Cardinal Sean O’Malley (far right), chats with (left to right) Rev. J. Bryan Hehir; Joan Neal, CRS executive vice president for U.S. Operations; and Maureen McCullough, CRS Northeast regional director. Photo by Archdiocese of Boston.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the only blogging American cardinal we know of, writes this week about his meeting with Catholic Relief Services’ U.S. Operations staff. Joan Neal, our executive vice president for U.S. Operations, and Maureen McCullough, CRS’ Northeast regional director based in Philadelphia, met with Cardinal O’Malley earlier this week to brief him on the work of CRS.

Joan Neal, CRS executive vice president for U.S. Operations (left), and Maureen McCullough, CRS Northeast regional director. Photo by Archdiocese of Boston.

Also at the meeting was the Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, who at one time served as counselor to the president of Catholic Relief Services. Fr. Hehir was also in the news this week when it was announced that he would leave his post as president of Catholic Charities of Boston so he could work more closely with Cardinal O’Malley. His replacement? Another CRS alum: Tiziana Dearing, who most recently had been executive director of Harvard’s Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations.

Cardinal O’Malley shared some very kind words about the work of CRS, particularly in the area of serving people with HIV and AIDS. Here are some excerpts from “Cardinal Sean’s Blog:”

They were coming to us about promoting the works of CRS and also the general education of Catholics on social teachings. So much of the work of CRS is to raise people’s consciences of the Church’s commitment on social justice at the international level.

They have a number of wonderful programs. We spoke particularly about the participation of the archdiocese in the rice bowl that CRS sponsors every Lenten season.

I encouraged them to be in touch with our campus ministry people as well as Catholic Television and The Pilot so we could help Catholics in Boston get to know the programs they have.

The book won’t hit the shelves until September, but a website is already up and running. Solidarity Will Transform the World: Stories of Hope from Catholic Relief Services is a collection of testimonies by the people served by CRS. It was written by Jeffry Korgen, the director of social ministries for the National Pastoral Life Center in New York.

The stories in Solidarity Will Transform the World highlight the lives of people in the developing world and the fight against poverty and injustice. Through these accounts, Korgen explores issues like immigration, HIV and AIDS, and peacebuilding.

Solidarity Will Transform the World will take you on a journey to visit the lives of people in Mexico, Zambia, India, Rwanda, and Nicaragua. Read about people in Mexico who are making a better living through Fair Trade coffee and microfinance programs, or about Zambians who through the miracle of antiretroviral drugs have been given a chance at living with HIV and AIDS and who now fight for the lives of their fellow countrymen.

Visit http://storiesofhope.crs.org/, the official website for the book, to read excerpts from all five chapters. The site also contains multimedia about CRS projects around the world — and will soon feature lesson plans and study guides for use of the book in classrooms.

Catholic youth across the country are praying and preparing for next year’s World Youth Day in Sydney. CRS has partnered with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to create the World Youth Day Global Pilgrimage, a website where you can take a yearlong online journey leading up to this great gathering of the Catholic Church.

Read about the cultures in our one human family and prepare to meet the people at World Youth Day. Pray for peace and justice with interactive photo meditations. Learn about how the U.S. Catholic Church serves people around the world.

Join the pilgrimage at http://education.crs.org/wyd/.