Read the official Vatican text of the encyclical in English.

Russell Powell is associate professor of law at Seattle University. His expertise includes comparative religious jurisprudence, with particular interests in Catholic social thought and Islamic legal theory.

Operation Safety Net is a health care outreach program operated through the Pittsburgh Mercy Hospital System and Catholic Health East. It provides medical care to homeless people living on the streets of Pittsburgh and recognized as one of nation’s first, targeted, full-time street medicine programs. Dr. Jim Withers started the program in 1992.

Camillus House is a Miami organization dedicated to caring for the city’s poor and homeless. The organization’s website includes information and resources on homelessness. Contact Paola Iuspa-Abbott.

Regis John Armstrong is a professor of historical theology and spirituality at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. A Capuchin Friar Minor, he is an expert on St. Francis of Assisi.

Read a March 2006 essay by Julia L. Perilla about how religious teachings and communities can help prevent domestic violence.

Catholic Concern for Animals in the United States would like to increase animal rights and animal welfare activism within the Catholic Church. Contact through the website.

AmericanCatholic.org posts resources about St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals. The site also keeps a nationwide list of pet/animal blessing ceremonies, many of which occur near his feast day, Oct. 4.

Read a July 5, 2013, article from the Associated Press about the clearing of two former popes to become saints. Pope John Paul II was canonized as a result of a medical miracle in Costa Rica.