Pope Benedict XVI urged international leaders to tackle global poverty "with courage" when they meet at the United Nations to verify implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. Despite the current global financial crisis, the poor must not be forgotten, he told pilgrims Sept. 21 at his residence in Castel Gandolfo outside Rome. He also sent greetings to Caribbean nations and coastal states in the U.S. battered by recent hurricanes. The pope spoke four days before world leaders joined the U.N. General Assembly to check progress on the anti-poverty program adopted eight years ago. The pope said he recognized that honoring the millennium goals' commitments will require "sacrifice at this difficult economic moment in the world." But he said they would bring structural relief to poorer countries and thus favor the peace and well-being of the entire planet.

Though the American banking crisis and the effect it will have on the presidential campaign grabbed the media's attention this week, abortion has remained a flashpoint in Catholic circles. Much of the focus has been on Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, who says he is a Catholic who believes pro-life teachings but that it's "inappropriate in a pluralistic society" to impose his views, given that Roe v. Wade established protections for women seeking abortion. Bishop Francis Malooly, the new bishop of the Diocese of Wilmington, said in a statement Sept. 10 he intends to "build a supportive and trusting friendship" with Biden and other leaders to help them "understand how crucial the sanctity of human life is to a just society."

Abortion rates have dropped steadily since the 1980s, from a peak of 29.3 abortions per 1,000 women in 1981 to 19.4 in 2005. But behind this general decrease are striking changes in the demographics of abortion. Compared to 30 years ago, women having abortions today are older and more likely to be mothers and minorities, according to a study released Tuesday by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Guttmacher Institute. The study looked at trends in abortion since 1974, the year after the Supreme Court passed Roe v. Wade, legalizing abortion in the United States. What researchers found is contrary to what pop culture phenoms, from "Juno" to Jamie Lynn Spears, might suggest: Teenagers are not the most likely to confront this issue, twenty-somethings are.

Four years ago, the war in Iraq and the same-sex marriage debate pushed foreign policy and social issues to the top of the priority list for nearly all religious voters. Now, those issues have taken a back seat to something more pressing: the economy. A survey released yesterday by the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron shows that support for the war has dropped dramatically among religious voters. At the same time, they have been hit by the effects of a bad economy. So just more than half of the people surveyed put economy at the top of their list of priorities for the election, far more than the 11 percent who cared most about social issues and an increase of 24 percentage points from 2004.

Abortions in the United States fell 33 percent between 1974 and 2004, but sizeable differences among racial and economic groups continue to exist as to who gets an abortion, a new report says. While the number of abortions among teens has also dropped dramatically, down 50 percent, abortion rates are still high among older women with children and poor women, according to the report from the Guttmacher Institute. Most U.S. women having abortions today come from lower income groups, she said. The rate of abortions in the United States has dropped 33 percent from 1974 to 2004. In 1980 there were 29 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44; by 2004, that number had dropped to 20 per 1,000 women, according to the report.

Canada's political battleground splits Catholic politicians between those formed by Catholic social justice movements and those who stake their Catholic and political identity on support for life and family issues, said a church historian. "I've yet to see a politician make it work where these different things are wedded together," said Mark McGowan, church historian and principal at the University of St. Michael's College in Toronto. In an effort to be balanced and avoid any hint of dictating a political position, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has only one clear command emblazoned across the top of its Federal Election 2008 Guide: "Catholics have an obligation to be interested in politics."

From Seattle to Athens, Ga., homeless advocacy groups and city agencies are reporting the most visible rise in homeless encampments in a generation. Nearly 61 percent of local and state homeless coalitions say they've experienced a rise in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007, according to a report by the National Coalition for the Homeless. The group says the problem has worsened since the report's release in April, with foreclosures mounting, gas and food prices rising and the job market tightening. The phenomenon of encampments has caught advocacy groups somewhat by surprise, largely because of how quickly they have sprung up.

Chaplains are one of the newest methods used by the Department of Veterans Affairs to treat the nation's veterans. Their job: to assess the spiritual and emotional health of such veterans as Ratajczak and report back to nurses and doctors, in hopes of developing a more "holistic" course of treatment. Such "spiritual assessments" are now routinely conducted on entering patients, though they are not mandatory. Critics, however, say the program runs afoul of the separation of church and state, and say a patient's "spiritual" health should have no bearing on his or her physical treatment. Chaplains at the Baltimore VA hospital do not promote any particular religion, said Thomas, a Protestant, but add a "spiritual dimension" that patients often need.

