Gaining a renewed and deeper understanding of Mary's nurturing and caring side is something he said the church, especially in today's climate, could certainly use.

Pope John Paul II described the Mafia as "a culture of death, profoundly inhuman, anti-Gospel, an enemy of human dignity and civil peace.''

The two talked about how to improve pastoral services over coffee Tuesday. Later, Ryan swore Conroy in again.

Bishop Gassis' visits came in the middle of decades of on-again, off-again fighting between the central government and several rebel movements in the South and other peripheral areas of the country.

"We are sending innocent people back to one of the most chaotic and dangerous places in the world."

These are our brothers and sisters, not freeloaders.