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.

Homelessness appears to be making a comeback, but not in the urban and rural communities where it persisted in past decades.

Metals found in such everyday electronic items as mobile phones are helping to fund a bloody conflict in Congo.

“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.