Five Things to Remember on Jan. 11

1.     Bishop Jaime Soto made the Washington Post website's "In Faith" section Jan. 9 with a blog on poverty.  He called poverty rates “serious moral failure."

2.     USCCB Blogger series this week for Poverty Awareness Month featured two USCCB members. Bishop Richard Pates, chair of USCCB Committee on International Justice and Peace:  (English - and Spanish) and Bishop Gerald Kicanas, chair of the board of Catholic Relief Services: (English - and Spanish).

      3.    For National Vocation Awareness Week, January 13-19, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of Media Relations will post guest blogs by a young priests and religious, January 15-19 at http://usccbmedia.blogspot.com. Guest bloggers are Sister Faith Marie Woolsey, a novice in the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist Meriden, Connecticut; Father Michael Duffy, a priest of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York, and associate pastor at Saint Kilian's Parish, Farmingdale, New York; Sister Susan Rose Francois, CSJP, a Sister of St. Joseph of Peace, currently studying theology and ethics at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago; Father Charles Frederico, S.J., vocation director for the Maryland, New England and New York Provinces of the Society of Jesus, and Brother Brian Ching, CSC, a transitional deacon and member of the Congregation of the Holy Cross who is studying for the priesthood.

   

4      4.     President Obama urged to provide vigorous leadership for Israeli-Palestinian peace. "We affirm your support of the two-state solution, promise our support for strong U.S. leadership for peace, and urge you even to consider appointing a high profile envoy in hopes that as in the past this might advance peace and justice in the region," wrote Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of USCCB, and Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, chairman of the USCCB Committee on International Justice and Peace. 

      

        5. God loves you.