From today’s Ecumenical News International: UN, NGOs told Faith-Based Organizations crucial in AIDS fight Geneva (ENI). Up to 40 per cent of health care in poor countries is delivered by private religious institutions according to the first systematic study of faith-based organizations and HIV/AIDS. Dr Rabia Mathai, the senior vice-president, Global Program Policy, of the US-based Catholic Medical Mission Board, told members of United Nations’ and non-governmental organizations in Geneva that faith-based organizations are “true partners” in the struggle against...

Here’s a valuable article highlighting the author’s experience with Augustine during “a homiletical emergency.” David Neff writes in “Preaching Augustine” that the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) “is heavily used by college and university teachers who want to assign classic spiritual reading without adding to their students’ already hefty textbook bills. The other main users seem to be people preparing sermons or Bible studies and those who simply want to read for edification.” And for further edification, from Augustine’s Confessions:...

The following is from Archbishop Tomasi’s address at the 93rd International Labor Conference in Geneva. (Click here for the full text of his remarks.) “It is the dignity of every human person that requires access to work in condition of personal security, health, fair remuneration, a safe environment. Work is a right and the expression of human dignity…work is the motor for development and poverty elimination, for unlocking the hidden resources of nature, for personal and professional fulfillment and family...

Breaking news for the day: Sandra Day O’Connor has announced that she is retiring from the United States Supreme Court. Yesterday, Anthony Bradley asked what the President should look for in a Supreme Court Nominee. Join the discussion here. ...

Now that Chief Justice William Rehnquist, 80, has cancer, coupled with talk that Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, 75, and John Paul Stevens, 85, might also consider stepping down, there is quite a buzz in the beltway about the Supreme Court. Majority Leader Bill Frist said Tuesday he’s been talking to Democratic leader Harry Reid about nominees for a potential vacancy on the Supreme Court. Reid later offered what he considered good possibilities: GOP Sens. Mel Martinez of Florida, Mike DeWine...

Rev. Robert Sirico wrote a column in the Detroit News’ Faith and Policy series over the weekend on the Kelo v. New London decision handed down by the US Supreme Court. In “Court reveals conflicting ownership ideas,” Sirico writes, In the Supreme Court’s “new” ownership society, the very safety and security of God-given, inalienable rights are threatened. Pope Leo XIII was pointing to this when he described private ownership as “a natural right of man” and a right that must...

Rapper and actor Will Smith urged rappers to serve as role models for munities at the annual BET Awards. “The kids that are making these trends, making these songs, don’t understand the level of effect that black Americans have around the world,” Smith said in an interview. “Black Americans are so elevated, it’s almost worship.” The gangsta lifestyle is celebrated in munities for its portrayal of strength, Smith said. “That’s the image of survivors. The dude that sells the drugs...

Recent high-profile examples of bination of violence and technology, such as “happy-slapping,” bring into sharp focus the need for moral judgment in the marketplace. The social nature of violence and sin mean that “no government, economy, family, or society can survive if a critical mass of citizens do not exercise a particular level of self-government and restraint.” Read the full text here. ...

Last year, when I was still a Legislative Assistant in the Michigan House of Representatives, I had a front-row seat for the debate over House Bill 5632, the legislation that raised cigarette taxes by 75 cents and placed Michigan at #2 on the list for highest cigarette taxes in the country. If my memory serves me correctly, the debate was utterly predictable. Those in support of the tax argued in two primary (and seemingly contradictory) directions: first, that the state...

In reading Is the Market Moral? (Brookings Institution Press, 2003), I e across a passage containing what I suspect is mon misconception about markets. “Unlike the market, which values people according to their resources and the productivity they bring to the market, Christian teachings on poverty ascribe value to a group that has no resources.” The problematic premise implicit in this statement is that ‘the market’ somehow bestows value and that the value it bestows is somehow absolute. But the...