In a letter to leaders participating in the G8 Summit in Italy, July 8-10, the presidents of the Catholic bishops' conferences of the G8 nations urged Summit leaders to "take concerted actions to protect poor persons and assist developing countries."

The bishops observed that poor persons and nations have contributed the least to creating the economic crisis and to the human cause of global climate change, but in both cases are likely to suffer tragic consequences.

The conference presidents wrote: "Our moral tradition commits the Church to protecting human life and dignity, especially of the poorest, most vulnerable members of the human family. In the faces of poor persons the Catholic Church sees the face of Christ whom we serve in countries throughout the world."

Just before details began to emerge from the Obama administration and congressional committees about their proposals for reforming the nation's health care system, Florida's bishops helped the U.S. bishops urge the faithful to participate in the debate.

The Florida Catholic Conference, which represents the state's bishops on public policy matters, sent out an e-mail action alert June 8 to members of its Advocacy Network noting that U.S. Senate and House committees were likely to begin discussing specific legislative proposals the following week. The bishops encouraged Catholic Floridians to contact Sens. Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez as well as their congressional representative to ask them "to support health care reform that respects human life and dignity, from its earliest beginnings to its natural end."

Poverty and suffering in Sudan's Darfur region and in south Sudan are at such high levels that there is a permanent humanitarian crisis there, according to a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development and social service organizations.

Insecurity both in Darfur and in south Sudan risks further destabilizing the region and creating greater levels of suffering, warned Caritas Internationalis ahead of a meeting of leaders at its Vatican-based headquarters this week.

"Sudan faces a lot of challenges," Catholic Bishop Eduardo Kussala of Tombura Yambio commented. "There is an ongoing humanitarian crisis. People don't have access to healthcare, education, water and protection from high levels of violence."

Political leaders are unlikely to come up with effective responses to climate change because "the solutions are going to hurt" and be too unpopular with voters, said the head of Caritas Internationalis.

But aid organizations, like Caritas, can make a difference by promoting the ethical and moral strategies that need to be implemented in the developed world, said Lesley-Anne Knight, secretary-general of the umbrella organization of Catholic charities.

The Caritas leader spoke June 23 during a Global Humanitarian Forum dedicated to the issue of climate change and the role aid organizations must play. The forum, which was co-founded by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, was held in Geneva June 23-24.

A ceremony Tuesday evening at St. Mary Catholic Church in Downtown Indianapolis was like many post-graduation celebrations held this month, but this occasion carried an aura of concern.

Many of the young graduates at this mostly Latino event worry that they or their parents may face deportation because of their immigration status. Tuesday's event was a vigil -- one of a series of similar events throughout the country -- to support a proposed law that would ease those immigration concerns.

The U.N. meeting on development set to begin Wednesday has a tall order to fill: The Food and Agriculture Organization has reported that this year, global hunger will reach an all time high, with one-sixth of the planet's population going hungry.

L'Osservatore Romano reported on the latest FAO report, released Friday. The news that 1.02 billion people are undernourished points to the importance of Benedict XVI's June 14th appeal during the Corpus Christi Angelus address.

"[Hunger] is an absolutely unacceptable situation that even after the efforts of recent decades is proving difficult to reduce," the Pope lamented. "I therefore hope that on the occasion of the upcoming U.N. conference and at the headquarters of international institutions provisions shared by the whole of the international community will be made, as well as those strategic decisions, sometimes far from easy to accept but which are necessary in order to assure basic foodstuffs and a dignified life to one and all, in the present and in the future."

The leader of a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development and social service groups says it is "vital" for humanitarian organizations to relate climate change to the issue of poverty and to address the factors that make people vulnerable to climate change.

"Climate change exacerbates existing vulnerabilities," says Caritas Internationalis Secretary General Lesley-Anne Knight, who will be speaking at this week's Global Humanitarian Forum in Geneva.

The two-day forum, which concludes Wednesday, has drawn concerned leaders from around the world who wish to formulate a response to the human impact of climate change.

According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 2009 is a crucial year in the international effort to address climate change.

Members of the faith community speaking against an anti-illegal immigration bill Tuesday left after Sen. Russell Pearce called on security to remove them, prompting the Appropriations Committee's four Democrats to walk out of the session.

