Our Takes Daily

Did the pope have any influence?
BBC.com
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has introduced a $51 million plan to subsidize birth control pills in the world’s largest Catholic country. He said the program would give the poor the same right as the wealthy to have the number of children they want. The initiative comes just two weeks after Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Brazil, when he urged Catholics to maintain traditional family values.

America’s quasi Catholics
Monterey Herald
We are in the midst of an economic boom among quasi-religious Catholics, writes New York Times’ columnist David Brooks. A generation ago, Catholic incomes and economic prospects were well below the national average. But the past few decades have seen enormous Catholic social mobility. According to Lisa Keister, a sociologist at Duke, non-Hispanic white Catholics have watched their personal wealth shoot upward. They have erased the gap that used to separate them from mainline Protestants. But from a Church perspective, this is not a good thing. We may be making lots of money, but we are not sure who we are these days.

Vatican going ‘green’
Catholic News Service
A giant rooftop garden of solar panels will be built next year on top of the Paul VI audience hall at the Vatican, creating enough electricity to heat, cool and light the entire building year-round. “Solar energy will provide all the energy (the building) needs," said the mastermind behind the environmentally friendly project, Pier Carlo Cuscianna, head of the Vatican's department of technical services. Future projects using solar energy are planned.