At the Last Judgment, Jesus says, He will invite into heaven those who welcomed him in every stranger they met: “As long as you did this to the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it to Me.” (Mt. 25:35)    Christ Himself was a stranger, a refugee, as a small child, taken to Egypt by his parents to be safe from Herod.  

Within the next two weeks, Congress must pass a budget outlining how the revenue the government receives from our taxes will be allocated.  This budget is a moral document.  It determines how much money – if any – will be used to fund everything from the National Institutes of Health to the Pentagon, from rural health programs to foreign military aid.

One of the foundational principles of Catholic Social Teaching is care for the poor and vulnerable.  

November was Black Catholic History Month.  In honor of this, Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, DC, has written a new pastoral letter: “The Challenge of Racism Today.”  In this, he echoes the words of our last three popes and numerous bishops, who have all taught that racism is a sin.  As St. John Paul II bluntly said in 2001: “Racism is a sin that constitutes a serious offense against God.”