House Bill 2280, sponsored by Pearce, R-Mesa, would require local and state officials to enforce federal immigration laws, thus making any sanctuary laws illegal.

A new U.S. bishops' document aimed at improving long-troubled labor relations in Catholic health care "is an enormous breakthrough," said Manhattan College religious studies professor Joseph J. Fahey, chairman of Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice.

"This is a milestone event," said union leader Gerald M. Shea, assistant for government affairs to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney.

"It's just stunning," said John Carr, secretary for justice, peace and human development at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "I mean, you have the highest levels of the labor movement and the Catholic Church reaching an agreement when nobody else can, and it's a wonderful process."

The 16-page document, released June 22 by the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, is titled "Respecting the Just Rights of Workers: Guidance and Options for Catholic Health Care and Unions."

Pope Benedict XVI called for a new world economic culture that gives priority to solidarity, ethics and human dignity.

The crisis that has affected industrialized and developing nations alike shows that "certain economic-financial paradigms that have been dominant in recent years need to be rethought," he said June 13 to members of a papal foundation.

The pope spoke to members of the Centesimus Annus Foundation in a special Vatican audience at the conclusion of a conference in Rome on "Values and Rules for a New Model of Development."

He praised the group for seeking to promote a new economic model "that pays more attention to solidarity and is more respectful of human dignity," than the one that has led to the current crisis and increased disparity between rich and poor.

As the embattled government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appears to be trying to limit Internet access and communications in Iran, new kinds of social media are challenging those traditional levers of state media control and allowing Iranians to find novel ways around the restrictions.

Iranians are blogging, posting to Facebook and, most visibly, coordinating their protests on Twitter, the messaging service. Their activity has increased, not decreased, since the presidential election on Friday and ensuing attempts by the government to restrict or censor their online communications.

A group of pastors urged state legislators to pass a bill that would allow defendants to challenge the application of the death penalty by citing statistical racial disparities in the overall use of capital punishment.

The bill, which was introduced by state Reps. Larry Womble and Earline Parmon of Forsyth County, is needed to provide a check on a criminal-justice system in which racial bias plays a major role in determining who ends up on death row and who doesn't, said the Rev. Carlton Eversley, the president of the Ministers Conference of Winston-Salem and Vicinity.

For more than a century, congregants at North Avenue Presbyterian Church had little reason to think that anything other than worship was going on at their corner of North and Peachtree.

In 2005, they found out others had set up shop.

Teenage prostitutes, according to a mayor's report on child sex trafficking, had begun working within a few steps of the familiar inscription from Matthew on the church's wall: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Members of the congregation, appalled by the report, told the Rev. Scott Weimer they wanted to take action.

"I didn't know what to do," Weimer said, "but their response inspired me to move forward."

The debate over the Employee Free Choice Act, or Card Check, which has raged for months, has taken an interesting turn - straight through church doors.

At its heart, the EFCA eases union organization rules and, in theory, clears a path for organized labor to eliminate a secret ballot in elections on whether to unionize. Republicans and business leaders say union leaders will use the open voting process to intimidate workers they know oppose unionization.

Joshua Garcia was at school when immigration agents arrested his undocumented parents.

"I didn't get to see my dad for six weeks and when I did he was in prison with people watching over him with guns," Garcia tearfully told an overflowing crowd at an immigration forum Saturday.

The event was held at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church. The national "Familias Unidas" Immigration Forum has visited 23 cities in what organizers hope will become the first of many meetings between religious and political groups.

U.S. Rep Jared Polis asked Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus' Immigration Task Force, to bring the touring forum to Colorado.

If he wasn't the most obscure person in the room, Barack Obama was close: a young, freshman state senator with few connections outside of Chicago.

"When people went around the room and said who they were, you could probably figure out why they were there," said the Rev. Jim Wallis, a well-known progressive preacher and activist.

Among those seated at the table were former Clinton White House aide George Stephanopoulos, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr., and former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed.

And when it got to Obama, people thought, "Yeah, OK, why are you here?" Wallis recalled with a laugh.

As the federal government in the USA considers comprehensive reform of the health care system, faith groups, civic organizations and labor unions are mobilizing for change. They want to see an end to the massive health divisions in American society arising from economic inequality.

