Dear Sisters and Brothers,

This Thursday, President Obama and Pope Francis will meet for the first time.  Their meeting is filled with hopeful anticipation.  Why?

We can all agree that one reason is that these two transcendent leaders have both filled us with hope. Yet, they alone cannot deliver the fruits of that hope to us and the world on their own.

They face the burdens of addressing the daunting challenges of poverty and inequality, world peace, and making the preservation of God's creation a priority for all nations.

Along with these challenges, they also face the burden of keeping hope alive among us.

Like all great leaders, they have expressed humility and asked for our prayers.  This week in particular, they deserve to have us pray for them.

So, let us hope and pray with them and for them.  

Please join us in signing the Statement of Hope + Intention to Pray, found on the Web site: popeandpresident.net. The Web site was developed in support of these two leaders, and to keep hope alive. Not only for us but, more importantly, for the poor and vulnerable people around the world who are sustained by hope and whose lives Pope Francis and President Obama are in a position to improve. But the pope and the president need our help and prayers.

We know that there are legions of our brothers and sisters who want to lend their support and prayer to them. So, please forward this email to your friends, family and social justice advocates to ask them to sign the Statement of Hope + Intention to Pray as you did.

And because we are one human family, please post the Web site address -  http://www.popeandpresident.net - to your Facebook page and your Twitter and other social media accounts so the whole world can pray for them and be reminded of the work that must be done to create a more just society and peaceful world, and to preserve God's creation.

The Catholic Democrats Team

PS It is appropriate that we send this to you today, the 34th anniversary of Archbishop Oscar Romero's assassination. He left us a legacy upon which to believe in our collective hope, action, and prayer, however incomplete.