Pope John Paul II’s pontificate is now the fifth-longest in history. At the end of August, the pope surpassed the length of Pope Hadrian I's papacy; he was pope for 23 years, 10 months and 16 days in the eighth century. On Oct. 16, Pope John Paul marks the 24th anniversary of his 1978 election. Longer pontificates were those of Pope Pius VI, who ruled for 24 and one-half years in the late 1700s; Pope Leo XIII, who reigned 1878-1903; Pope Pius IX, who reigned 1846-1878; and, by tradition, St. Peter, believed to have reigned between 34 and 37 years.

Creating and storing embryos in a "human stem-cell bank" is a "morally repugnant" proposal, said Archbishop Mario Conti of Glasgow, Scotland, a member of the Joint Bioethics Committee of the bishops' conferences of England and Wales and Scotland. Britain's Medical Research Council has proposed establishing a bank of stem cells harvested from embryos. Conti said the council seems "motivated more by financial than moral considerations." He said, "These embryos are human beings, whether implanted in the womb and carried to term, or reproduced and then destroyed in the laboratory. To create embryos or pressure couples undergoing invitro fertilization treatment to donate them purely with intent to destroy them soon afterward, however well intentioned, is morally repugnant."

Four measures expanding women's access to abortion were signed by Gov. Grey Davis of California Sept. 5. The most prominent is aimed at protecting abortion in California should the US. Supreme Court one day overturn its own action upholding the procedure. The law declares that women's decisions about birth control and abortion are fundamentally private choices, protected under state privacy-rights law; it allows midwives and nurse practitioners to dispense abortion-related drugs such as RU-496. Catholic Bishop William Weigand of Sacramento, in a letter that asked the governor to exercise his power of veto, said the measure enshrines abortion as good public practice and policy in California and lowers the standard of care for women seeking a chemical abortion.

"Christian hope is the oxygen of the disciple," Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, PA, said in an address this summer to the National Association of Pastoral Musicians in Rochester, NY. He said, "Christian hope is not a superficial, blind optimism, not putting on rose-colored glasses and pretending that ‘everything will be all right.’" Trautman said that "people overwhelmed with personal problems often waiver between the two extremes of over-confidence and total discouragement." He asked: "Where do we find the balance - the help - the true meaning of Christian hope? We turn to the Gospels. Here we discover Christian hope is the art of perseverance, the courage to be in the circumstances where we find ourselves... The Gospels reveal that Christian hope is courage under pressure.

Justice Petra Jimenez Maes, the first Hispanic woman on the New Mexico Supreme Court, has been named to the U.S. bishops’ National Review Board on sexual abuse of minors. Maes is the 13th and final member of the board, established by the bishops in June during their meeting in Dallas, TX, to monitor compliance by U.S. dioceses with the bishops’ "Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People."