The major faith traditions teach that the young are special in the eyes of the Almighty. So what does God do when one of them commits a horrible crime and is consigned to a life in prison? He cries. That was the message delivered over Memorial Day weekend at some 200 churches, synagogues and mosques around the state by an interfaith coalition trying to change people's attitudes about long sentences for juveniles -- especially those facing life without the possibility of parole.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor has much to distinguish her, but one element of her biography stands out in the world of those interested in religion and the public square: she is Catholic, and, if approved as a Supreme Court justice, she will be the sixth Catholic on the nine-member court. That is a remarkable accomplishment for American Catholics, who make up 23 percent of the nation's population, and will now potentially hold 67 percent of the high court's seats.

The president of the U.S. bishops' conference and two members of Congress have called on President Barack Obama to make good on something he said in his May 17 speech to University of Notre Dame graduates, namely that he wished to "honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion." In a May 22 statement, Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago said he was grateful for Obama's promise to support conscience clauses.

As a U.S. Senate committee is discussing the future of health care in the country, the nation's bishops are reminding the legislators that respect for life needs to be the foundation for any reform. Bishop William F. Murphy, chairman of the bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, said this in a statement sent last week to a U.S. Senate committee discussion on "Expanding Health Care Coverage." The bishop of Rockville Centre, New York, expressed his hope that the discussion would bring about "true reform to the nation's health care system," and offered eight principles that could serve as a framework for reform.

You have to be rich to be poor. That's what some people who have never lived below the poverty line don't understand. The poorer you are, the more things cost. More in money, time, hassle, exhaustion, menace. This is a fact of life that reality television and magazines don't often explain. So consider this a primer on the economics of poverty. "The poor pay more for a gallon of milk; they pay more on a capital basis for inferior housing," says Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore. "The poor and 100 million who are struggling for the middle class actually end up paying more for transportation, for housing, for health care, for mortgages. They get steered to subprime lending...The poor pay more for things middle-class America takes for granted."

In a season of tension between the U.S. Catholic hierarchy and President Barack Obama, the Vatican newspaper has offered some unexpectedly upbeat reviews of the president's first four months in office. With Pope Benedict XVI expected to meet Obama in early July, it's worth a closer look at what L'Osservatore Romano has had to say, and what it finds so promising about the new U.S. administration.

Congress may be gone from Washington this week, but for lawmakers
and advocates paying close attention to the health care reform debate, the Memorial Day recess is hardly a break. Health care is expected to be front and center with constituents over the recess as House and Senate committees work to produce comprehensive overhaul bills by mid-June. The House Republican Conference and the House GOP health care task force sent their members home with talking points on health care.

Benedict XVI is calling for solutions to the unemployment crisis, for the creation of jobs to help and protect families who are facing critical economic situations. The Pope stated this today in his homily during a Mass celebrated in Cassino's Miranda Plaza, the square that will be renamed after him, in the town east of the Monte Cassino Abbey. He called on his listeners to "reinvigorate" their "faith in the real presence of Jesus," because "without him we cannot do anything of value in our life or apostolate."

I am a teacher at a Catholic school, Our Lady of the Valley, in the border city of El Paso Texas. The sixteen students in my class, mostly 12 and 13-year-olds, arrive daily from Cuidad Juarez, a dense metropolis of about 1.5 million in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The sister cities are divided by the Rio Grande River, but bound together by the growing terror of drug cartel violence and daily murder. This violence has become part and parcel of our school life, most dramatically in my English as a second Language class.

The Vatican's official newspaper called President Obama's commencement speech at the University of Notre Dame May 17 part of his "search for common ground" with opponents of legalized abortion. "The search for common ground: this seems to be the path chosen by the president of the United States, Barack Obama, to face the delicate question of abortion," said an unsigned article in the May 18 edition of L'Osservatore Romano. The paper said that Obama's Notre Dame speech "confirmed what he expressed at the press conference marking his first 100 days in the White House," when he said that the Freedom of Choice Act, which would remove restrictions on abortion, was "not my highest legislative priority."

