in Iraq for almost seven months leaves pressing concerns over the safety of migrant workers in the Mideast country. On June 27, Robert Tarongoy emerged smiling into the lounge of the international airport in Davao City, where his sisters waited to embrace him, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. "Thank God, I'm home," Tarongoy said after disembarking from the plane that brought him, his wife, his mother and his brother from Manila. He did not answer questions about the circumstances leading to his release and asked reporters to respect his privacy. The accountant entered Iraq after the Philippine government had instituted a ban on Filipinos working in the war-torn country.

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