NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      WASHINGTON, DC (CWNews.com) - Former US Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, 90, the author of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion on demand, died on Thursday from complications after hip replacement surgery last month.

      Blackmun was appointed to the high court by Republican President Richard Nixon in 1970 and eventually came to be acknowledged as one of the most liberal members of the court by the time he retired in 1994.

      Meanwhile in Cincinnati Father Norman Perry, 69, the long-time editor of the St. Anthony Messenger magazine, will be buried on Friday. He died of heart failure on Monday.

      Father Perry became a Franciscan in 1949 and was ordained in 1958. He joined the Messenger in 1966 as an assistant editor and was appointed editor-in-chief in 1981. He received awards for his writing from the Catholic Press Association and the Cincinnati Editors Association.