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Poor face uncertain future as welfare rules change
Maureen Flamm and her staff see them every day: Single mothers, many with more than one child, struggling to get or keep jobs and meet the requirements of the welfare reform law passed in 1996.

As Illinois terminated the first families who had exceeded a five-year lifetime cap on public assistance this month, thousands of parents work at keeping their jobs in an uncertain economy.

Now Congress is preparing to reauthorize the program that provides money for states to give cash aid to needy families, but those who work with and advocate for poor people wonder what some of the provisions in the House of Representatives-approved bill would do to their clients.

Works of Mercy
Catholic Charities USA, Catholic Health Association celebrate faith and commitment
When Chicago welcomes 1,000 leaders from Catholic social service and health care agencies next month, it will offer them a chance to explore a common history and a common mission, played out in two very different ministries.

“Celebration 275: United in Faith, Committed to Justice,” the first ever joint national meeting of Catholic Charities USA and the Catholic Health Association, hearkens back to 12 Ursuline nuns who came from France to New Orleans in 1827 and started schools, offered service to the poor and worked in hospitals. Catholic health care workers and social service providers both count the sisters as their spiritual foremothers.

Future docs plunge into serving poor
Junior will always stand out among Sarah Carreon’s memories of her 10 days in Haiti.

Junior is a bright, happy 8-year-old-”He’s just beautiful,” Carreon said-despite a disfiguring tumor on his face that has made it difficult for him to eat and breathe and is now eating into the bones of his skull.

Carreon and nine other students from Loyola University’s Stritch School of Medicine met Junior at St. Boniface Hospital in Fond des Blanc, about 60 miles outside Port au Prince where they were assisting two U.S. doctors as part of a campus-ministry sponsored immersion program designed to connect medical students with service opportunities in the developing world.

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