MOSCOW (CNS) — Moscow Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz led a memorial Mass for a priest slain in his archdiocese. The Jan. 25 Mass in Moscow’s cathedral was in memory of Father Jan Hermanovski, 70, who was killed Jan. 20 after two men broke into his home in an apparent robbery attempt.

The Slovak priest was dedicated to helping the poor and marginalized; he "handed out food to the homeless at the city’s train station," the archbishop told Fides, news agency of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. "The thieves would not have found much to steal," because everything "he owned, he gave to those in need," the archbishop said in the interview, published at the Vatican Jan. 25.

"This unscrupulous crime shows us once again" how society needs the Gospel’s saving values, he added. Father Hermanovski’s funeral was scheduled in Slovakia Jan. 27 with Archbishop Kondrusiewicz presiding.

BONN, Germany (CNS) — Germany’s Catholic bishops said that 60 years after the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland, their country still faces a "long road of cleansing and dialogue." "Our nation has needed a long time to face responsibility for the monstrous crimes committed by Germans in Germany’s name — even now, the mechanisms for erasing it from our memory are still at work," the bishops’ conference said in a statement issued Jan. 25 in Bonn.

"It is our nation’s fault that Auschwitz was made possible, because few of us had the courage to resist. Our church must also take co-responsibility, recognizing the long tradition of anti-Judaism among Christians and within the church," said the statement, published to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the camp in Oswiecim, Poland.

Heads of state and church leaders gathered Jan. 27 on the site of the German-run camp, where more than 1.1 million mostly Jewish inmates were killed during World War II.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Advances in science and medicine have allowed people to live longer, but families and governments must help the elderly live those added years in a full and dignified manner, said Pope John Paul II. The 84-year-old pontiff dedicated his 2005 Lenten message to the gift of longevity. The pope told people to always "remain open and welcoming" toward older people, especially those who are weak, sick or suffering.

"The care of the elderly, above all when they pass through difficult moments, must be of great concern to all the faithful," especially in Western countries where older people often struggle to find a place in society, the pope said in his written message, released Jan. 27 at the Vatican. "Human life is a precious gift to be loved and defended in each of its stages," he said. The commandment "You shall not kill" applies to life’s very beginning at conception and to its natural end, said the message.

NEW YORK (CNS) — Cardinal Edward M. Egan of New York was upset and "terribly saddened" by the news that a first-grade girl was found murdered at a Catholic school in the archdiocese Jan. 27, his spokesman said. Joseph Zwilling said news that the body of Jerica Rhodes, 7, was found in a bathroom at Sacred Heart of Jesus School in Highland Falls reached the cardinal as he was going to the funeral of a firefighter. The cardinal immediately called the pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, Father Jack Arlotta, and expressed his sympathy, Zwilling told Catholic News Service Jan. 28. He said Cardinal Egan also directed that the counseling services of the archdiocese be made available to those at the school, and that officials of the archdiocesan education department go to the school to offer their help, Zwilling said. Police questioned the girl’s father and released him, but later took him into custody again. The girl was reportedly living with her father’s parents, but the father, Christopher A. Rhodes, 27, sometimes took the girl to school. The mother was said to be estranged from the family.

OAKLAND, Calif. (CNS) — California’s Catholic bishops and a spokesman for Catholic health care organizations in the state have expressed dismay at efforts to overturn a federal "conscience clause" protecting those who refuse to perform abortions. In a joint statement, Bishop Stephen E. Blaire of Stockton, who is president of the California Catholic Conference, and William J. Cox, president of the Alliance of Catholic Health Care, objected to a suit filed Jan. 25 by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer to challenge the clause as unconstitutional. The provision, the Hyde-Weldon Amendment, was part of the 2005 Health and Human Services appropriation bill signed by President George W. Bush Dec. 8, 2004. It states that agencies or local governments that discriminate against doctors, hospitals or programs for refusing to provide, pay for or refer for abortions may not receive funding under the act. Lockyer said the amendment would allow the U.S. government to block $49 billion in funds allocated to California if the state barred funding to a hospital or health care provider who refused to perform an emergency abortion.

PROVINCETOWN, Mass. (CNS) — Four days after seeing their vintage church go up in flames, parishioners of St. Peter’s Church in this town on the tip of Cape Cod stood and applauded when Bishop George W. Coleman of Fall River announced that a new house of worship would be built. On Jan. 29, Bishop Coleman celebrated a Mass in the parish hall that was attended by 300 people. He comforted and assured them that their parish would survive the Jan. 25 fire that destroyed their 130-year-old church. The three-alarm blaze, apparently started by an electrical problem, quickly burned through the church’s wooden structure, leading to the collapse of the roof and steeple, and leaving only the outer walls standing. But at a reception following the Mass in the parish hall, Bishop Coleman spoke optimistically about the future of the parish. "I am pleased to assure you that the church was fully insured," he said. "This parish, with the intercession of St. Peter, will build a new church building."