Pope continues pleas for peace
As Catholics protested the U.S.-led military action in Iraq and offered support to military men and women and their families, Pope John Paul II continued his drumbeat for peace.

At the Vatican, the pope prayed March 23 for “the gift of peace” and declared that “violence and weapons can never resolve the problems of man.”

“When, as in Iraq these days, war threatens the fate of humanity, it is even more urgent to proclaim with a strong and decisive voice that peace is the only path for building a society which is more just and marked by solidarity,” he said.

Chicagoans face war with hope, prayers
As troops began to move through the desert and bombs fell on Baghdad, members of St. Agnes of Bohemia Parish in Chicago’s Little Village took to the streets, not to protest, but to pray.

Father Matthew Foley, St. Agnes’ pastor, carried the Eucharist in a March 20 procession through the neighborhood. In addition, the parish’s Prince of Peace Adoration Chapel is open every day, and those who have family members serving in the military can put their pictures there.

Caritas treating injured on streets of Baghdad, assisting displaced
Caritas Iraq has been treating injured civilians on the streets of Baghdad and transporting the seriously wounded to local hospitals, according to a British Catholic aid agency.
The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, or CAFOD, said March 25 that staff from the Caritas Iraq health centers was providing assistance to the injured and their families and was issuing first aid kits and medical supplies to local schools and those in need.

In Basra, in southern Iraq, medical supplies provided by Caritas Iraq have been used to treat nearly 400 people, mostly women and children injured in the bombing March 22-23.

3 bishops ordained; a church rejoices
In a ceremony whose roots stretch back nearly 2,000 years, Cardinal George and more than 30 other bishops laid their hands on Chicago’s three newest auxiliary bishops, calling on the Holy Spirit to consecrate them for service to the church in March 19 ordination liturgy at Holy Name Cathedral.

Bishops Gustavo Garcia-Siller, 46, Francis J. Kane, 60, and Thomas J. Paprocki, 50, became the latest in an apostolic succession that reaches back to the time of Christ.
They were appointed to replace Auxiliary Bishops Raymond Goedert, the archdiocese’s vicar general, Thad Jakubowski and John Gorman.