The Catholic Leader Keeping Faith with You

TRIER, Germany (CNS): The German Cath-olic Church will require all employees who work with young people to obtain police checks and undergo psychiatric tests when necessary, under new guidelines published on August 31.

Celebrations have been held around the world for the 100th anniversary of the birth of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. CAROL ZIMMERMANN reports from Washington for Catholic News Service on Mother Teresa's legacy

PAKISTAN (ACN News): Authorities in Pakistan have been overwhelmed by the number of people displaced by the floods.

MEXICO CITY (CNS): Catholics in the north-eastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas offered prayers for the 72 undocumented migrants from Central and South America whose bodies were discovered August 24 in what was possibly the largest mass slaying since the country began cracking down on drug cartels and organised crime.

Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Baghdad is "screaming" for long-awaited peace for the Iraqi people, with the withdrawal for the last of the United States' combat troops from Iraq. CAROL GLATZ reports for Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS): Children today are maturing so quickly and are exposed to so many different influences that it might be time to consider allowing them to prepare for and receive their first Communion even before their seventh birthdays, the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments said.

TORONTO (CNS): For Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins, the fate of Iraqi Christians trapped in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon is not just another tough case in an unfair world full of too much heartbreak. For him, the situation is personal.

Cardinal John Henry Newman is to be beatified in England on September 19. PAUL DOBBYN spoke with an expert on Newman, Fr Rod Strange, when he visited Brisbane recently

HAITI (ACN News): "The people are still traumatised; the parishes have been scattered, and over half the churches are destroyed."