Editor's note.

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MANY YEARS, THERE SEEMS TO BE A REAL conversation about poverty. It's not that anything much has changed; poverty remains an ever-present but much-ignored issue, by the political elite at any rate. The aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the US, however, forced the issue back onto our television screens and subsequently onto the radar screens that intermittently blip on Capitol Hill. The Live 8 series of concerts did the same on a more global scale. It's far too early to know if anything is actually going to happen, let alone change, but the reality that the poor suffer most during natural disasters has struck home, and those who campaign against poverty may gain some traction in coining funding and appropriation battles.

This issue of Conscience was planned several months ago, well before the devastation in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Nevertheless, it touches on many timely issues related to poverty and the position of poor women in the US and elsewhere.

One of the central tenets of Catholic teaching is the preferential option for the poor, that the poor should come first. David Anderson and Sister Dorothy Pagosa look at how, respectively, the hierarchy and the laity approach the issue. Author, advocate and academic Marlene Gerber Fried examines the economics of abortion provision in the US and the impact that restrictions on government funding have on poor women. In "Penalizing Poor Women," Diana Romero scrutinizes US welfare policies and finds that they penalize larger families while denying the means to plan for smaller ones.

We then turn our eyes to the international scene. Noted international aid consultant David Sogge considers the history of development aid and questions the hypothesis that a desire to alleviate poverty may not be at the head of the priority list for donors. In a pair of articles looking at the recent World Summit at the United Nations, Nadia Johnson from the Women's Environment & Development Organization looks at how women fared during the review of the Millennium Development Goals and Serra Sippel looks at the telling overreaction from the Vatican to a statement from international religious leaders on the MDGS and reproductive health.

Conscience asked a number of commentators to write about poverty, loss and struggle, especially, but not exclusively, looking at how they can be positive influences on people's lives. Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs, Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock and Malachy McCourt contribute to this discussion.

Finally, we report on a tremendously successful trip to Cologne, Germany, for dozens of youth activists involved in the WYD4All campaign, where they promoted the Condoms4Life campaign and church reform on issues related to sexual and reproductive health and rights.

DAVID J. NOLAN 

Editor