Il Pitigliani is an Italian Jewish center located in Rome. It provides informal education and services.

The Archiocesi di Firenze (Archdiocese of Florence) covers over 322 parishes and almost 840,000 Catholics. Giuseppe Betori is the archbishop.

Robert Mickens is editor-in-chief at Global Pulse, a Catholic magazine. He has been the Vatican correspondent for The Tablet, a Catholic weekly published in London. He is based in Rome.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations works to eliminate world hunger. Its headquarters are in Rome, but it has a liaison office with North America in Washington, D.C.

The Community of Sant’Egidio is an international Catholic organization that has been involved in peacebuilding.

The National Catholic Reporter has a June 22, 2009, podcast and summary of a story, “Jesuit sees convergence of U.S., Vatican policies,” featuring an interview with the Rev. Thomas Reese about relations between the Vatican and the Obama administration.

Read a June 22, 2009, National Catholic Reporter story, “Progressive Catholics at home in Obama administration.”

Read a June 22, 2009, analysis of the encyclical’s themes, “Economic encyclical expands on church’s ‘best kept secret’,” by National Catholic Reporter columnist John L. Allen Jr.

Read a June 24, 2009, blog post at the Web site of the Jesuit magazine America, “Obama going to the Vatican,” by Michael Sean Winters.