CURRENT ISSUE:   March 10, 2008   •   VOL. 46, NO. 5   •   Oakland, CA

Vatican: baptisms using wrong words must be redone A baptism administered “in the name of the Creator, and of the Redeemer and of the Sanctifier” is not a baptism at all . . . >>>	Drop in U.S. Catholics offset by new immigrants, study says The Catholic Church has been hardest hit by the shifts in religious affiliation revealed in a new study . . .         >>>
Court hears arguments on same-sex marriage Demonstrators for and against Proposition 22, which excludes same-sex couples from state-sanctioned marriage, gathered outside the state Supreme Court building in San Francisco March 4 . . . >>>

Kidnapped in Iraq Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul, Iraq, was kidnapped Feb. 29 in Mosul after he finished leading the Way of the Cross. Three people with him were killed. Archdiocesan sources said March 3 that a ransom demand of $1 million had been made.