In launching its needle-exchange program last week, the Catholic Diocese of Albany, N.Y., said the decision came down to choosing the lesser evil. Illegal drug use is bad, but the spread of deadly diseases is worse. The medical evidence is clear, the diocese argued on Feb. 1, when it began "Project Safe Point" in two Upstate New York locations through its local branch of Catholic Charities. Public health studies document that exchanging used syringes for new ones can effectively stanch the spread of blood-borne diseases such as AIDS, and even lead drug abusers to treatment and recovery.

Rick Warren, perhaps the nation's best-known pastor, was stunned. "I went to Bible College, two seminaries and I got a doctorate. How did I miss this?" "This" is not some deep, hidden biblical code predicting the end of the world. It isn't a cipher that further elucidates the truth of the Trinity. It isn't even the formula for turning water into wine. No, the thing that stunned Rick Warren was when he was struck for the first time by the sheer volume of verses in the Bible that express God's compassion for the poor and oppressed. Unfortunately, Warren isn't the only person of faith to be surprised by just how much God has to say about poverty and justice.

We all like to imagine that there'll be something to stop our fall if we hit hard times. Mulugeta Yimer, for example, is a 56-year-old Alexandria cabdriver who escaped poverty and persecution in Ethiopia 20 years ago only to be clobbered by the recession. Business is way down, and he's facing possible foreclosure on his home. He says he is averse to government handouts, but when he contemplates what might be in store for his wife, who works part-time at a convenience store, and their two young children, he muses wistfully, "There's always welfare, isn't there?" Actually, no. When President Bill Clinton signed welfare reform into law, he didn't just end welfare as we knew it. For all practical purposes, it turned out, he brought an end to cash help of any kind for families with children in much of the country.

With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children. It has grown so rapidly in places so diverse that it is becoming nearly as ordinary as the groceries it buys. More than 36 million people use inconspicuous plastic cards for staples like milk, bread and cheese, swiping them at counters in blighted cities and in suburbs pocked with foreclosure signs. Virtually all have incomes near or below the federal poverty line, but their eclectic ranks testify to the range of people struggling with basic needs. They include single mothers and married couples, the newly jobless and the chronically poor, longtime recipients of welfare checks and workers whose reduced hours or slender wages leave pantries bare.

A new Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report says agricultural productivity in developing countries may decline by between nine and 21 percent by mid-century due to climate change. During the same period, the world's population is expected to grow to more than 9 billion, which may leave some countries more reliant on food imports. A separate report from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) says growing population and loss of production due to climate change will lead to increases in food prices. At a teleconference, Gerald Nelson, lead author of IFPRI's report said, "Our models project that even without climate change, food prices will rise. But climate change makes the problem worse."

United Nations health officials estimate about 4 million people who need AIDS drugs worldwide are now getting them, according to a report issued Wednesday. The figure represents a major increase in rolling out the drugs to patients across Africa, where the AIDS epidemic is focused, but an estimated 5 million or more across the globe are still waiting for the drugs.

The first anniversary of the economic collapse is not one anyone wants to mark, but we note it this week. A year ago the news of Lehman Brothers' collapse and AIG's near collapse stunned our nation, led to a global economic crisis and was followed by an infusion of hundreds of billions of bailout dollars to preserve the country's financial system. Our Catholic Charities' clients had made us well aware that an economic downturn was already underway, but we could not have fathomed what was about to occur last September. Nor could we envision the thousands of families who would seek assistance for the first time: they were now poor.

Catholic Charities agencies that responded to a national survey served more than 8.5 million people last year, said Father Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA. Addressing journalists at CCUSA offices in Alexandria and Catholic Charities leaders across the country through phone and Web connections, Father Snyder reported a 10 percent increase in clients served by Catholic Charities nationwide in 2008. He predicted the 2009 level of services would be even higher -- growing unemployment and other major effects of the current recession have placed increased demands since January on the 171 main diocesan Catholic Charities agencies across the country and their 1,668 branches and affiliates.

A Christian organization that seeks to end world hunger has developed an interfaith study guide for the G-20 summit. "The G-20 Pittsburgh Summit: Reflections for People of Faith" can be downloaded from www.bread.org, the Web site of Bread for the World. The organization will lobby G-20 leaders to make decisions that bring benefits of the global economy to the world's poorest people. They will urge delegates to keep promises the G-20 has already made. These include ending corruption and secrecy in key international lending organizations and increasing the money that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund make available to entrepreneurs in the poorest nations.

The recent news of a 6 percent decline in charitable giving is yet another troubling effect of the economic crisis. The timing is terrible; as state and local governments are making tough budget cuts, the need for essential services that charities and nonprofits provide is on the rise. A decrease in funding is already having devastating consequences for many communities. Whether you are one of the nearly 13 million people who work in the nonprofit sector in America, or are one of the millions who rely on the services they offer, the effect of the drop in charitable giving will surely be felt.