WASHINGTON (CNS) --- In contrast to the decision of the Irish bishops' conference to request Vatican permission to move the liturgical celebration of St. Patrick's Day in 2008 to avoid a conflict with Holy Week, the feast day "will not be commemorated liturgically" in most U.S. dioceses next year, according to the U.S. bishops' Secretariat for the Liturgy. Because March 17 falls on the Monday of Holy Week next year, the Irish bishops' conference requested and received permission from the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments to move the solemnity of St. Patrick, Ireland's patron saint, to the nearest Saturday, March 15. But an earlier decision by the Vatican congregation to transfer the feast of St. Joseph in 2008 from March 19, the Wednesday of Holy Week, to March 15 "impedes the transfer of the solemnity of St. Patrick to March 15" in the United States, said an article in the liturgy secretariat's newsletter for April. The feast day may be moved to Friday, March 14, 2008, in dioceses "where St. Patrick is the principal patron of a particular church" and where "it is customarily commemorated as a solemnity," the newsletter said. The U.S. bishops have not requested such a transfer as a conference, however. "

Philippine president's agenda includes issues of concern to bishops
QUEZON CITY, Philippines (CNS) --- The agenda President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced for the second half of her term includes issues that some Philippine bishops have targeted as concerns. In her State of the Nation address July 23, Arroyo told officials and guests that her administration will focus on fighting poverty and hunger and generating foreign investments. "It is my wish that the Philippines be among the ranks of developed nations in 20 years," Arroyo said. "By then," she added, "poverty shall have been marginalized and the (formerly) marginalized raised to a robust middle class." The president's term ends in 2010.

Women face most problems after Pakistani floods, says church worker
BANGALORE, India (CNS) --- More than a month after floods in Pakistan left thousands homeless and hundreds of villages unreachable, women face the most difficulties, said a church aid worker. The majority of women are extremely weak due to a lack of sufficient food and drinking water, said Shagufda Ali, a female program manager in Pakistan for the U.S. bishops' international aid agency, Catholic Relief Services. After she visited several remote, flood-hit villages in the Turbat district, Ali told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview that women were having a hard time fetching drinking water, clearing the debris and recovering belongings from their houses damaged by the floods. "The females do not have any access to toilets," she said. "Lack of privacy and hygiene is worrying the women most." As a result, she said, women have to wait until dark for the privacy needed to take care of themselves. The women also are extremely reluctant to interact with males, so aid agencies have been employing female relief workers to help them, noted Ali.

IN CONCERT --- Award-winning vocalist Sue Ann Pinner will perform her original biographical song tribute to Pope John Paul II and other spiritually-uplifting music from her new album, "Illumination," at a free concert/CD signing at the Virgin Megastore-Sunset in Los Angeles on Aug. 12, 3 p.m. Pinner, whose best-selling recordings include "Adoremus," "Mariachi," "Ave Maria" and "Magnificat, The Divine Power of Singing," is a United Catholic Music and Video Association 2007 Unity Award nominee for Artist of the Year. She recently served as a Master of Ceremonies at the Rosary Bowl in Pasadena and was a featured soloist at Pope John Paul II's historic Mass at Dodger Stadium in 1987. Virgin Megastore-Sunset is located at 8000 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles.