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America is pleased to offer this commentary on Pope Benedict XVI’s “Caritas in Veritate” from two frequent contributors.

Columnist Maryann Cusimano Love compares the parlous state of the U.S. economy to a Nigerian email scam, where truth and trust are in short shupply, and applauds Benedict for recognizing that the global economic meltdown is “a moral failure, an absence of truth, trust, love, justice and the common good.” Read “A Call for Truth and Trust.”

Bishop Blase Cupich of Rapid City, South Dakota, writes that these serious times call for serious thinking, and the moral obligation issued by the pope requires our fixed attention. Read “Serious Thinking.”

This article appears in August 3 2009.

Dr. Maryann Cusimano Love is an Associate Professor of International Relations in the Politics Department of The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. She is also a Fellow at the Commission on International Religious Freedom. She teaches graduate and undergraduate International Relations courses at Catholic University and the Pentagon, such as Security, Just Peace, Terrorism, Globalization, and The Problem of Sovereignty. Her recent books include Beyond Sovereignty: Issues for a Global Agenda (4th Edition, 2010), Morality Matters: Ethics and the War on Terrorism (forthcoming at Cornell University Press), and "What Kind of Peace Do We Seek?" a chapter on peacebuilding to appear in Notre Dame University's volume on The Ethics and Theology of Peacebuilding. She serves on the U.S. Catholic Bishops' International Justice and Peace Committee, the Advisory Board of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network, and the board of Jesuit Refugee Services.

Dr. Love lives on the Chesapeake Bay outside of Washington, DC, with her husband Richard and three young children, Maria, Ricky and Ava, who inspired her New York Times best-selling children's books, You Are My I Love You, You Are My Miracle, You Are My Wish, and Sleep, Baby, Sleep.

Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, is the Catholic co-chair of the National Catholic-Muslim Dialogue, sponsored by the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.