News Briefs

The Vatican announced on July 27 that Bishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of Oakland, Calif., has been named archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. • Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, on July 13 called on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to “reinforce strongly” U.S. opposition to an Israeli commission that recommends legalizing all settlement outposts in the West Bank. • Oswaldo Payá, a prominent Cuban dissident, died in a car crash on July 22 in an incident that his family claims was “not an accident.” • While sentencing Msgr. William J. Lynn of Philadelphia to three to six years in prison for child endangerment, Judge Teresa Samina said the priest turned a blind eye to “monsters in clerical garb” who “destroyed the souls of children.”• Church leaders in India hailed the growing public demand for murder charges against those who aid and abet female feticide, a crime deep-rooted in India, which has only 914 girls for every 1,000 boys.• A federal judge in Nebraska on July 17 dismissed a lawsuit brought by seven states and a number of Nebraska-based Catholic entities that challenged new contraception requirements under the Affordable Care Act.