This time of year brings the end of summer vacations and a return to the routines of school. The rituals associated with Back to School season are familiar and reassuring: new clothes, school supplies, book bags and lunch boxes to go along with our new teachers and classrooms.

But what is routine to us is a rarity in other parts of the world—especially if you happen to be a girl. That is certainly the case in Afghanistan, where I recently visited and met some extraordinary young women who are overcoming great odds by simply going to school.

In many remote Afghan villages, schools are few and far between and the lucky few who attend them often must walk a great distance. During Taliban rule, it was forbidden to educate women, and more recently, many factors work against girls receiving an education: There are cultural factors, some families won’t permit their daughters to walk long distances, and many are too poor to afford school expenses.

The focus of Catholic Relief Services’ education program in Afghanistan is to provide quality education in these remote areas. Parents are much more willing to send their children to small classes held in safe neighborhoods than to distant schools where children are taught by strangers. Students benefit from small class sizes, close relationships with their teachers and a more personalized learning experience. For girls in particular, school that is close to home is usually the only option because of cultural constraints, distance or security.

In the Herat region of Afghanistan, CRS created community-based schools where classes are held in village buildings or homes. We train local people to be teachers. And we provide books, blackboards and other supplies essential to teaching. Working with village elders, CRS made sure to get community buy-in and to respect local traditions when founding these schools.

I had the wonderful opportunity to visit with a small community where we had established such a program about 30 miles north of the city of Herat. The village head was a man in his late 50s who had spent the years of Soviet occupation as a refugee in Iran. He told me this as he sat in the village classroom where his teenage daughter and a dozen other girls were soaking up the education of which they had been deprived during the Taliban years. He said with pride that although he could neither read nor write, he was most pleased that his daughter would be far luckier.

The effects that I witnessed in Herat are profound. In some of the communities, no one is able to read except these young girls. In one of the homes we visited, CRS helped to set up a small library with dozens of books on various topics. It is incredibly uplifting to see these teenagers, learning to read for the first time, bring something home to their parents that is going to change their lives. It doesn’t cost a lot of money—but it’s making a huge impact.

Thank you for your continued support and your prayers,

Ken Hackett
President

As we commemorate our nation’s independence and its values of liberty and justice for all, it is a shocking fact that slavery and human trafficking have been experiencing a dramatic resurgence in recent years.

Trafficking in persons is the coerced use of people as a form of commerce, in slave labor and extreme forms of sexual exploitation. It is a multibillion-dollar-a-year growth industry.

Just last month, the U.S. State Department released its 2010 Report on Human Trafficking. Its authors estimate that 12.3 million adults and children are currently held in modern-day slavery, including forced labor and prostitution. And for the first time, the report included the United States in its rankings, based on the same standards on which we judge other countries. This is a reminder that trafficking is not just a foreign enterprise, but occurs in many American cities as well.In fact, human trafficking is the third-largest criminal enterprise worldwide, behind trafficking in drugs and weapons. Yet there were only 4,166 successful prosecutions of human traffickers in 2009.

The mission of Catholic Relief Services is rooted in protecting and promoting the sacredness and dignity of human life, a principle that is at the heart of Catholic social teaching. This principle grounds our commitment to preventing and combating human trafficking, which disproportionately impacts the poor and marginalized, particularly women and children.

CRS has programs around the world aimed at stopping trafficking before it happens. We fight the root causes that lead people to become ensnared by traffickers, namely the social, political and economic disparities that increase the suffering of the poor and vulnerable and lead them to be considered commodities to be bought and sold.

Recently, one of our CRS partners, Brother Xavier Plassat, a French Dominican friar who works in Brazil, was honored by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as one of nine heroes—people from around the world who are combating human trafficking. Brother Xavier is coordinator of the Pastoral Land Commission’s (CPT) National Campaign Against Slave Labor, an agency of the Brazilian bishops’ conference comprising an extensive network of volunteers dedicated to eradicating slavery in Brazil.

The campaign helps workers in the northeastern part of the country who live in a state of virtual indentured servitude. They are lured to jobs on ranches, in charcoal production, or on sugar and soybean plantations. They are paid little, live in deplorable conditions and are charged exorbitant fees for their housing and transportation, which keeps them in perpetual debt to their employers.

