More than 1.2 million people are in settlements, and close to 500,000 people have left Port-au-Prince for outlying regions.

A Vatican statement said that church leaders recognized the sense of “pain and anger, betrayal, scandal and shame” that the crisis provoked.

Catholic Relief Services’ anti-hunger programs during 2008 helped an estimated 49.3 million people.

Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., called the attacks "false" and "even calumnious.”

“Achieving our objectives in Afghanistan and Iraq has moved to the top of the institutional military’s budget priorities,” Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said.

Cardinal Walter Kasper said a shared catechism could be one of the fruits of 40 years of dialogue among Catholic and Protestant churches.