In a speech on Passion Sunday during his visit to the Czech Republic, President Obama echoed positions consistently taken by the Vatican: "Just as we stood for freedom in the 20th century, we must stand together for the right of people everywhere to live free from fear in the 21st century. And as a nuclear power, as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act. We cannot succeed in this endeavor alone, but we can lead it, we can start it.

Congress is debating President Obama's federal budget proposal this week. Let's take a time out from the partisan spin and cable news punditry.

The budget debate is not about abstract economic theories or tired ideological divisions. It's about choosing our values and restoring belief in government that serves the common good.

In a recent letter to Congress, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said the federal budget is about "moral choices" and asked Congress to place "the needs of poor families and the most vulnerable in our nation and around the world first."

Workers' rights and unions have been hot topics in the news lately. The Catholic social tradition clearly supports the dignity of workers and respecting their rights. Specifically, the Church "recognizes the fundamental role played by labor unions, whose existence is connected with the right to form associations or unions to defend vital interests of workers…" (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 305).

The amount of ugly rhetoric against undocumented Latino immigrants seems to be growing in direct proportion to the amount of fear and instability reflected in the media about the tenuous U.S. economy. This may explain the verifiable increase in hate crimes against all Latinos (http://www.latinosagainsthatespeech.org/news/11_09_08.html), and this is simply unacceptable.

With all the bad news about U.S. stock markets and unemployment, it might be easy to forget those in need throughout the world (www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/08/AR2009030801216...). Help call attention to this issue by getting informed and spreading the word via email or by writing to your local editor or television producer.

On the March 1st edition of the CBS Evening News, correspondent Randall Pinkston reported on Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. Sadly, when he provided a Catholic response to her nomination, Pinkston only interviewed Bill Donohue of the Catholic League, who stuck to a predictable culture-war script that ignored Catholics' real concerns about health care. In fact, Catholics in Alliance members recently ranked health care as their top priority for movement advocacy.

"Viral messaging" is one of the fastest growing forms of media. Blogging, in particular, serves as a popular means to convey a message. Just google "Catholics in Alliance" and you will see the myriad blogs that mention us.

Dear supporter:

This week, we are asking our supporters to join the Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good Facebook group. As many of you may already know, Facebook is social networking website that will allow you to connect with other Common Good supporters, share Alliance news, and post information and photos. Catholics in Alliance uses Facebook to update and inform our supporters about breaking news and events as well as ways to get more involved in the common good movement.

Dear Supporter,

Moralaccountability.com, a blog site, recently published a commentary that mischaracterizes the motivation for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good's recent study, which explores the connection between socioeconomic factors and the abortion rate. The Alliance promotes a consistent ethic of life and challenges both political parties to help end the tragedy of abortion. Our primary interest in commissioning Reducing Abortion in America: The Effect of Socioeconomic Factors (http://www.catholicsinalliance.org/files/CACG_Final.pdf) was to explore ways to reduce abortions and find common-ground policies that support families, not to "provide cover" for any political party or ideology as Professor Michael New suggests in his essay. As Catholics concerned about the tragedy of abortion, we invite you to respond to the posting by submitting a comment to the blog (http://www.moralaccountability.com/obama-on-abortion/holding-catholics-i...).

Dear Common Good Media Activist:

Below is boilerplate language for a letter to the editor in response to any article you see in your local paper regarding the stimulus package. Our media experts drafted the letter to highlight Catholic social justice messaging: the need to remember the most vulnerable in our society, not just a select few.

Submitting the letter to the editor is easy:

* Copy and paste the boilerplate letter to the editor into an email from your personal account.
* Make sure you include your name and your hometown.