I think it really started to get to me during the Christmas season.

I'd be running down my "to do" list containing all my cheerful little errands: Pick up those movie gift certificates for Mike. Find out if that book for Jim has come in yet. Dream up a tasty appetizer for this party, buy a bottle of wine for that one. Find something to wear to the preschool Christmas program. Check my e-mail.

And, oh yeah, save Darfur.

The save Darfur part would come in when I'd get to the "check e-mail" spot on the list. There'd be another message from www.savedarfur.org. We interrupt this self-absorbed holiday world to bring you the real, suffering world.

Whoever named that Web site was pretty clever: I'm not supposed to just become informed about Darfur, think about Darfur, study Darfur --- no, by golly, I'm supposed to save it.

Sometimes Catholic guilt is a good thing.

The complexity of geopolitics and the sheer enormity of the world's problems can sometimes persuade us to tune out. Delete those bothersome little messages and move on.

But I suggest a good Lenten exercise would be to get involved with Darfur. At least resolve to expand our consciousness a little bit, and maybe in the process we'll write a few letters, send a few dollars to relief, maybe even befriend a refugee.

It's a complex issue, sure. Sudan has been in a state of war for decades. Oil, rebels, religious animosity, all the makings of a modern crisis are involved.

But here's the simple part, boiled to just one word, a word we hoped we left behind in the dust of the last mid-century: genocide.

Experts agree there's no doubt that genocide, the wiping out of a people, is at work in the Darfur area of Sudan where black Africans are being targeted for extinction by the forces of Sudan's government, which deploys the dreaded Janjaweed militia to kill.

In addition to rape, destruction and murder in the villages of Darfur, an enormous refugee problem has resulted in neighboring Chad, where hundreds of thousands are fleeing to overcrowded camps.

But why listen to me recount the facts? Here are fantastic resources that may move you to prayer and action.

First, check out www.savedarfur.org. A representative from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sits on the board of directors along with representatives from many agencies and faiths.

Second, rent two powerful documentaries:

---"The Devil Came on Horseback" (also a book) tells the story of an ex-marine, Brian Steidle, who became an official military observer in Darfur. Armed with only a camera, he recorded events that are very hard to look at. Confounded by the world's indifference, he quit to become a vocal advocate for Darfur.

---Next, view "God Grew Tired of Us." Some 27,000 boys --- some toddlers --- crossed Sudan in the late 1980s to escape death. Many ended up in camps, and some were eventually relocated to the U.S. "God Grew Tired of Us" introduces three young men as they move to the U.S., learn what a light switch is and how a toilet flushes, and, touchingly, how lonely it can be to be a stranger in a strange land.

Trust me, after you watch these documentaries, you will want to help a refugee. Many dioceses, including mine in Anchorage, Alaska, are involved in resettling refugees, many from Sudan.

Catholic Relief Services, the international humanitarian agency of the U.S. Catholic Church, is supporting hundreds of thousands impacted by the crisis in Sudan. Check it out at www.crs.org and call your local Catholic Charities.

Effie Caldarola is a columnist with Catholic News Service.