Unemployment rose last month in the twelve most hotly contested battleground states in the presidential election, including Michigan, Florida and Ohio. Michigan's jobless rate rose to 8.9 percent, the highest in the nation, with the loss of more than 20,000 manufacturing jobs in August, the Labor Department reported yesterday. Unemployment in Florida has surged 2.3 percentage points to 6.5 percent over the last 12 months. News about swelling unemployment rolls capped a tumultuous week when the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression dominated the presidential campaign. With Republican President George W. Bush in the White House, Democratic nominee Barack Obama gained support as economic concerns monopolized political debate.

More government assistance for poor women can significantly reduce abortion rates, according to a new study from Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. The social justice advocacy group says that with the right economic incentives more women will choose life. "It's common sense that more assistance will reduce the number of abortions," said Alexia Kelley, the group's executive director. But some pro-life groups are skeptical. Brian Harris of Tennessee Right to Life says that he supports increased aid for poor women, along with legal restrictions for abortion.

America's Catholic bishops have a few thoughts on politics, and this year they want to share them directly with the candidates. For the first time in recent memory, leaders of the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops have invited the two presidential candidates to meet with them before the election. Neither Republican John McCain nor Democrat Barack Obama have replied to the invitations offered last month, said Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the conference. Five bishops who lead policy committees -- delving into matters including abortion, education, migration, international affairs and communications -- want to discuss the candidates' views on social issues, said Bishop William Murphy of the Rockville Centre diocese in New York state.

According to exit polls, a majority of Catholics have sided with the winning candidate in each presidential election since 1972 -- although there's at least a couple of asterisks next to that streak. In 2000, Catholics voted for former Vice President Al Gore, who won the popular vote before being tripped up by a few hanging chads and that pesky Electoral College. There is still some statistical debate on whether President Bush did or didn't win the Catholic majority against Sen. John F. Kerry in 2004, although there is no doubt that it was close. And there is also debate over how much sense it makes to think of a "Catholic vote."

A struggle within the church over how Catholic voters should think about abortion is once again flaring up just as political partisans prepare an all-out battle for the votes of Mass-going Catholics in swing-state towns like Scranton. The theological dispute is playing out in diocesan newspapers and weekly homilies, while the campaigns scramble to set up phone banks of nuns and private meetings with influential bishops. Progressive Catholics complain that by wading into the history of church opposition to abortion - Mr. Biden brought up St. Thomas Aquinas, Ms. Pelosi discussed St. Augustine - Democratic officials are starting a distracting debate with the church hierarchy.

A new survey suggests the very Americans who claim to follow the Bible most assiduously don't consult it when forming their views about torture and government policy. The poll of 600 Southern white evangelicals was released Sept. 11 in Atlanta in connection with a national religious summit on torture. It shows not only are white evangelical Southerners more likely than the general populace to believe torture is sometimes or often justified, but also that they are far more likely-to tweak a phrase from Proverbs-to "lean on their own understanding" regarding the subject. While a recent Pew survey showed 48 percent of the general public believes torture sometimes or often is justified in order to obtain information from suspected terrorists, the new poll shows 57 percent of white Southern evangelicals hold that belief.

John McCain on abortion: I believe strongly in our moral obligation to stand up for human dignity. We must remember that our freedoms are not only defended by our diplomacy and military power but, very importantly, by the decency and respect with which we treat one another, and by our belief that as our dignity is entitled to respect, so are we obliged to respect and defend the dignity of others.
Barack Obama on abortion: Much more can and should be done to address the underlying factors that may lead a woman into the difficult situation where she feels she has to make this decision. For example, we should be working aggressively to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and thereby the need for abortions. We have to ensure the availability of comprehensive health- and age-appropriate sex education. Abstinence is part of that, but there needs to be a full range of components, and government can't do it all.

Reeling from work-site raids that have jailed thousands of illegal workers, immigration organizations are quietly assembling informal networks to gather advance information about federal enforcement operations and to help locals and laborers prepare. Students, union officials, waiters and others are volunteering to call in tips about Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents checking into hotels or renting facilities, about the sudden appearance of out-of-town cars and about a surge in action at the local courthouse. The spontaneous development of these intelligence networks stems from the scale of recent ICE raids: hundreds of agents and vehicles plus a major infrastructure.

