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Catholic priest, theologue and longtime friend and advisor of president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Frei Beto, autographed copies of his new book, a biography entitled, "Lula: A Workingman in the Presidency." According to Frei Beto, one of the country"s best-known members of the progressive wing of the Catholic church, the Zero Hunger program is a modern equivalent of multiplying bread, like Jesus Christ did in the Bible. "I think this is the first time in history a president has made such a clear and Christian policy decision in favor of the needy," he declared. Money from the sale of the book will be donated to the Zero Hunger program.

...Bush is putting Christian conservatives in charge of fighting AIDS and instructing the nation's youth in matters of sex.... Former congressman Tom Coburn of Oklahoma was appointed co-chair of the presidential Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS. Coburn is a vociferous opponent of using condoms to prevent AIDS....

"Compassionate conservatism," it seems, means that death is preferable to sex, for teen-agers or by anyone who is not married and monogamous. It apparently means believing that condoms are a greater danger to the women of the world than AIDS, even though the United Nations says that in Africa alone, half of the 4 million new AIDS cases annually are among women.

To opponents who charge that [concentrating funding to faith-based organization] will set social programs back a century, Mr. Olasky [a spiritual advisor to Bush and author of Compassionate Conservatism] pleads guilty. This, he says, is exactly the point.

"Historically, what we've found is the most useful kind of poverty-fighting is spiritual," he said in an interview yesterday at his home in the hilly suburbs of Austin. "If I've been any use in this process, it's [been by] bringing up some history and showing how in this country we knew how to fight poverty, through compassion that's challenging and personal and spiritual. And we forgot that in the 20th century."

Mr. Olasky and his followers believe that poverty is not caused by a lack of money, but by a lack of moral values on behalf of the poor. As such, they see welfare as a poor alternative to religion.

"When I've gone around and talked to guys who've been homeless for a long time or are alcoholics or addicts, when they do come out of it, nine times out of 10, in my experience, it's a religious transformation," Mr. Olasky said. "When you're thinking about helping the people in the greatest need, then it doesn't happen except through a type of religious transformation."