Saint Joseph Catholic Church

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Today the Roman Martyrology commemorates the feast of recently-canonized Italian educator Saint Rosa Venerini (1656-1728), who founded Catholic schools for girls and young women during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. St. Rosa (also known as St. Rose) was declared a saint in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI, who spoke in his canonization homily of her courageous work for "the spiritual elevation and authentic emancipation of the young women of her time."

Archbishop Vincent Aind of Ranchi, the secretary-general of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), has defended India’s military strikes on Pakistani positions in the disputed province of Kashmir.

The archbishop said that India “has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution,” in attacks on what India has described as terrorist enclaves. He said that the strikes were a response to Pakistani attacks that had killed more than 20 civilians in India.

Archbishop Aind added, however, that military action was not the ideal solution to rising tensions between the two countries. “I would have preferred some diplomatic solution... rather than going to war,” he said.

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Bishop Ivan Pereira of Jammu, India reports that two children were killed by Pakistani shelling near a Catholic school in Poonch. Shells also hit a convert, causing structural damage but no casualties.

The shelling occurred in Kashmir, where Indian and Pakistani forces have exchanged fire in an escalating dispute over control of the province.

Cardinal John Njue, the retired Archbishop of Nairobi, is not participating in this week’s papal conclave, although he is eligible to vote. The cardinal says he was not invited.

Archbishop Philip Anyolo, who succeeded the cardinal in Nairobi, counters that in fact an invitation was sent through the archdiocese, and the archdiocese replied, on behalf of Cardinal Njue, that he could not travel to Rome because of health problems.

Cardinal Njue’s case is curious because for years the Vatican listed him as having been born in 1944: : a birthdate that would have made him ineligible for this year’s conclave. Only recently the Vatican updated that birthday, listing it as January 1, 1946, and making him eligible—an adjustment that now appears to have made no practical difference.