Brother Xavier’s organization informs workers about their rights and helps them to demand respect. The Pastoral Land Commission is a leader in the national campaign to change exploitative labor practices. It advocates creating or strengthening laws and demands they be enforced. It also works with the government to sanction landowners and ensure compensation is made to victims and to broader society. Additionally, the commission promotes a national pact that is essentially a code of conduct for corporations, including multinationals, aimed at eliminating forced labor in their supply chains.

It is through the work of people like Brother Xavier, and the many other partners CRS has around the world, that we can hope that the evil of human trafficking may one day be a sad artifact from to our past.

Thank you for your continued support and your prayers.

Ken Hackett

President

Our commemoration of Mother’s Day offers us an opportunity to acknowledge the great contribution of women in our lives. From our own mothers, who gave us life and nurtured us as we grew, to our grandmothers, sisters, wives, daughters and friends, we all can be grateful for the love and wisdom women bestow on us.

Around the world, my colleagues at Catholic Relief Services have witnessed the key role played by women in families living in the poorest rural communities. Statistics bear this out:

• Of the world’s 1.3 billion poor people, it is estimated that nearly 70 percent are women.

• One in every four households in the world is now headed by a woman.

• Women in the developing world are responsible for between 60 and 80 percent of crop production.

• In most countries, women work approximately twice the unpaid time men do.

In many ways, mothers are heroes. Often it doesn’t seem dramatic. Yet at times the day-to-day care they give their families can be very heroic—even sacrificial. Think of the women who take in children orphaned by AIDS, children who may be related to them or may live in their community. Or the mother who participates in a saving and lending community so she can start a business to improve the life of her family.

At other times, mothers perform extraordinary deeds. I can think of one such mother I met recently on my trip to Haiti—my colleague Magalie Rigaud, who is in charge of logistics for CRS Haiti. She makes sure that shipments of vital relief supplies reach their intended destinations. It is a crucial job in our Haiti operation.

On January 12, Magalie worked a regular day, then left the office to pick up her twin boys and do a bit of grocery shopping on the way home. She and her boys were in the pet food section, getting food for the family dog, when the massive earthquake hit. The roof of the store collapsed on the shoppers inside, trapping Magalie and her sons. Luckily, the stacks of dog food created a kind of cave that saved their lives. But they could not get out. She was trapped with her boys and several other shoppers.

You’d have to meet Magalie to believe her. She refused to give up hope, despite the dire circumstances. She encouraged her fellow captives, praying with them and telling them that since they did not die in the initial shock of the quake, God did not intend for them to die that day. She kept their spirits up until, several hours later, they were rescued from the rubble.

Anyone would expect that Magalie would take at least a few days off after that harrowing experience. But you see, Magalie knew there were people who needed the vital relief supplies in CRS’ warehouses, supplies that would soon be shipped to Haiti. So despite an experience that would have caused any of us to take weeks off of work, she was soon back on the job, making important contributions to CRS’ efforts.

Magalie’s courage and grace under pressure is an inspiration to us all—as is her dedication to the mission of CRS and to the people of Haiti.

I would like to wish you a very happy Mother’s Day. And as always, thank you for your continued support and your prayers.

Ken Hackett
President

Each year, we as Church commemorate the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus during Holy Week and our celebration of Easter. This year, we will gather in prayer against the backdrop of the suffering of our brothers and sisters after the disasters in Haiti and Chile.

Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the chairman of Catholic Relief Services’ board, has said that the images of Good Friday and Easter Sunday are very appropriate in describing Haiti today. When he first heard of the massive earthquake, he happened to be in Rome and was drawn to our Mother Church, St. Peter’s Basilica, where he knelt and prayed before the beautiful statue of the Pietà. As he described it, the image he saw before him was of Haiti as the broken, bloody body of Jesus in the arms of his Blessed Mother, crying out to the world for aid and assistance.

But, like the story of Jesus, that cry is not the last word. When Archbishop Dolan and I traveled to Haiti for the funeral of the archbishop of Port-au-Prince, who had been killed in the earthquake, we saw destruction, suffering and despair. But we also saw hope. CRS already had a large presence in Haiti, and we were able to begin emergency relief very quickly. Neighbors helped neighbors, sharing food, rescuing people from the rubble, working together to build makeshift shelters. And in the faces of the Haitian people, you don’t see defeat. You see resilience and a determination to rebuild.

Our Catholic community here in the United States has responded generously and will play a major role in that rebuilding effort. And as you have come to expect, CRS will be good stewards of the resources you have given, maintaining the highest standards of transparency and accountability as we move forward.

