Pope Benedict XVI’s first papal visit to the U.S has brought an inevitable jockeying to claim the pope’s words as endorsement for partisan agendas during a divisive election year. But the pope and the billion-member church he leads do not fit easily into tidy ideological boxes. Above all, Benedict is a moral leader who brings a transcendent message of hope to a nation often paralyzed by a culture of fear.

Forty years ago today one of the great voices for human dignity was silenced by an assassin’s bullet. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to Memphis in support of striking sanitation workers demanding better wages and union representation. A leader of soaring eloquence and historic importance, King had met with presidents, traveled the globe as a hero of nonviolent resistance and at age 35 was the youngest person awarded the Nobel Prize. But in his final hours King was still in the streets walking the long road to justice with men who struggled to earn a living collecting garbage.

This is a first in a series of blog posts on the upcoming papal visit.

My thoughts on the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the United States have to do with the common good -- a central concept in Catholic social thought that is nearly incomprehensible to most people in the United States. Americans surely know what liberty and equality mean, but they are largely in the dark concerning the fraternity and solidarity required for building a common good culture. Pope Benedict can help inspire a revitalized commitment to the common good that is urgently needed if we are going to move closer to economic justice in American society.

Originally posted God's Politics as part of their "The Cost of War Series."

Five years after bombs first exploded over Baghdad with a "shock and awe" display of staggering military might, the Iraq war continues with tragic costs and still-unseen consequences.

First, we mourn and honor the American and Iraqi dead whose lost lives are the ultimate reminder of war's cruelty. These many thousands gone are not statistics. Fathers, mothers, husbands, and sisters will never come home again. Children will grow up without parents. Grief etched on the human heart does not fade like today's headlines.