News Briefs

The Rev. Rafic Grieche, a spokesperson for the Egyptian bishops, cautiously welcomed President Mohammed Morsi’s efforts to wrest presidential powers back from the Egyptian military but noted on Aug. 16 that Morsi so far has failed to “implement any law that would please Christians.” • Margaret O’Gara, a past president of both the North American Academy of Ecumenists and the Catholic Theological Society of America, died on Aug. 16 at the age of 65 after a two-year battle with cancer. • Church sources report that government authorities in Vietnam’s Central Highlands on Aug. 12 forced ethnic villagers in the hamlet of Kon Thuc to remove Catholic pictures and items from their chapel and replaced them with images of the late communist leader Ho Chi Minh. • Six Catholic schools made it into the top 100 in Forbes magazine’s annual U.S. college and university rankings: University of Notre Dame, 12; Boston College, 26; Georgetown University, 38; College of the Holy Cross, 41; Santa Clara University, 72; and Villanova University, 83.• Joseph Cunneen, co-founder and co-editor with his late wife Sally of the Catholic journal CrossCurrents, died on July 29 at age 89.