In brief: Crash with semi kills extended family of 6

Elizabethtown, Ky. – Kentucky State Police were investigating whether distracted driving caused a tractor-trailer to plow into an SUV carrying eight people on Saturday, killing six and possibly triggering a serious crash on the opposite side of the highway.

The truck driver is “telling us that he saw the vehicle that was in front of him and he hit the brakes and he didn’t hit them in time,” Master Trooper Norman Chaffins said. “There was a reason for that and we’re trying to figure out what the reason was.”

The late-morning crash was followed 15 minutes later by a multivehicle crash on the opposite side of Interstate 65 that injured three people.

Chaffins said, despite snow flurries, weather was not a factor in Saturday’s crashes.

The six killed were identified as members of an extended family from Marion, Wis.

Mahony says he was invited to Vatican

Los Angeles – Responding to protests over his attendance at the conclave in Rome to elect a new pope, Cardinal Roger Mahony told Catholic News Service last week that the Vatican told him to come to Rome and participate.

“Without my even having to inquire, the nuncio in Washington phoned me a week or so ago and said, ‘I have had word from the highest folks in the Vatican: You are to come to Rome and you are to participate in the conclave,’ ” Mahony told the news service.

The retired cardinal has been under fire for his handling of sexual abuse cases, particularly his role in hiding molestations by priests from authorities. The cover-ups were revealed with the recent release of thousands of pages of detailed court documents about the cases.

Archbishop Jose Gomez, Mahony’s successor as head of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, removed Mahony from all public duties once the court documents became public.