Andrew Nelson

"I could really use my prayers right now. My school is getting shot up." The text message arrived at 10:39 a.m. Sept. 4 on youth minister Tania Martinez's phone.
 

"The political process is an extension of living out our faith," said Mike Harris, a longtime member of St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Atlanta. "We must engage and stand for what is right, stand for the poor, stand for the needy, stand for the imprisoned, for those people who have no other voice. We are called to be the voice of God for the people of God."

While staffers with Catholic Relief Services delivered needed supplies to far-flung parts of the globe, students at the Georgia Institute of Technology studied how the agency's missions of mercy could be done with fewer car emissions that contribute to a warming planet.