In a letter released Thursday, Cardinal Dolan and New York State’s bishops express concern that “it is becoming increasingly difficult for the working poor of our state to make ends meet.”

They write:

Our sustained recession and painfully slow recovery have left many [full time, minimum wage] workers — often people of color and frequently the newest immigrants to our shores who therefore have the fewest support systems — on the brink of homelessness, with not enough in their paychecks to pay for the most basic of necessities, like food, medicine or clothing for their children.

The debate over minimum wage has intensified over the past few weeks, with the Republican-controlled Senate refusing to even consider the bill. The bishops, however, have made their position clear:

It is our hope and our prayer that the two sides could come together for some sort of action to address the grave problems facing the lowest-wage earners in our state. We believe an increase in the minimum wage is a matter of fairness and justice, and we hope it can be addressed soon.

Last Friday, the former President again called for an end to the death penalty in an editorial for the Associated Baptist Press.

Deploring the United States’ “fascination with the death penalty,” Carter listed out what he called “the overwhelming ethical, financial, and religious reasons to abolish the death penalty.” Carter noted that the death penalty has been unsuccessful in deterring violent crime, decimated states’ budgets and been applied unjustly across racial lines.

Chief among Carter’s concerns, however, is how the death penalty violates the teachings of Jesus Christ. He wrote:

Some devout Christians are among the most fervent advocates of the death penalty, contradicting Jesus Christ and misinterpreting Holy Scriptures and numerous examples of mercy. We remember God’s forgiveness of Cain, who killed Abel, and the adulterer King David, who had Bathsheba’s husband killed. Jesus forgave an adulterous woman sentenced to be stoned to death and explained away the “eye for an eye” scripture.

Sadly, Carter stands in a league of his own. He is the only American President in modern history to advocate for the repeal of the death penalty.

Martin’s Twitter campaign began last week with the hashtag #WhatSistersMeanToMe and quickly grew.

It even garnered a response from former Virginia Congressman Tom Perriello, who tweeted: “In my darkest hours of doubt, it was the sisters that brought me the light.”

Martin, who credits a great deal of his formation as a Catholic priest to religious sisters, has written about “the enormous sacrifices, the uncountable contributions and the still-vibrant witness of women religious—and the ridiculous contradiction between popular notions of women religious and reality.”

Throughout the United States–in classrooms and on Capitol Hill, at soup kitchens and in boardrooms–religious sisters are on the front lines in the fight for justice. Now more than ever it’s urgent that people express the importance of their contributions.

In a millennial values survey conducted by Georgetown University’s Berkley Center and the Public Religion Research Institute, the data is clear: young people are frustrated with economic policies that promote injustice.

Nearly three-quarters of Millennials (73%) think the economic system in the United States favors the wealthy. This belief is consistent across all divides of race, gender, educational attainment or religious affiliation. Even 6-in-10 Milllennial Republicans (58%) agree with this sentiment.

Equal opportunity is also of great concern to Milllennials. More than 6-in-10 think that one of the major issues in the United States is that we don’t give all the same opportunity in life.

As all eyes turn to the race for the White House this election year, pundits will be obsessed with the latest poll numbers, NASCAR dads and soccer moms. But perhaps they will pay a bit more attention to the concerns affecting young people, namely fair economic opportunity for all.

In reply, Benedict offered a stunning critique of politicians who refuse to stand up for Catholic social teaching on economic justice.

He remarked that such politicians are practicing a certain “schizophrenia between individual and public morality.” Some Catholic politicians, Benedict notes, may claim to practice their religion in the private sphere, but “in public life they follow other paths that don’t correspond to the great values of the Gospel which are necessary for the foundation of a just society.”

Benedict argued that the Church must liberate politics “from false interests and the obscurity imposed by those interests” and work to create a “social doctrine [that] overcome[es] this social division [between rich and poor]—which is truly anti-social.”

National Catholic Reporter’s John Allen explains how Benedict’s response shows that he is using faith to advance the many facets of social justice:

“Benedict took a staple of Western pro-life rhetoric, which is the need for coherence between a Catholic’s private beliefs and public positions, and gave it a far broader spin. The need for coherence, the pope suggested, doesn’t end with the culture wars, but also applies to other questions of social justice – including, in the first instance, solidarity with the poor and efforts to overcome glaring inequalities.”

A year ago, Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn signed legislation banning the death penalty in Illinois. Reflecting on that decision, Charles W. Hoffman, assistant defender in the Office of the Illinois State Appellate Defender wrote an op-ed in the Chicago Sun-Times affirming it as the right move:

The rightness of that decision is more clear than ever. Violent crime rates have not climbed. The public is no less safe. And the pursuit of justice has been served, not undermined.

