The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has three grants to combat human trafficking: one to give technical assistance; one to provide services for trafficked children; one to provide services for trafficked adults. In collaboration with Georgetown University Institute for International Migration, USCCB Migration and Refugee Services sponsored a colloquial discussion on children’s issues held in Miami. This event was part of the Technical Assistance grant activity. The proceedings have been formulated into a paper which appeared in the October issue of International Migration, the International Office of Migration journal. A brochure, Stop Trafficking of People produced last spring describes the scope of the issue www.usccb.org/mrs. "Trafficking in people is a modern day form of slavery," says Sr. Mary Ellen Dougherty, SSND, USCCB Grants Administrator. "Many Americans are unaware of the scope of the problem, but at least 20,000 people are trafficked into this country annually."

The science of human cloning may be complex, "but the issue for us is simple and straightforward," Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Vatican nuncio to the United Nations, said October 21. He addressed the General Assembly committee currently considering a convention either to prohibit all human cloning or, more likely, to prohibit only what is called reproductive cloning. All human cloning involves creating human embryos, and "the creation of human embryos is the story" of human life’s beginning, Migliore said. If a U.N. document allows human cloning for research or therapeutic purposes, it will legitimize the creation of human beings for the purpose of destroying them, he said. "If human rights are to mean anything, ... then surely no one can have the right to do such a thing," he said. The Vatican favors a U.N. ban on all human cloning.

Some 2,000 poor people who eat or sleep at facilities served by the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, attended her beatification ceremony as invited guests on October 19 in Rome. They were seated in a special section not far from royal dignitaries, and afterward they were served a luncheon at the Vatican.

John Paul II affirmed that the Year of the Rosary, which he proclaimed from October 2002 to October of 2003, has come to a close. "I am so grateful to God for this time of grace in which the entire Church community has been able to explore the value and importance of the rosary, which is a Christological and contemplative prayer."