Yemen accord
AN AGREEMENT has been signed by the Vatican and the Yemen to establish formal diplomatic ties, according to informed diplomatic sources, writes Bruce Johnston.
The agreement, which is expected to go into effect by the end of the year, was signed by President All Abdullah Saleh, by Yemeni foreign minister ,Abdul Karim Al Iryani, and by Mgr Jean Louis Tauran, who fills the Vatican post corresponding to that of "foreign secretary". In Yemen there are only 300 Catholics, all of them foreign workers, and four priests and 26 nuns.
Nuns accused
AN AUSTRALIAN academic claims that Australian nuns from the Order of the Sisters of Mercy publicly flogged, tortured and sexually abused hundreds of orphaned chil
SOWETO SURPRISE: President Clinton at Mass in South Africa on Sunday, where he took Communion Full story Page 1 Editorial Comment Page 4 then in their care over a 90 year period, ending in 1976. Professor Bruce Grundy of Queensland University alleged on Monday that the cruelty occurred at an orphanage in Neerkol, northern Queensland.
The nuns have apologised, but the state government is investigating.
Closer ties
AN F.XHIBITION by a Muslim artist who hopes his work will assist closer ties between Christianity and Islam was opened this week at the Gregorian University in Rome by Cardinal Arinze. Twenty-seven works featuring inscribed quotations from the Koran will be on view to members of the public for a month.
Clergy appointed
THE PoPt7, has appointed Fr Marcello Zago, 65, General Superior of the Lay Missionaries of the Virgin Mary, as the new Secretary of the Congregation of the Evangelisation of Peoples. Fr Zago is a leading expert on Buddhism.
Mgr Angelo Massafra was named Archbishop of Shkoder, in Albania.