WASHINGTON—The 2009 Catholic Social Ministry Gathering will be held February 22-25, at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill. This annual event brings together over 600 leaders of Catholic social ministry from across the United States to discuss issues of justice and peace, including the food crisis, healthcare and economic stability. The theme of this year’s gathering is " Christ Our Hope: Healing a Broken World."

Cardinal Francis George, OMI, Archbishop of Chicago and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), will preside at the opening Mass. Following Mass, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, will give the opening plenary address on the place of Catholic social teaching in the life and ministry of the Church.

The gathering will include talks by John Carr, executive director of Justice, Peace and Human Development at the USCCB, who will give an overview of the challenges facing social ministry today, as well as Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu, Uganda, on international issues and Angela Blackwell Glover, founder and CEO of Policylink, on domestic issues. NewsHour commentator Mark Shields will offer a post-election analysis. Workshops at the gathering will cover topics including immigration reform, the death penalty and violence against women.

A centerpiece of the gathering will be the February 24 visit to Capitol Hill, where each participant will join his or her state delegation in organizing meetings with their Congressional Representatives to discuss issues affecting the poor and vulnerable. The closing Mass of the gathering will be an Ash Wednesday Mass celebrated by Father David O’Connell, CM, President of The Catholic University of America.

More information on the event, including registration information for Catholic social ministry leaders, is available at www.catholicsocialministrygathering.org or by contacting Cynthia Morris-Colbert at 202-541-3180.

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