Asia

Communists invite Pope NORTH KOREAN President Kim Jong 11 has decided to invite Pope John Paul 11 to visit his communist country after a suggestion by his south Korean counterpart Kim Dae Jung.
A government spokesman in Seoul said the President of the North asked the leader of the South to extend his invitation to the Pope during the historic Inter-Korean summit from June 13 in Pyongyang.
Peace call amid bombs
CHRISTIAN leaders in India said the recent murders of two ministers and the bombing of four Christian churches would not provoke their communities to commit violence.
"We are Indians and we love our country," Archbishop Alan De Lastic of Delhi, the
president of the Catholic bishops' conference, told Vatican Radio.
"We will avoid every act of violence, and we will never harbour any elements of revenge in our hearts," he said as he prepared to lead a Christian delegation to meet Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. "We appeal to the government to see that we can live in peace and harmony. This is our right."
Outreach in Outback
AUSTRALIAN Catholic leaders joined other Christian leaders in pledging further reconciliation with the Aborigines.
The weeklong Pilgrimage to the Heart by leaders of nine churches who visited a string of rural and outback towns culminated in a Pentecost service with members of an aboriginal community at Ayers Rock.
The pilgrims acknowledged their Churches' past failures to respect aboriginal culture, as well as their complicity in government policies for the removal of aboriginal children from their families.
They pledged to "work together for reconciliation and for the healing of our ignorance and prejudice".