POMONA --- Msgr. Marc V. Trudeau, priest-secretary to Cardinal Roger Mahony, won "best of show" honors for his mosaic artwork at the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona. The artwork, "Grapes, Celtic Knot" (pictured), won first place in Category 2408 (Mosaics, Class # 2). Msgr. Trudeau had given the artwork as a gift to a friend, who then took the piece and entered it in the fair.

Church joins interfaith effort to change immigration law
WASHINGTON (CNS) --- The Catholic Church has joined an interfaith effort to change U.S. immigration law. To prepare for that effort in the next Congress, it is also joining the Tour of the Faithful, an educational effort during September and October to convince people of faith to support changes in U.S. immigration policy. "We're in a dark period," said Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Migration, during a Sept. 9 conference call to announce the 17-city Tour of the Faithful. "Our current national immigration policy ... consists of work-site enforcement raids" that result in, among other things, "the dislocation of U.S. citizen children from their parents," he added. "As a nation --- a nation of immigrants, I might add --- we cannot accept the labor of immigrants while undermining their basic human dignity," Bishop Wester said. Through the Tour of the Faithful, he said, "we hope to lift our voices to call attention to this important issue in the days and weeks ahead so that a new president and new Congress can address these issues early in 2009." The tour was to start Sept. 10 with an interfaith prayer vigil on the lawn of the Ohio statehouse in Columbus.

Aid agencies accept donations for victims of hurricanes
WASHINGTON (CNS) --- The following U.S. and Canadian aid agencies are accepting donations for victims of recent hurricanes that hit the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean. Catholic Charities USA --- by phone: (800) 919-9338; online: www.catholiccharitiesusa.org; or by mailing a check to: Catholic Charities USA, 2008 Hurricanes, P.O. Box 17141, Baltimore, MD 21297. Catholic Relief Services --- by phone: (800) 736-3467; online: www.crs.org; or by mailing a check to: Catholic Relief Services, P.O. Box 17090, Baltimore, MD 21203-7090. Development and Peace --- by phone: (888) 664-3387; online: www.devp.org; or by mailing a check earmarked "Haiti" to: Development and Peace, 1425 Rene-Levesque O., 3rd Floor, Montreal, Quebec, H3G 1T7, Canada. Food for the Poor --- by phone: (800) 427-9104; online: www.foodforthepoor.org; or by mailing a check to: Food for the Poor, 6401 Lyons Road, Dept. 9662, Coconut Creek, FL 33073. Health Partners International of Canada --- by phone: (800) 627-1787; online: www.hpicanada.ca; or by mailing a check to: Health Partners International of Canada, 955 St. Jean Blvd., Suite 100, Pointe-Claire, Quebec, H9R 5K3, Canada.

Indian bishops demand police take action against nuns' attackers
NEW DELHI (CNS) --- The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India is demanding police officials take action against people who attacked Missionaries of Charity nuns in central India. On Sept. 5, about 300 Hindu fundamentalists barged into a train coach and took four infants from two Missionaries of Charity nuns and two helpers, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. The nuns from Raipur were taking the babies, all younger than two months, to an orphanage their congregation operates with a government license in Indore, about 500 miles south of New Delhi. Divine Word Father Babu Joseph, spokesman for the bishops, called the attack "heinous" and "most contemptible." In a Sept. 6 statement, he appealed to law-enforcement agencies to "take stringent action against the perpetrators of crimes against the hapless religious women who have given their life for the sake of the most unfortunate ones in society."

At odds: Brother supports McCain; nun-sisters oppose war in Iraq
ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) --- While K.J. McDonald supported his party as a delegate at the Republican National Convention, his four sisters protested the war outside the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, where the convention was held. Both K.J. McDonald, 77, and St. Joseph Sister Brigid McDonald, 75, say their Catholic faith influences their political involvement and views, although those views sometimes differ. "I really feel like I am following the Gospels of Jesus, and I think nonviolence was his total lifestyle," Sister Brigid said. K.J. and Sister Brigid have three other siblings who are Sisters of St. Joseph in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Sister Rita McDonald, Sister Kate McDonald, Sister Jane McDonald and Sister Brigid attended several anti-war marches and peace rallies at the beginning of the Sept. 1-4 Republican convention. Korean War veteran K.J. McDonald joined the Republican Party in 1957 to fight communism, he said. Although he has been politically active and served as a state legislator for 14 years, this was the first national convention he has attended, he added.

Catholic Relief Services responds to global food crisis
BALTIMORE (CNS) --- From the Horn of Africa to Haiti, rising food prices are driving millions of families to the brink of starvation. Catholic Relief Services has set aside an initial $1 million to help hungry people in a half-dozen countries buy food and prepare for the next planting season. "This food crisis is just beginning. By early next year, it will be deeper and broader as more segments of society are pushed into poverty by the combination of higher prices for food and energy worldwide. We must act now," said CRS President Ken Hackett. "CRS staff around the world has heard stories of families who are stretched to the limits of life itself by the high price of food," said Sean Callahan, CRS' executive vice president. "Some families must make do with eating less at each meal. They are already skipping meals, or even not eating on a particular day." This initial response will help the poorest people buy food and spur agricultural productivity by targeting countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, South and Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe.