Read a July 7, 2009, analysis by the Rev. Thomas Reese, posted at The Washington Post site. Reese is a leading commentator on church issues.

Read a July 7, 2009, analysis by John L. Allen Jr. of National Catholic Reporter.

Read a July 7, 2009, analysis by the Rev. Drew Christiansen, editor of the Jesuit weekly America and a leading Catholic social ethicist.

Read the official Vatican text of the encyclical in English.

The West Coast Poverty Center is based at the University of Washington. Jennifer Romich is director as well as professor of social work and public affairs.

Greg Duncan is Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of California, Irvine. He has published extensively on welfare and poverty, including (as co-author) Higher Ground: New Hope for the Working Poor and Their Children and (as co-editor) For Better and For Worse: Welfare Reform and the Well-Being of Children and Families.

Angela Glover Blackwell is founder and CEO of PolicyLink, a national research institute in Oakland, Calif., that works for economic and social equity. She is a lawyer and well-known advocate on issues of poverty, race and the role of faith.

The Coalition for Compassion and Justice, based in Prescott, Ariz., helps meet the needs of people in poverty. Contact executive director Paul Mitchell.

Heidi Unruh is director of the Congregations, Community Outreach and Leadership Development Project and staff associate with Evangelicals for Social Action. She is co-editor of Hope for Children in Poverty: Profiles and Possibilities and co-author of Saving Souls, Serving Society: Understanding the Faith Factor in Church-Based Social Ministries. She lives in Hutchison, Kan.