News Briefs

In a letter on Nov. 12, the Mexican bishops’ conference rebuked narcotics-trafficking cartels for their murderous ways and demanded that Mexico’s politicians crack down on corruption and impunity. • Bishop Francis An Shuxin, who spent 10 years under house arrest for refusing to join the Beijing-approved Catholic Church, said he decided to join China’s Catholic Patriotic Association to foster unity in the church. • Rabbi David Dalin called a recent, best-selling book that portrayed Pope Pius XII as a collaborator with Adolf Hitler “historically false and malicious” on Nov. 5. • Opulence and waste are unacceptable, especially when hunger continues to rise, Pope Benedict XVI said at a United Nations’ food summit in Rome on Nov. 16. • More than 20 months after the killing of Chaldean Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul, Iraq, Pope Benedict XVI approved the election of a new archbishop for Mosul, the Rev. Emil Shimoun Nona, on Nov. 13. • Commemorating the 20th anniversary on Nov. 16 of the killing of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter, the U.S. bishops called on the U.S. and Salvadoran governments to renew efforts to reduce poverty and hunger and to promote educational opportunity, human rights and the rule of law for the people of El Salvador.