Politics

Josh Palmer of Malden, Mo., had his first encounter with meth at 17. It eventually spiraled into a full-blown addiction that cost him his job, his house and the trust of his family.

Through the drug-court program in Dunklin County, Palmer was able to beat his addiction and turn his life around. He now lives with his wife and children and works as a substance abuse counselor for youth in Hayti.

ROME -- Politicians who want to act as if God did not exist and as if there was no such thing as objective moral truths are bound to fail in their efforts to promote the common good, said the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

"The politics we have today in Europe and North America without ethical foundations, without a reference to God, cannot resolve our problems, even those of the market and money," said Archbishop Gerhard L. Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

General elections often bring intense debate over issues, polarizing positions on policy and harsh -- even nasty -- campaign strategies. But after any election, no matter the outcome, we remain Christian.

No government or elected official gives us freedom or rights. No government can offer life, light, peace or salvation. These come only from God -- governments can either defend and protect these or whittle away at them.

WASHINGTON -- This November, voters in a handful of states across the country will decide if state law should uphold traditional marriage or allow same-sex marriage.

Four states -- Maine, Maryland, Washington and Minnesota -- have ballot initiatives on the issue.

Supporters are hoping for victory in those states, saying it could be the start of a new momentum for legalizing same-sex marriage -- which in previous years has lost more than 30 ballot initiatives.

Opponents of same-sex marriage say legalizing such unions undermines traditional roles of marriage and family.

MEXICO CITY -- The Mexico City Archdiocese called on the country's Congress to approve an overhaul of labor laws that would require unions to open their books and elect leaders through secret ballot votes.

"The Church is conscious of the importance and necessity of unions in the present-day life of the country," the archdiocese said in an editorial published in its newspaper, Desde la Fe.

"We don't see why union leaders so sharply oppose (the reforms) instead of joining in and proposing initiatives that achieve the necessary equilibrium."

AL-MUKHALFA, Egypt -- On a recent summer evening, the local representative of Egypt's ruling Muslim Brotherhood party paid a visit to the almost entirely Coptic Catholic village of Al-Mukhalfa, known as "Little Rome" deep in Egypt's south.

"When you are threatened, we are threatened," party representative Yusuf Sherif told an audience of about 80 people who were crowded into the small courtyard of St. George Coptic Catholic Church. A quarter of them were teenage girls from the church choir, on standby to sing.