Copies were also sent to 1,500 Catholic hospitals and nursing homes around the country. Church leaders in Pakistan say they reject the government's power devolution plan that upholds the country's separate electorate system. A Scottish cardinal and a Vatican official denounced a recommendation by Britain's chief medical officer that scientists be allowed to conduct wider medical research by cloning human embryos.
Stem cells are embryonic cells that have the potential to develop into any of the body's cells.
Putting human faces to the themes of solidarity, reconciliation and peace, a group of young people from war-torn countries took center stage at World Youth Day 2000's main events. Father Giuseppe Pellegrini, an official at the Italian bishops' youth office, said 300 of the beneficiaries were specially chosen to take high-profile roles in the youth jubilee's main events, including sitting with the pope during the opening and closing ceremonies, as a way of bringing main themes down to earth. The government of the southern state of Kerala said in its mid-August order that the officials' actions forced investigative agencies to close the case of St. Joseph Sister Abhaya, who died in March 1992, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. Public protests from the Sister Abhaya Action Council and other groups forced the police to transfer the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation in 1997. Copyright 1990-2001 Catholic Online.