VATICAN CITYPope to nuns: The church needs you, you need the church Pope Francis told 800 superiors of women's orders from around the world that the Catholic Church needs religious women and that religious women need to be in harmony with the faith and teachings of the church. What would the church be without you? the pope told the women May 8.

It would be missing maternity, affection, tenderness and a mother's intuition. Religious superiors, Pope Francis said, need to ensure their members are educated in the doctrine of the church, in love for the church and in an ecclesial spirit. Quoting Pope Paul VI, he said: It's an absurd dichotomy to think one can live with Jesus, but without the church, to follow Jesus outside the church, to love Jesus and not the church. The sisters, who came from 76 countries, were in Rome for the plenary assembly of the International Union of Superiors General.

Pope Francis kisses the relics of St. Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala, also known as Madre Lupita, the Mexican co-founder of the Handmaids of St. Margaret Mary and the Poor, during her canonization Mass at the Vatican May 12. During the Mass, the pope also canonized the first Colombian saint, St. Laura Montoya, founder of the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Immaculate and of St. Catherine of Siena as well as some 800 Italians martyred by Ottoman Turks in the 15th century. CNS Photo/Tony Gentile.

VATICAN CITYPope decries ‘cult of money’Pope Francis called for global financial reform that respects human dignity, helps the poor, promotes the common good and allows states to regulate markets.

Money has to serve, not to rule, he said in his strongest remarks yet as pope concerning the world's economic and financial crises. A major reason behind the increase in social and economic woes worldwide is in our relationship with money and our acceptance of its power over ourselves and our society, he told a group of diplomats May 16.

We have created new idols where the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly humane goal. The pope made his remarks during a speech to four new ambassadors to the Vatican presenting their letters of credential.

SAO PAULONew trial in nun’s murder caseBrazil's highest court has annulled the trial of rancher Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura, convicted of masterminding the 2005 assassination of U.S.-born Sister Dorothy Stang.

The Supreme Court ruled that Moura's attorneys did not have enough time to prepare for the 2010 trial. This was the third time Moura had been tried for ordering the murder.

In 2007, Moura was sentenced to 30 years in jail for masterminding the assassination. In Brazil, if a person is sentenced for more than 20 years, he has the right to be retried with a new jury.

During the 2008 trial, Moura was declared innocent of the charges. In 2009, the verdict was annulled by the courts of the state of Para, and Moura was tried again in 2010. He was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years.

VATICAN CITYCardinal leaves Scotland for prayer, penance Scottish Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who resigned as archbishop after admitting to sexual misconduct, will leave Scotland for several months for the purpose of spiritual renewal, prayer and penance, the Vatican said.

Cardinal O’Brien decided not to participate in the last conclave after the Observer, a British weekly national newspaper, carried a story detailing complaints of three priests and one former priest who alleged he had made homosexual advances toward them.

U.S.Women superiors elect leadersDelegates to the International Union of Superiors General have elected a Maltese sister as their new president and a sister from the United States as their group's vice president.

Sister Carmen Sammut, the Maltese superior general of the Missionaries of Our Lady of Africa, was elected to a three-year term as president May 9.

U.S. Sister Sally M. Hodgdon, superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambery, was elected vice president of the group, which includes the superiors of some 1,900 religious orders of women with a total membership of about 700,000 sisters around the world.

Catholic News Service - June 5, 2013