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More than 10 000 Christians petition Boston College to reject Koch grant

More than 10,000 Christians have signed a petition urging officials at Boston College to reject a potential donation from the Koch Foundation toward the Jesuit university’s political science department.

The online Christian social justice organization Faithful America submitted the signatures to school administrators on December 12, arguing that accepting money from the libertarian multibillionaire Koch family is “completely antithetical to BC’s Jesuit ideals.”

George Clements noted Catholic priest dies at 87

George Clements, a civil rights activist whose life was turned into a made-for-TV movie after he became the first Catholic priest to adopt a child, died November 25 at age 87.

Clements reportedly had suffered a stroke and heart attack within the last month.

In a statement on Facebook, Michael Pfleger, senior pastor at St. Sabina Catholic Church in Chicago, called Clements “a pioneer for justice who spent his life helping people.”

“He pushed the Catholic Church to be inclusive and made black Catholics proud to be Catholic,” Pfleger said.

Mexican immigrant Jos G mez elected head of US Catholic bishops group

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops has elected as its new president Archbishop José Gómez of Los Angeles, a naturalized US citizen who emigrated from Mexico and is outspoken on immigration issues.

Gómez, 67, was elected on November 12 by a landslide on the first ballot during the bishops’ fall conference in Baltimore. The first Latino selected to hold the position, he received 176 votes, with some American bishops voting remotely from Rome. His closest competitor in the field of ten candidates received 18 votes.