WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A proposed revision to the directives that guide Catholic heath care facilities would clarify that patients with chronic conditions who are not imminently dying should receive food and water by "medically assisted" means if they cannot take them normally.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (CNS) -- Catholic education administrators in Pakistan's Punjab province say their schools face huge additional security costs as the security situation in the country deteriorates. Under provincial government guidelines in the wake of recent terror attacks, schools must provide eight-foot boundary walls, surveillance cameras, metal detectors and scanners, a barbed wire perimeter, and at least two armed guards, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. "The government is providing security arrangements for its own schools.

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Although the Catholic Church shares the pain of married couples facing "unanticipated childlessness," some reproductive technologies "are not legitimate ways to solve" infertility problems, the U.S. bishops say in a document that will be before them in November.

ROME (CNS) -- Dissident theologian Father Hans Küng criticized Pope Benedict XVI for his recent opening to discontented Anglicans, charging the pope was "fishing" for the most conservative Christians to the detriment of the larger church. Father Küng said the invitation to traditionalist Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church went against years of ecumenical work on the part of both churches, calling it instead "a nonecumenical piracy of priests." The pope's basic message is: "Traditionalists of all churches, unite under the dome of St.

CHATHAM, N.J. (CNS) -- Father Edward Hinds touched many people during his 35 years of priestly life, the last six of which were spent as pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Chatham in the Paterson Diocese. His brutal murder in the rectory of St. Patrick Church Oct. 22 stunned the diocese and the nation. As parishioners, friends and brother priests mourned his sudden loss, they also remembered him fondly.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- During a special synod dedicated to peace and justice in Africa, Pope Benedict XVI named African Cardinal Peter Turkson as head of the Vatican's justice and peace council. When the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, announced the appointment Oct. 24 at the start of a synod press conference, the 61-year-old cardinal smiled broadly and giggled as journalists applauded.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (CNS) -- Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence and Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York strongly criticized remarks by Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., about the U.S. bishops' role in the health reform debate. In an interview with Cybercast News Service Oct. 22, Kennedy said the bishops were fanning "the flames of dissent and discord" by insisting that health reform not include abortion funding.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- At a Mass to close the Synod of Bishops for Africa, Pope Benedict XVI urged the church to be a model of unity and a force of reconciliation throughout the African continent. To accomplish this goal, Catholics must preach Christ as the one savior and, like him, walk the "path of service" toward the suffering populations in Africa, the pope said during the liturgy in St. Peter's Basilica Oct. 25. "The church is the family of God in which there can be no divisions based on ethnic, language or cultural groups," he said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In an atmosphere described as "cordial, respectful and constructive," Vatican officials opened a dialogue with representatives of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X and scheduled twice-a-month meetings over the coming months. In a statement issued after the first meeting at the Vatican Oct. 26, the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" said the process would focus on key doctrinal issues arising from the teachings of the Second Vatican Council.

BALTIMORE (CNS) -- A proposal requiring Baltimore pregnancy support centers to post a disclaimer telling clients they do not provide abortion or contraceptive services is harassment of the pro-life centers, say Catholic leaders. Baltimore Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien and other critics of the measure said abortion clinics are not being similarly required to list all the services they don't provide, such as infant clothes, formula and parenting classes.