Pope Benedict XVI said his visit to the Holy Land was a pilgrimage of faith and of peace, and an occasion to bear witness to the fact that even in desperate situations of tension believers trust in the power of God. "In that land blessed by God, it sometimes seems impossible to break the spiral of violence, but nothing is impossible for God and for those who trust in him," the pope said May 20 at his weekly general audience. "For this reason, faith in the one God -- just and merciful -- is the most precious resource" of the Christians, Muslims and Jews living in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories, he said.

President Obama directly confronted America's deep divide over abortion on Sunday as he appealed to partisans on each side to find ways to respect one another's basic decency and even work together to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies. As anti-abortion demonstrators protested outside and a few hecklers shouted inside, Mr. Obama used a commencement address at the University of Notre Dame to call for more "open hearts, open minds, fair-minded words" in a debate that has polarized the country for decades. The audience at this Roman Catholic institution cheered his message and drowned out protesters, some of whom called him a "baby killer."

Connecticut Senate President Pro Tempore Donald Williams Jr. said Monday he is close to having enough votes in the 36-member chamber to pass a bill this week replacing the death penalty with a sentence of life without parole. "I think there is a chance that we might have 19 votes in the Senate, which would be historic. We would have the numbers to pass it," said Williams, D-Brooklyn. The House of Representatives voted Wednesday 90 to 56 in favor of legislation abolishing executions of convicted criminals in Connecticut -- the first time any chamber of the General Assembly had passed the bill. The Senate is in session today, Wednesday and Thursday.

The person responsible for a $404 million reconstruction contract in Afghanistan sits nine time zones away in suburban Maryland and is unable to provide adequate oversight as to where all the money is going, according to a new government report. The audit suggests that the US is confronting the same kinds of problems in Afghanistan as it did in Iraq, where billions of dollars were unaccounted for during six years of reconstruction there, and has little plan yet to address the problems. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) released its first audit of reconstruction work in Afghanistan, focusing on a single, $404 million contract let by the American command responsible for training Afghan security forces.

First, the silver lining: people of faith are better citizens and better neighbors, and America is "amazingly" religious compared to other countries, says Harvard University professor Robert Putnam. Now, the cloud: young Americans are "vastly more secular" than their older counterparts, according to Putnam. "That is a stunning development," Putnam said. "The youth are the future. Some of them are going to get religious over time, but most of them are not." A celebrated political scientist, Putnam has long been concerned with declining participation in American civic life. When Elks clubs and parent-teacher associations lose members, the ties that bind civil society unravel, Putnam argues.

Religious officials last week called on the nation's leaders to reform immigration law during a prayer service at St. Bridget's Catholic Church to mark the anniversary of the Postville raid. More than 300 crowded into the church "to remember a day that will forever remain in our minds, and as a burden on our hearts," and to pray for those affected by the immigration raid. Readings were in English, Spanish and Hebrew. A man from Guatemala and a woman from Mexico who were arrested in the raid shared witness statements. The man, who called himself Jaime, said he came to the United States "looking for a better future for myself and my children."

The Environmental Protection Agency should not wait for Congress before taking steps to control the gases blamed for global warming, supporters of federal greenhouse-gas regulation said Monday. The EPA hearing is the first of two public forums on the agency's April finding that concentrations of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere pose dangers to human health and welfare - and that emissions from new motor vehicles and engines are contributing to the problem. The proposal could eventually lead to regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, starting with emissions standards for motor vehicles.

Several recent polls show how "out of sync" current U.S. abortion policy is with the views of most Americans, according to the U.S. bishops' pro-life spokeswoman. Deirdre McQuade, assistant director for policy and communications at the bishops' Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, was commenting May 18 on the release of four opinion polls showing that Americans are taking a dramatic turn toward greater opposition to abortion. A poll conducted May 7-10 as part of the annual Gallup Values and Beliefs survey found that a majority of Americans (51 percent) described themselves as "pro-life" with respect to the abortion issue, while only 42 percent said they were "pro-choice." The results were made public May 15.

