U.S. has resources to help at home and abroad, religious leaders say

Published: 2005-09-30

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The United States not only has the resources but the responsibility to deal with both domestic disasters like hurricanes and "critical needs of the world's poor and most vulnerable." How Congress responds "should reflect our moral obligation to reach out to the poor and vulnerable," said a Sept. 29 letter written by Catholic Relief Services president and CEO Ken Hackett and Bishop John H. Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Fla., chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Policy. "At the same time Congress responds generously and quickly to those who have lost so much, we ask that you continue to work to improve the lives and dignity of those who have so little around the world," Bishop Ricard and Hackett said in the letter, sent to Senate conferees on a bill appropriating funds for foreign operations. The letter outlined the bishops' position on several international funding issues before the Senate conferees.

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