The U.S. bishops' administrative committee announced Sept. 10 the bishops’ conference will take up the enduring and vexing issue of politics and abortion in America when it meets in Baltimore next November. The meeting, which will come one week after the national elections, will take place with an urgency generated by a series of critical statements bishops have made in recent days of major Democratic Party political figures. The announcement came as the committee, headed by Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, added its weight to statements made by Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia and Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., chairmen of the U.S. bishops' pro-life and doctrine committees. The bishops took on Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Party vice-presidential candidate, Senator Joseph Biden, for remarks they have made about abortion.

The Catholic Church in Latin America is changing its approach to the continuing epidemic of HIV and AIDS, and many are welcoming the changes. "While moral double standards and stigma remain strong elements of the response to HIV and AIDS in many evangelical and Protestant churches, I've recently seen an enthusiastic willingness to deal openly with the epidemic from Catholic leaders," said Dr. Eduardo Campana, an Ecuadorean who heads an AIDS program for the Latin American Council of Methodist Churches. The bishops urged people to work together to fight discrimination against those with AIDS and to avoid judging them.

Some 27 million people labor as slaves - more than ever before - but those on the front lines of the antislavery movement see signs that human bondage is becoming increasingly unacceptable to the public and to a growing number of governments and businesses. Often, the fight against slavery begins quietly and unheralded, in countries where people risk their lives to free other human beings. The grass-roots, shoestring organizations that take the lead are beginning to win allies in government and industry. Brazil, for example, has a national plan that could be a model for other nations. The chocolate industry, for another, has become the first industry in history to invest resources to eliminate child and forced labor throughout its supply chain.

During the heat of the primary season late last year, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said it was imperative for his party to nominate a candidate who was tough on illegal immigration and didn't parrot President Bush's centrist stance on the issue. Yet as Republicans prepared to ratify Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) -- author, with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), of the comprehensive immigration measure that died in the Senate last year -- as their presidential nominee this week, little of that squabbling has been on display in the Twin Cities. Immigration has received scant mention in speeches on the convention floor, and King conceded Wednesday that "the number of people who have come up to me to complain about this, so far it's zero."

Laith Kasshana left Baghdad, Iraq, early in 2007, when his 2-year-old daughter Media was an infant. In Baghdad, Kasshana's life was threatened and his brother was shot. "I felt so afraid," he told Catholic News Service. "Even today, when I talk about Iraq, I feel full of anxiety." But Kasshana, his wife and his two children -- 10-month-old Mathew was born in Lebanon -- left Sept. 7 for resettlement in San Diego. All through the family's troubles, Kasshana's 25-year-old wife, Ban, never lost faith that God would do something for her family.

The Catholic Church has joined an interfaith effort to change U.S. immigration law. To prepare for that effort in the next Congress, it is also joining the Tour of the Faithful, an educational effort during September and October to convince people of faith to support changes in U.S. immigration policy. "Our current national immigration policy ... consists of work-site enforcement raids" that result in, among other things, "the dislocation of U.S. citizen children from their parents," he added. "As a nation -- a nation of immigrants, I might add -- we cannot accept the labor of immigrants while undermining their basic human dignity," Bishop Wester said.

John McCain's nomination this week officially launched the last lap in our lengthy presidential race, with the Arizona senator and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois having less than two months to make their respective cases to the voters. Undecided Americans can find guidance from an ancient, hierarchical institution with millennia of experience pondering the common good - the Roman Catholic Church. Or so say Portland, Maine, Catholic activist Chris Korzen and coauthor Alexia Kelley in their new book, "A Nation For All"(Jossey-Bass). Denouncing modern cut-throat politics by both political parties, the book suggests a national agenda that includes combating poverty and pollution.

Catholics are shaping up to be the battleground religious vote of 2008. Recent polls show McCain and Democrat Barack Obama neck and neck among white Catholics - a better indicator of swing voters because Hispanic Catholics lean Democratic. With an estimated 47 million U.S. Catholic voters, the stakes are huge. Obama and McCain want to energize Catholics who line up with them ideologically. But the real prize is the increasing number of Catholics who don't identify with either major party. The largest bloc of Catholic voters - 41 percent - identify as independents, up 11 percentage points from 2004.

Christians are called to stop being wasteful and remember that the planet is everyone's home, says an official with the Italian bishops' conference. The bishops appealed for an "ecological conversion" in a statement for the 3rd Day to Protect Creation, held Monday in Rome. The planet "is what has been given to us to live on responsibly, safeguarding its viability also for the next generations," they recalled. There is a need to "use energy efficiently, as well as to appreciate the sources of renewable and clean energy," in addition to "an intelligent sobriety," which will allow for "lessening the problem of waste," the bishops stressed.