The family and same-sex marriage in Europe, religious freedom in Asia, corruption in Africa, questions of social justice in Latin America, pro-life and peace and war issues in the United States. These are some of the areas where church and politics have been meeting in recent months.

Some weeks back a new "statement of principles" was signed by 55 of the 73 Catholic Democrats in the US House of Representatives. The statement said the Catholic House members see their faith as a primary motivator for their political actions but are sometimes required by conscience or because of the religious diversity of the US to disagree with the Church "in some areas."

During the 2004 presidential campaign, some bishops said Catholic politicians who vote in favour of abortion should be refused Communion. In a June 2004 statement drawn up by Cardinal McCarrick's task force, the bishops declared that politicians who act "consistently to support abortion on demand" risk "co-operating in evil and sinning against the common good."

Across the Atlantic, in Scotland, the bishops said in a statement distributed during the last week of January that Scottish society is in a moral decline because of politicians' failure to recognise and support the role of the family. The Bishops' Conference of Scotland denounced the legal recognition of same-sex unions and urged all Catholics to be at the "forefront of promoting family life".

"Instead of reserving to married couples tax relief, inheritance rights, priority housing and such benefits as would assist those who need to establish an environment of love and stability for the sake of the family, Government extends such benefits to partnerships which are, of their nature, incapable of providing tomorrow's citizens, whose values will determine our society," the bishops said.

They said that while no one should be excluded from society because of their sexual orientation, it was unwise to grant the "expression of such sexuality an equivalence in law and public esteem to that of conjugal love."

In Italy, where the country is on the eve of a general election, the head of the centre-left coalition, Romano Prodi, who is an eminent Catholic politician, came out in support of legal rights for long-term unwed couples - provoking a storm of objections by the Vatican and Italian Church leaders. The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, said Prodi was trying to relativise the family, an institution founded on marriage. The Italian bishops' news agency, SIR, said Prodi's coalition would pay politically if it tried to imitate Spain, where gay marriage has been legalised.

Prodi insisted that it was not about gay marriage as such, but about the more than 500,000 Italian couples who have lived together for years without social benefits. He supports legislation that would grant cohabiting couples administrative and financial benefits similar to those of married couples.

A survey published in the past weeks said the majority of Catholics in Italy support issues that clash with Church teachings. The nationwide poll also found that, while the number of Catholics in Italy has grown over the past decade, they tend to support issues such as legal rights for long-term unmarried couples, allowing divorced couples to receive Communion and maintaining the legality of divorce and abortion.

The survey showed a greater acceptance by Catholics of the pluralism in the field of ethics.

A different kind of dynamic was being played out in Brazil, where Church leaders organised some of the biggest protest rallies in August and September against corruption in government and inaction on social programmes.

Participants in demonstrations organised by Cry of the Excluded, a movement founded by the Brazilian bishops' conference and the Landless Peasant Movement, called on the government of President Lula to keep its land reform promises and punish those charged in a recent corruption scandal. The Brazilian bishops have just published a pastoral letter strongly criticising Lula.

In Africa, Sudanese and Ugandan Church leaders joined military and tribal chiefs last September in a southern Sudanese village to explore ways to end civil strife in northern Uganda. The Ugandan delegation was headed by Catholic Archbishop John Odama of Gulu and Anglican Bishop John Charles Odurkami of Lango.

The leaders proposed ways in which the estimated 20,000 children kidnapped by the rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army over the past five years can return home. Humanitarian groups say the children have been forced to become child soldiers or sex slaves.

In other parts of Africa, bishops, priests and lay people have been involved in promoting the sometimes slow movement toward democracy. In Tanzania the country's bishops have issued a pastoral letter criticising corruption and asking that more resources be devoted to education and health care.

Sometimes the Church is on the front lines of basic political formation. The Vatican missionary news agency, Fides, described the unusual work of Sister Odette Musubusu, a member of the Sisters of Mary in the Democratic Republic of Congo; she has organised a 100-person team of "socio-political animators."

The group travels to remote villages and holds lessons on democratic participation.

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