As we embark on this great work as part of the universal Catholic Church, we will respond in concert with all of its diverse conferences of bishops, networks and organizations. As a member of Caritas Internationalis, CRS will collaborate closely with our sister Caritas agencies as well as Caritas Haiti.

In Chile, CRS is providing technical and financial assistance, and is working closely with Caritas Chile.

One hallmark of our response as Catholics is that our goal is the holistic development of the human person. We will take into account the multiple dimensions of each individual as a whole person, including physical, social and spiritual dimensions. The response of Catholics in the United States will serve all of these dimensions.

Our response will also be based on the hopes and aspirations of the Haitian Church and the Haitian people. We must listen to their voices and involve them in every step of the process. Haitians are eager to be involved, and they have a right—and a responsibility—to do so.

The coming months present many challenges. As the rainy season approaches, we will continue to provide better shelter for those left homeless by the earthquake. We are already formulating plans for long-term reconstruction and recovery. And we are drawing upon the lessons learned from our five-year rebuilding effort after the Indian Ocean tsunami to ensure that whatever we do is done right.

Haiti may have gone through a dark night of the soul. But the hope and promise of resurrection is on the horizon.

Thank you for your continued support and your prayers.

Ken Hackett
President

It comes as no surprise that the tragic earthquake in Haiti has attracted an enormous amount of media attention. In my own interviews, I’ve been asked by reporters how I account for the incredible and generous response of the American people to this disaster.

To my mind, part of it is the proximity of Haiti to our country. Part of it is the fact that Haiti was gripped by such poverty even before the earthquake. And part of it is the extent of the damage and suffering.

But clearly a big reason for this outpouring, especially among Catholics in the United States, is that so many parishes here have longstanding relationships with parishes in Haiti. Many Catholics from this country have traveled there, and have welcomed their Haitian brothers and sisters to their own parishes and homes. As a result of these “twinning” relationships, Haitians are not strangers, but are truly neighbors and friends. It is a vivid experience of being One Human Family. That is why this disaster was such a shock. It hit close to home, and has affected us deeply.

One example is the relationship between the St. Brendan Catholic Community in the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the parish of Notre Dame de Fatima in Bassin-Zim, Haiti, a rural town about 80 miles from the quake’s epicenter. St. Brendan’s is one of at least nine parishes in the Archdiocese of Atlanta that have established a twinning relationship. The parish has maintained this outreach since 2004 and has initiated several projects, including basic parish support, a drive to build a parish hall and a microloan program.

While the town of Bassin-Zim lies outside of the earthquake impact zone and the parish suffered no structural damage, the parishioners are still feeling the effects of the disaster. Many people in the town lost family members and friends in Port-au-Prince, including the pastor, whose sister was killed. In addition to these losses, they are seeing a significant influx of people displaced by the earthquake, which is resulting in inflated prices and shortages of food, fuel and other supplies—for a time, there was even a shortage of hosts for the celebration of the Eucharist.

St. Brendan’s parishioners have expressed their concern for their friends at Notre Dame de Fatima in many ways. Their prayer intentions have prominently included the people of Haiti, and an altar cloth embroidered by the members of their sister parish has covered the altar from the day the earthquake struck until Ash Wednesday. They have kept their fellow parishioners informed through special reports from Catholic Relief Services that have been distributed through their parish bulletins, websites, and a Facebook page for their Haiti outreach project.

And in a special Haiti supply mission, two members of St. Brendan’s Haiti outreach project traveled with an interpreter to the Dominican Republic, where they purchased a large truck and loaded it with fuel, food and other necessities. With logistical help provided by a local Caritas agency they met through CRS Dominican Republic, the parishioners delivered the supplies to their sister parish themselves.

And of course, the people of St. Brendan’s have generously donated to both the CRS emergency response as well as the local parish partnership with Notre Dame de Fatima.

Stories like these can be told dozens of times. They stand as a testament to the bond between Catholics in the United States and our brothers and sisters in Haiti. That bond will be continued and strengthened through the long-term relief and recovery effort that CRS will carry out over the coming years.

Thank you for your continued support and your prayers.

Ken Hackett
President

I have just returned from Haiti. The destruction in Port-au-Prince is pervasive. Building after building has crumbled to a pile of rubble. Amid the broken cityscape, thousands of suffering people mourn for the dead, search for the missing and seek help for the injured. The agony is overwhelming. I have not seen a worse aftermath of an earthquake during my entire, decades-long career in humanitarian relief.

Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan, who is also Catholic Relief Services’ chairman of the board, fellow staff members and I attended the funeral Mass for Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot and his vicar general, Monsignor Charles Benoit, who died along with many others when the cathedral in Port-au-Prince collapsed. Prayers and tears flowed from the hearts of the hundreds gathered to pay their last respects to these men, who devoted their lives to encouraging and inspiring poor Haitians against the most daunting of odds even in the best of times.

How ironic it seems now to note that just last month I wrote to you about the fifth anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. In its wake, Catholic Relief Services mounted the largest relief and recovery effort in our history. Let me assure you that our response to the Haitian earthquake has been rapid and robust.

We were able to respond immediately thanks to emergency supplies we had stored in our warehouses in Port-au-Prince and another city to the southwest called Les Cayes. We were also fortunate that a regularly scheduled shipment of 1,500 metric tons of food aid from the U.S. Agency for International Development arrived soon after the earthquake.

To date, CRS has provided food and other essentials to tens of thousands of people. CRS volunteers in the Dominican Republic are filling buckets with crackers, sardines, canned beans and juice boxes. CRS is unloading trucks of wheat to help feed quake survivors who’ve sought haven on the grounds of a country club and are desperate for food.

We visited what remains of the CRS-supported St. Francois de Sales hospital. Determined doctors and dedicated staff were busy mending and counseling those with injuries to body and spirit. Operations were performed outdoors beneath an unforgiving sun. And I watched with great amazement as Archbishop Dolan moved among the patients and doctors. He blessed every person he met. He comforted every child, and encouraged every medical person with inspiring goodness of heart.

Catholic Relief Services was able to rush aid to the injured, homeless and frightened so efficiently and effectively because we have been working in Haiti for 55 years. Many of our programs are located south and west of Port-au-Prince, so we had staff and supplies of hygiene kits and other necessities at well-placed warehouses beyond the reaches of the terrible destruction.

CRS works effectively because we have longstanding and deep relationships with partners. We have a great reputation for getting things done. CRS was asked to be the lead agency at one of the first formally organized camps, where as many as 80,000 people are sleeping every night.

Just like after the tsunami, CRS will stay on the ground long after the TV cameras have packed up and gone home. We will continue to have a presence in Haiti. And we will do so, just like after the tsunami, because of the tremendous generosity of you, the friends of CRS.

One Haitian told us, “The worst is not knowing the future.” Thanks to you, the future is a little more clear. We will be in Haiti to restart and rebuild the hopes and futures of our brothers and sisters.
Your prayers and financial gifts are still needed urgently, as we prepare for great challenge ahead of us. Your support has been overwhelming. Thank you!

Ken Hackett
President

Water is life.

I’ve heard this saying in so many places where I’ve traveled, expressed in a multitude of languages. Its truth is self-evident to millions of people assisted by Catholic Relief Services. That’s why you’ll see it painted on the sides of countless wells, tanks and cisterns that bring clean, life-giving water to poor and vulnerable communities around the world.

Water is a source of life for all of us as people, for the food we eat, for the animals it sustains. Because it is so basic, needed by everyone, it takes on a social dimension. Where it is plentiful, we may take it for granted.

Yet in many countries in our world, the demand for clean water for consumption, hygiene and sanitation exceeds supply. Where water is scarce, it can be a means to bring people together, through the construction of water systems, for example. Where there is not enough, it can contribute to conflict and, sometimes, violence.

Here are the grim statistics: Approximately 1 billion people lack access to clean water, and more than twice that many do not have adequate sanitation. The vast majority of these people live in rural areas, in extreme poverty. As a result, more than 2 million people, mostly children, die each year from diseases related to dirty water and poor sanitation.

Improving water and sanitation systems in poor and vulnerable communities, as well as reconstructing these systems in places hit by disaster, has long been an important part of the work of CRS. From the beginning, our water experts have focused on the physical and technical aspects of building these systems—which they refer to in terms of “tubes and tanks.”

But what we are increasingly seeing is that we must also understand and identify the social dimensions of water, particularly where there is the potential for it to trigger conflict.

Pope Benedict XVI, in his message for the 2010 World Day of Peace, speaks of this social dimension of our natural resources: “The environment must be seen as God’s gift to all people, and the use we make of it entails a shared responsibility for all humanity, especially the poor and future generations.”

