Peace & Justice

WASHINGTON -- Quoting Pope Benedict XVI -- "justice is the primary way of charity" -- a bishops' report on the Catholic Campaign for Human Development reaffirms the campaign as "a unique and essential part of the Catholic community's broad commitment to assist low-income people, families and communities."

The report, endorsed in September by the Administrative Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was released Oct. 26.

The review was prompted by criticisms that the CCHD has funded some organizations which directly or indirectly advocated positions not in accord with basic Catholic teachings.

The CCHD has come under repeated attack by critics, some of whom oppose its work and have sought to kill the campaign.

The criticism over the years has sometimes been overstated or misplaced. In many cases, the accusations from conservative quarters were about organizations that received no direct funding but had become allied over time, often loosely, with CCHD-funded organizations.

Most Americans believe messages about homosexuality coming from religious institutions contribute to negative views of gays and lesbians, and higher rates of suicide among gay youths, a new poll reports.

While split on whether same-sex relations are sinful, Americans are more than twice as likely to give houses of worship low marks on handling the issue of homosexuality, according to a PRRI/RNS Religion News Poll released Oct. 21.

A plurality (45 percent) of Americans, however, give their own house of worship a `A’ or `B’ grade on how it handles homosexuality.

After a recent spate of teen suicides prompted by anti-gay harassment and bullying, the poll indicates a strong concern among Americans about how religious messages are impacting public discussions of homosexuality.

Nearly three-quarters of Americans (72 percent) say religious messages about homosexuality contribute to “negative views” of gays and lesbians, and nearly two-thirds (65 percent) see a connection to higher rates of suicide among gay youths.

WASHINGTON -- Rose Gottemoeller, assistant secretary of state and lead U.S. negotiator of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, has been spending time on Catholic university campuses lately.

In September, she spoke at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana and her alma mater, Georgetown University in Washington, about recently completed negotiations between Russia and the United States to reduce nuclear weapons.

It's important to discuss the topic with students, she said, because so many of them do not see it as "a burning issue," said Gottemoeller, who is Catholic.

"When I was growing up, nuclear weapons were more of a reality," she told Catholic News Service Sept. 30, referring to the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 and the potential nuclear deployment by the Soviet Union that was averted. "Since the Cold War, these issues have faded," she said, but she also was quick to point out that nuclear weapons are hardly relics of the past.