World’s poor
Christian Science Monitor
The controversy over the management of the World Bank with Paul Wolfowitz’s resignation has turned attention to the purpose and effectiveness of the institution. Founded after World War II, the bank’s purpose is to help fight world poverty. But the Christian Science Monitor asks if it has gotten off track in its mission and if it is relevant today since private aid from nongovernmental organizations and religious groups, as well as big-money philanthropy and "social" investment funds, are now effective in supporting such ventures as education or water projects.

What Catholics don’t know
Catholic News Service
Only one-third of Catholics in a national survey said they had heard of the U.S. bishops' policies to prevent child sex abuse and respond to abuse allegations, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate said last week. Only one-sixth said they have heard of the abuse prevention programs in their own diocese, it added.
We’re religiously illiterate
Religion and Ethics Newsweekly
The new book “Religious Literacy” charges that most Americans are illiterate about the Bible and the major world religions. The author, Stephen Prothero, is the chair of the religion department at Boston University and says most Americans cannot name the first book of the Bible -- Genesis, and can name only one of the four Gospels. He says 60 percent cannot name five of the Ten Commandments.