News Briefs

An Ethiopian priest, Tesfaye Tadesse Gebresilasie, became the first African to be elected superior general of the Comboni Missionaries on Sept. 30. • The Vatican denounced the decision by Msgr. Krzysztof Charamsa of Poland on the eve of the Synod of Bishops’ meeting on the family to announce that he is gay and in a relationship and removed him from teaching positions in Rome and from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. • Bishops in the Central African Republic worried that the pope’s November visit might be canceled after a resurgence of violence in the capital Bangui in late September left scores dead. • During a pastoral visit to the Detroit area on Sept. 19-21, the Syriac Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan issued a plea to preserve the lives and culture of Iraqi and Syrian Christians, describing conditions as “devastating and tragic…with no hope on the horizon.” • Doctors Without Borders described an errant U.S. aerial attack on Oct. 2, which struck its hospital near Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing 22 and wounding 37, as a “war crime” and demanded an independent investigation. • The House of Representatives on Sept. 29 passed the Women’s Health and Public Safety Act to give states the authority to defund Planned Parenthood.