Contrary to conventional wisdom -- and anti-illegal immigration rhetoric -- immigration rates have no direct effect on unemployment rates, according to a study released Tuesday. The study was conducted by the Center for Immigration Policy, the research arm of the pro-immigration American Immigration Law Foundation. It compared rates of unemployment with immigration rates in states across the nation, and found no direct correlation. "The level of unemployment in the U.S. is painful, sometimes scary and very difficult for those directly impacted," said Dan Siciliano, executive director of the Program in Law, Economics and Business at Stanford Law School and a research fellow for the Washington, D.C.-based center. "But the notion that immigration is causally related to unemployment belittles and questions the challenges of unemployment."

A rising number of women, stung by job losses and dropped insurance coverage, are turning to clinics and family planning agencies for routine gynecological exams, contraceptives and abortions. As the economy worsens, some Planned Parenthood clinics are reporting a record number of abortions. Other women's health agencies say they are experiencing heavier call volumes, more visits and more requests for abortion funding. In addition, many women are postponing pregnancy and switching to longer-term contraceptives that can last up to five or 10 years, clinic officials report.

The White House has begun bringing together a diverse group of abortion-rights supporters and opponents to help craft policies both sides can embrace: preventing unwanted pregnancies and reducing demand for abortion. President Barack Obama appears to be trying to make good on his pledge to defuse tensions around polarizing issues. The effort could also be in his political interests. While he may not win over abortion opponents on the issue, if he is seen as having a genuine interest in finding common ground, that could persuade some to judge him on other policies where they may agree with him, such as economics.

The Obama administration is defending its claim that the $787 billion economic stimulus plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs before 2011 even while conceding that unemployment will likely continue to rise beyond its earlier predictions. A report Monday by the White House Council of Economic Advisers said the projections were based on conservative estimates and widely accepted assumptions. The 3.5 million job estimate remains valid, the report said, now that stimulus money is starting to pay for various projects throughout the nation. Many Republican officials and some prominent economists question the administration's optimism, and the White House report is the latest reply to such critics.

Though more than 4,000 Louisiana homeowners have received rebuilding money only in the last six months, or are struggling with inadequate grants or no money at all, FEMA is intent on taking away their trailers by the end of May. The deadline, which ends temporary housing before permanent housing has replaced it, has become a stark example of recovery programs that seem almost to be working against one another. Thousands of rental units have yet to be restored, and not a single one of 500 planned "Katrina cottages" has been completed and occupied. The Road Home program for single-family homeowners, which has cost federal taxpayers $7.9 billion, has a new contractor who is struggling to review a host of appeals, and workers who assist the homeless are finding more elderly people squatting in abandoned buildings. Nonetheless, FEMA wants its trailers back, even though it plans to scrap or sell them for a fraction of what it paid for them.

After a rough forty-eight hours for Pope Benedict XVI in the Middle East, the pontiff attempted to get back on track today with his most explicitly political message. On his lone day in the Palestinian Territories, Benedict delivered the papal equivalent of Ronald Reagan's famous 1987 "tear down this wall!" speech in Berlin. Standing in a Palestinian refugee camp located in the shadow of Israel's towering security wall, Benedict forcefully criticized such barriers between peoples. "In a world where more and more borders are being opened up - to trade, to travel, to movement of peoples, to cultural exchanges - it is tragic to see walls still being erected," the pope said. Later, he said such walls "do not last forever" and "can be taken down" - a fairly clear hint that, in his mind, the wall should come down as quickly as possible.

The United States won a seat on the United Nations' top human rights organization Tuesday, closing out another vestige of the Bush administration's confrontational relationship with the world body. But the US election to the 47-seat Human Rights Council was overshadowed by the election of several countries - including Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Cameroon, and China - that human rights organizations often cite as violators of their own citizens' rights. As a result, Tuesday's vote in the UN General Assembly added fuel to a debate - percolating since the Obama administration announced in March its intentions to reverse Bush policy and seek a seat on the council - over whether human rights can be advanced by a body that is willing to seat rights violators.