News Briefs

The Rev. Scott Deeley, assistant chancellor of the Archdiocese of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, said that while the church “won’t be telling people how to vote” in the fall 2014 referendum on Scottish independence, “some bishops have indicated unofficially they’d have no problem with independence.” • Foreign Policy magazine included Pope Francis and Carolyn Woo, president and chief executive officer of Catholic Relief Services, among the 500 most powerful people in the world in its May/June issue. • Israel’s President Shimon Peres, named an honorary citizen of Assisi, Italy, on May 1, noted that St. Francis of Assisi called people “to love the faith and the poor, to pursue the value of peace and to respect nature,” precepts that are of “fundamental importance today just as they were in 1208.” • It was announced on May 3 that Pope Francis has appointed Michael Barber, S.J., director of spiritual formation at St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, Mass., to be bishop of Oakland, Calif. • The Vatican spokesperson Federico Lombardi, S.J., said on April 25 that he “would not exclude” the possibility of the publication of Pope Francis’ first