Our system of capital punishment was abolished because it was broken beyond repair, infected with racism and inherently arbitrary and prone to mistakes. There is no doubt we’re better off without the death penalty, both morally and fiscally. The first anniversary of the abolition of that barbaric practice in Illinois is a joyous, and yet somber, occasion, which gives us all the opportunity to reflect on the profound fact that we, as a sovereign state, no longer kill people to show that killing people is wrong.

Illinois’s efforts are providing an example now for other states. Earlier this month in California, a group of policymakers who originally drafted the state’s death penalty law [deleted comma] abruptly changed their position and are now advocating for the repeal of the state’s costly capital punishment system.

Strengthened efforts are also underway in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan—the Archbishop of New York—weighed in on the issue after Mass on Sunday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral:

“Whatever we do, and however strongly we feel, we do it charitably, we do it civilly. We don’t judge the motives of other people. We just try, in a confident, peaceful, inviting way, to make our position felt, to invite other people to respect it.”

Over at the Washington Post’s On Faith blog, renowned Christian theologian Susan Thistlethwaite condemned Limbaugh’s remarks and credited the public’s defense of Sandra Fluke:

[T]his time the attacks on women’s authority in the public square through sexual shaming didn’t work. The advent of new media, and especially social media, means women’s voices can retain and even gain authority in the face of attack.

The push back against Limbaugh is working: nine advertisers have fled The Rush Limbaugh Show, including AOL on Monday.

Faithful America is hoping to increase that number to ten. Their petition asking the Christian dating service eHarmony to sever its tie to Limbaugh’s show has nearly 14,000 signatures.

In a strongly-worded letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Bishop Richard Pate of Des Moines–the Chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on International Justice and Peace–articulated the Church’s displeasure regarding possible military action:

“Iran’s bellicose statements, its failure to be transparent about its nuclear program and its possible acquisition of nuclear weapons are serious matters, but in themselves they do not justify military action. Discussing or promoting military options at this time is unwise and may be counterproductive. Actual or threatened military strikes are likely to strengthen the regime in power in Iran and would further marginalize those in Iran who want to abide by international norms. And, as the experience in Iraq teaches, the use of force can have many unintended consequences.”

This language matches the record of Pope Benedict XVI who throughout his pontificate has implored world leaders to avoid unnecessary conflict in Iran, most notably in separate meetings with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2006.

It is notable that Benedict’s predecessor, Blessed John Paul II also spoke out often against unnecessary military strikes, including the war in Iraq, a prophetic message that was sadly unheeded by American politicians.,

At Georgetown University—a Jesuit, Catholic university in Washington, DC—President John DeGioia sent a message to the University community condemning Rush Limbaugh’s “misogynistic [and] vitriolic” attacks. In his letter, he lamented how a “respectful [and] sincere” student who provided a “model of civil discourse” during her testimony before Congress could be treated with such “coarseness, anger [and] even hatred” by Limbaugh and others.

He was joined in his criticism of Limbaugh by Faithful America, which has launched a petition asking eHarmony (a Christian dating site) to stop advertising on The Rush Limbaugh Show. The petition states:

Rush Limbaugh is using “religious freedom” as a fig leaf for vile rhetoric about women who use birth control. eHarmony has built its business on Christian customers, and they must stop advertising on Limbaugh’s show immediately.

As of 6:00 PM EST, less than two hours after it went public, the petition has already garnered 5100 signatories.

Following Franklin Graham’s unfair attack on the President’s faith last week, Tim King of Sojourners called ’foul’ in a BBC debate with Bryan Fischer of American Family Radio.

While Fischer once more defended Graham’s attack on President Obama, Tim called out Graham’s duplicity:

When Graham was asked about the President’s faith, he said he didn’t know. But when he was asked about Santorum and Gingrich, he could answer with certainty what he thought was in their hearts and whether or not they were Christians. [T]he standard was for Democrats: “well, maybe you’re a Christian, maybe not?” But if you’re a Republican, then “yes, [you’re a Christian.]“

In an article featured Wednesday on CNN’s Belief Blog, Tim further articulated how this partisan hypocrisy by the Religious Right is driving young people away from religion altogether.

When Franklin Graham sets up double standards of faith for Republicans and Democrats, when Pat Robertson intones about a coming “secular atheist dictatorship,” when the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins goes off about the dangers of repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and other “anti-family, anti-religious, anti-Christian policies,” when the great test for the next President of our country is who has “real” theology and who has “phony” theology, it might make for good sound bites.

But it’s bad faith [and]…it’s hastening the decline of Christianity for an entire generation.