Millions still have no effective health coverage, while the wealthy live longer and enjoy health treatment benefits the poor can only dream of. "It is no exaggeration to say that this summer might be the best opportunity in a generation to achieve any sort of comprehensive health care reform," says Robert Francis, director for domestic policy for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Washington Office.

A group of high-profile religious leaders from various faiths is pushing President Obama to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate alleged United States-sanctioned use of torture since 9/11. Thirty-three religious leaders met with administration officials after gathering in front of the White House June 11.

They presented a letter signed by 50 individuals representing Christian, Jewish, Islamic and Sikh organizations. The letter urged the president to establish an independent, non-partisan commission to "uncover the whole truth" about U.S. torture policies and practices.

With a life story steeped in Catholic activism and a political outlook hewn from church social teachings, Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., is clearly the darling of the religious left. Meanwhile, this first term, 34-year-old politician is bringing faith-based sensibilities to Washington unlike others seen here in recent years. "What Tom has been able to do is bring a spirit of grass-roots social change to Washington," said John Gehring, senior writer for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. "His brand of conviction politics has real appeal at a time when people are hungry for leadership that transcends the narrow ideologies of left or right."

Charitable giving fell last year by the largest percentage in five decades, according to a new study by the Giving USA Foundation. Individuals and institutions made gifts and pledges of $307.65 billion, a decrease of 5.7 percent on an inflation-adjusted basis over the $314 billion given in 2007, according to the foundation, a research organization backed by the fund-raising industry. Some experts said they were surprised the drop was not even bigger, given that endowments fell by as much as 40 percent, the stock market declined by a similar margin, corporations posted unheard-of losses and unemployment was rising at a fast clip.

Religious leaders are warning President Obama that continuing strife between Palestinians and Israelis threatens to wipe out a Christian presence in the Holy Land. Fifty-six representatives of various Protestant and Catholic faiths -- including several Baptists -- wrote a letter June 4 applauding the president for making peace in the Holy Land a top priority, but warning that time is running out for a viable and peaceful two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While also concerned about Jews and Muslims, the leaders said they are particularly worried about the plight of the Palestinian Christian community.

Health care reform legislation now being drafted on Capitol Hill will likely include broad, sweeping measures with significant implications for providers, Catholic Health Association experts told health ministry leaders gathered Monday for a panel session at the annual Catholic Health Assembly in New Orleans. But it will take some time before the bill's many "building blocks" and "moving pieces" settle into place. With an early draft expected to be released next week, public plan options to expand health coverage, an individual mandate that would impose an insurance requirement on all Americans and the challenge of financing coverage will spark intense debate in the coming weeks, said Michael Rodgers, CHA senior vice president of public policy and advocacy. A bill could reach President Obama's desk by October.

An enthusiastic clamor of supporters rallied for immigration reform at a June 4 town hall meeting, though a subtext of frustration arose around the postponement of a meeting with President Barack Obama. Advocates from 31 states gathered at the Church of the Reformation on Capitol Hill to build support for comprehensive immigration reform legislation. It was one part of events launching the Reform Immigration for America Campaign, a national effort bringing together grass-roots organizations, labor unions, business interests and faith-based communities to support a revamped immigration policy.

To state the obvious, the Obama administration is not about to take any steps to make abortion illegal. But after 35 years of culture wars, the administration is engaged in extensive consultations on what can be done to make abortion rarer in this country. Participants in the consultations said several sessions were held in May and more were expected in June. Nancy Wisdo, associate general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, described the May 19 session she attended as a "very polite, very respectful" forum "to bring together people from sort of a cross spectrum who might have something to offer to this effort -- and I can tell you exactly what they called it, because I know the words are important -- 'to reduce the need for abortion' -- to find some common ground and reduce the need for abortion."

From a living room in Kansas to a bagel shop in New York to an Alabama church, Democrats have started mobilizing support for President Barack Obama's healthcare reform plans. Suburban housewives and social workers mixed with Baptist ministers, college students, retirees and many others at grassroots gatherings over the weekend. Spurred by the Democratic National Committee's burgeoning political machine dubbed "Organizing for America," thousands of such meetings had been planned for Friday through Monday. Those attending the scripted two-hour events viewed a videotaped message from Obama, shared personal stories and made local battle plans to counter the expected stiff opposition.