LOS ANGELES --- Hundreds of workers, labor leaders, public officials and community leaders attended the annual Labor Day Mass Sept. 1 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Cardinal Roger Mahony was the presiding celebrant, with numerous civic and labor leaders in attendance --- among them Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, being greeted by the cardinal.

Economic gap requires response by Christians, says Vatican official
VATICAN CITY (CNS) --- Poverty, particularly the growing gap between the world's rich and poor, is one of the most dramatic situations the world is facing and requires a response by Christians as well as by governments, said Cardinal Renato Martino. The cardinal, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, announced that his office is preparing a document on "poverty in the age of globalization." Vatican Radio reported Sept. 2 that the cardinal made the announcement during a late-August visit to Tanzania, where he hosted a continentwide presentation on the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. "The commitment to organizing and structuring society in such a way as to ensure one's neighbor does not find himself in poverty is an indispensable act of charity," said the cardinal.

Marching for the missing: Mexicans protest increasing kidnap rate
MEXICO CITY (CNS) --- Manuel Ramirez last saw his daughter Monica in December 2004, shortly before she was kidnapped in this sprawling metropolis of more than 20 million people. The family physician found out about the crime through a text message sent from her cellular phone, demanding a $25,000 ransom. A second message advised the father of three, "Prepare to live without her." The final message, he recalled, "threatened to cut off her fingers." Ramirez still carries the same bulky cellular flip phone that received the original messages, hoping to receive some news on Monica's whereabouts. But it's been more than three and a half years since the last message. "We never thought that we could be (victimized)," he said. "It's completely changed our lives ... changed everything." Ramirez and his extended family joined more than 100,000 protesters in Mexico City Aug. 30 for a march that demanded an end to a wave of violent crime and kidnapping that is engulfing the country. Thousands more demonstrated in other large cities throughout the country.

Chinese diocese helps quake victims, assesses damage
HONG KONG (CNS) --- The Diocese of Xichang in China's Sichuan province is helping victims and assessing damage to church buildings after an earthquake hit less than four months after a May quake killed tens of thousands. Father John Lei Jiapei, diocesan administrator, told the Asian church news agency UCA News Sept. 1 that parish priests from Panzhihua and from Huili County had gone to remote rural areas to check on the situation of local Catholics, mostly members of China's Han ethnic majority. He said he had not heard of any Catholics being injured or killed in the quake, but it left two church buildings unsafe to use. The epicenter of the Aug. 30 earthquake was where Panzhihua and Huili meet in southern Sichuan, near the border with Yunnan province. The Diocese of Xichang, based in the city of the same name, covers the affected area. As of Sept. 2, news reports said the quake killed 38 people and injured more than 500. The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake was a magnitude 5.7; Chinese reports said the quake was a magnitude 6.1.

Schools face Hindu backlash after closing to protest Orissa violence
NEW DELHI (CNS) --- Hindu groups demonstrated in front of Catholic institutions after schools closed in protest of anti-Christian violence in India's eastern Orissa state. More than 40,000 Christian educational institutions throughout India closed Aug. 29 in a nationwide protest against Hindu groups targeting Christians in Orissa. In turn, Hindu groups protested the closures and the state government of Karnataka, dominated by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, said it would take action against the schools for closing without permission, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News. Father John Xavier, vicar general of the Gwalior Diocese in Madhya Pradesh, told UCA News Sept. 1 that Hindu demonstrators had tried to enter the grounds of several local schools. They threw stones and destroyed property, including buses. Elsewhere in Madhya Pradesh, Joseph Christuraj, spokesman for the Jabalpur Diocese, told UCA News Sept. 1 that activists burned effigies of Pope Benedict XVI and shouted anti-Christian slogans in front of a diocesan-run school Aug. 30.

Former Colombian hostage says meeting pope was 'dream come true'
ROME (CNS) --- Former Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt said it was "a dream come true" to meet Pope Benedict XVI. Her voice still breaking with emotion a few hours after meeting the pope Sept. 1, Betancourt said she was fairly certain she broke Vatican protocol "because as soon as I went in, I hugged the pope and maybe I wasn't supposed to do that." Betancourt, a former presidential candidate in Colombia, was freed by Colombian rebels in early July after more than six years as a hostage. Immediately after her release she had said she wanted to meet Pope Benedict to thank him for his prayers and public appeals for her release. Along with her mother, sister, her sister's children and a cousin, Betancourt spent 25 minutes with the pope at his summer villa in Castel Gandolfo. She spoke afterward at a press conference in Rome.