That’s why CRS now develops water projects with local communities within a peacebuilding framework. In our approach to peacebuilding, as in all our work, we draw on the principles of Catholic social teaching to strive toward building a culture of peace rooted in justice, equality and nonviolence. We seek to address the personal grievances people have with each other, as well as the unjust structures and policies on the social level. We have seen that these grievances, if left unaddressed, are the very ones that can mushroom into conflict.

One example of this peacebuilding is in El Salvador, where a CRS partner, Caritas El Salvador, is taking a leading role in the Foro de Agua, a permanent water forum comprising more than 100 organizations and institutions that work to influence public policy for the just, efficient and equitable use of water resources.

And here’s one piece of late-breaking news: CRS’ specialists in water and sanitation, along with their colleagues in peacebuilding, have collaborated on a new publication, Water and Conflict: Incorporating Peacebuilding into Water Development, which provides an overview of some of the common and growing issues of conflict in international water development. CRS sees this publication as a first step to understanding how to better incorporate peacebuilding into our water programs at the country level.

It is our hope that these new approaches will help the people we serve to build communities that live in good health—and in peace.

Thank you for your continued support and your prayers for a peaceful new year for all.

Ken Hackett
President

This December 26, as we bask in the warm afterglow of family Christmas celebrations, we will pause to remember the fifth anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, one of the most horrific natural disasters in memory.

The tidal wave claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people and left millions homeless, without the means to support themselves and their families. The destruction was almost unimaginable. The human suffering was even worse.

In response, Catholic Relief Services mounted the largest relief and recovery effort in our history. Nearly five years later, I can proudly say that our ambitious reconstruction goals have been met. Thanks to an incredible outpouring from members of the Catholic community in the United States, many contributing though their parishes, their dioceses and national Church organizations, CRS received an overwhelming $170 million in private donations to assist survivors. Another $32 million came from U.S. government and other institutional donors.

This incredible gesture of solidarity has accomplished a great deal. Working in collaboration with the local Church partners and other organizations, many of our projects were completed within four years, a year ahead of schedule.

In the three countries that were hardest hit by the tsunami—India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka—CRS has constructed more than 13,000 permanent homes, providing thousands of families with better places to live than they had before the disaster. But these houses are more than just a place to live. The recipients consider the house an asset that can be inherited by their children. It can be used as the basis for generating income, as collateral for a microfinance loan, or as a center for a small business.

Another area we focused on was the health of the people affected by the tsunami. In the immediate aftermath, the quick availability of funds enabled us to take measures that prevented the spread of waterborne diseases. We embarked on many projects to improve the quality of water and sanitation, which will preserve the health of communities. We helped to build and repair numerous health centers, and we trained community health workers to provide services in their communities, including basic prevention and management of diseases for children and pregnant women.

CRS recently wrapped up our final tsunami projects by completing work in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, where we repaired and, in many cases, reconstructed more than 300 community infrastructure projects, including piers, markets, bridges, roads, schools and clinics. In addition, CRS constructed 13 central markets that support fruit, vegetable and fish vendors and help keep a market-driven economy in motion. The jewel of this effort was the construction of the Banda Aceh Mother and Child Hospital, a full-service facility that is the first of its kind in the region.

These good works stand as a tangible symbol of the connection of Catholics in the United States to their brothers and sisters who endured such great suffering. We were brought together in tragedy, but we will remain united as one human family.

Thank you for your continued support and your prayers.

Ken Hackett
President

Just a week after we gather with our families to celebrate Thanksgiving, we pause to commemorate a more somber occasion: World AIDS Day.

This observance each December 1 is a time to take note of the toll this awful pandemic exacts: the lives taken, the futures dimmed, the families broken apart.

But to my mind, World AIDS Day is increasingly an observance of hope. Thanks to advanced drug therapies that prolong the lives of people with HIV, this dread disease is no longer a death sentence. This has been the case for a while in developed countries like the United States, and it is now a reality in the poorest places in the world, thanks to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Catholic Relief Services is part of a coalition called AIDSRelief that has one of the largest PEPFAR grants and is providing lifesaving drug therapy to more than 170,000 people. Another 460,000 people are receiving related medical care.

And here’s the connection between World AIDS Day and Thanksgiving: This hope that you provide through the U.S. government and through your support of CRS begets gratitude from the people we serve.

CRS recently sponsored a forum in Washington, D.C., on our holistic and compassionate approach to the care of people with HIV. The event attracted some of the leading figures in the medical community. We were also privileged to hear from patients at a clinic in Uganda funded by the CRS and the AIDSRelief consortium. I’d like to share some of their words with you.

One gentleman, who has been receiving antiretroviral drug treatment since 2007, wrote to his “Dear brothers and sisters from CRS”:

“Thank you very much for this service,” he says. “I am now very strong and I can help my family a bit…Therefore I also praise the Lord, while praying that the Almighty should bless all you are doing.”

Another patient wrote to “sincerely send a word of appreciation to CRS for having constantly supplied us with [antiretroviral medications] and other necessities that have made our lives what they are today…May the Almighty reward you abundantly.”

A staff worker wrote that “Our clients who are on [antiretroviral therapy] are healthy, physically fit and they are doing well. [They have an] improved way of living economically, socially and medically, etc. Therefore with a great and loving heart I say ‘Thank you very much, CRS,’ for that kind help. And may our beloved God continue blessing your programs.”

Finally, a doctor wrote to say “I am very grateful for the support you have given to the Ugandans through your services at CRS.

“I would like to say that, had it not been for the existence of CRS in Kasanga…the poor people in the remote peripheries of Uganda would never have received any hope of living up to today nor been able to see a doctor.

“The doctor to patient ratio in Uganda is 1 to 18,000 people, and most doctors prefer to work in the urban setting. So the clients in the most distant rural places hardly get quality care.

“I have been able to leave my family, friends and all the good things that the urban places provide just to serve the poor and needy people here and because CRS has given me an opportunity to care.”

For many of these people, who had given up hope of a future with their loved ones, life has begun anew. And through your generosity, you have been a part of this rebirth.

Thank you for your continued support and your prayers.

Ken Hackett
President

As the summer was drawing to a close, we heard of the death of Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution, which lifted millions of people, mostly in Asia, out of hunger through the production of high-yield varieties of wheat.

Despite Dr. Borlaug’s achievements, we commemorate this year’s World Food Day on October 16 facing the fact that more than a billion people around the world suffer each day without enough to eat. The fight against global hunger continues.

And to add to the complexity of our task, we are facing some new challenges in increasing agricultural production and preventing famine. For example, over the last several weeks, we’ve received some confounding news about disasters in Africa.

In East Africa, the nearly complete failure of seasonal rains has resulted in drought that is causing suffering and hardship for almost 4 million people in Kenya. At the same time, a storm last month in Burkina Faso poured more than 10 inches of rain on the capital city of Ouagadougou in a 12-hour period, breaking a record that had stood since 1919 and causing floods that drove more than 100,000 people from their homes.

There is no conclusive link among these two weather aberrations and global climate change. But the fact is we are witnessing shifts in climatic conditions around the world.

Our overseas staff and partners report that climate change is accelerating disasters and altering rainfall patterns and traditional agriculture. And those shifts are causing those who contributed the least to global climate change, the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, to suffer the most from its effects.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, under Vatican leadership, have accepted the overwhelming scientific consensus that global climate change is real and is caused by human activity, and that it is disproportionately affecting the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. The United States bears a special responsibility in our stewardship of God’s creation to shape responses that serve the entire human family. As Pope Benedict XVI said in his message about last month’s U.N. summit on climate change: “The economic and social costs of using up shared resources must be recognized with transparency and borne by those who incur them, and not by other peoples or future generations. The protection of the environment, and the safeguarding of resources and of the climate, oblige all international leaders to act jointly, respecting the law and promoting solidarity with the weakest regions of the world.”

And let me add Pope Benedict’s words from his most recent encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, in addressing the topic of development, the rights of peoples and the environment: “The environment is God’s gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole.”

Catholic Relief Services’ overseas programs have already developed more than $60 million in adaptation-related projects. And in partnership with the U.S. bishops, CRS is contributing our experience and observations to the U.S. administration and congress as they develop our nation’s response to climate change.  A new initiative of leading national Catholic organizations, including CRS, is calling on Catholics throughout the United States to reflect and act on our obligations to care for creation and for “the least of these” as a distinctive Catholic contribution to the climate change debate.

As we mark this year’s World Food Day, let us reaffirm our commitment and redouble our efforts to do all we can to end global hunger.

Thank you for your continued support and your prayers.

Ken Hackett
President