President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

I am writing you as the national leader of a congregation of Roman Catholic sisters, the Society of the Sacred Heart. We are an international religious order of women with 3,500 sisters in 45 countries worldwide. Our sisters work in universities, secondary and elementary schools; with handicapped children and adults; in popular education centers in rural and urban areas; with migrants, indigenous people, and refugees; in parishes and retreat centers; in prisons; in advocacy work, especially with women and children; as teachers, administrators, lawyers, nurses, doctors, artists, writers, therapists, pastoral counselors, spiritual directors, and social workers. Our mission is to discover and reveal God's love in the heart of the world.

It is this mission that prompts me to write to you on behalf of 435 Religious of the Sacred Heart in the United States who are deeply concerned about the policies of our government and their effect on the poor. As Pope John Paul II has so often reminded us during the quarter-century of his tenure, the God who loves each of us beyond our imagining has a special concern for the most vulnerable among us.

In order to make God's love visible in this world, we must embody this love for the poor, not only in our own lives, but also, in particular, in our public priorities and policies. Indeed, the Bible is filled with verses that speak of God's deep concern for people who are poor and vulnerable, and about our responsibility to create an economically just world. Isaiah, for example, warns, "Woe to those who enact evil statutes, and to those who continually record unjust decisions, so as to deprive the needy of justice, and rob the poor of their rights”(10:1-3), and Jesus himself relates a parable that tells us how each person, and each nation, shall be judged: “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite you in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these people of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25: 37-40)

With these biblical passages in mind, and the faces of my sisters in the Society of the Sacred Heart before me, I call upon you in your second term as our president, and as a leader on the world stage, to demonstrate to our friends and foes alike that America is a Christian nation, and can be clearly identified as such by its concern for the most vulnerable in our midst.

I have also been encouraged by the sisters on whose behalf I write to ask that, in the international realm, you make a priority in your second term of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. We urge you to do all in your power, in collaboration with government leaders around the globe, to take as first priority: (1) an end to extreme poverty and hunger worldwide, (2) at least a primary level education for all people, (3) gender equality, (4) reduction of child mortality by two-thirds, (5) dramatic improvement in maternal health, (6) reversal of the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases that kill, (7) assurance of environmental sustainability through a reversal of our environmental losses, and (8) development of a global partnership for achieving these ends.

Mr. President, I know that I speak not only for the Religious of the Sacred Heart in asking that you give attention to the pressing human needs in our own country and around the world, but for many good people of the United States and the world who call themselves followers of Jesus Christ. You have been elected by people deeply concerned about moral values; I can think of no moral values more important than these.