coming up, california's debate over legalizing marijuana. is it a gateway drug? also, australia goes all out celebrating the inclusion of one of its own, mary mckillum. there's even a musical about her life. ♪ and veterans from iraq and afghanistan on a healing pilgrimage at washington's national cathedral. major funding for religion and ethics news weekly is provided by the lily endowment. an indianapolis based private

foundation. dedicated to community development and education. additional funding by mutual of america, designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why yourretirementcompany.com. al also by the corporation for public broadcasting. welcome, i'm bob abernathy. it's good to have you with us. pope benedict named 22 new cardinaled this weekend. the list includes two americans, archbishop raymond burk, the former archbishop of st. louis. he also increased the percentage of italians in the college of cardinals as well as the number who come from the vatican's bureaucracy. the new cardinals will receive their traditional red hats at a

ceremony in rome on november 20th. we get analysis from father thomas reese, a senior fellow at georgetown university's woodstock center and authority on the vatican bureaucracy. tom, welcome. >> thank you. >> reporter: what do you see? what's the message in this list? >> well, i think there's two. one is continuity and one is change. the continuity is the fact that we see pope benedict appointing people who basically reflect his views on church issues and where the church ought to go. so when they get together to elect a new pope, there's not going to be radical change. we are going to see continuity with the papacy of benedict. what change we do see, however, is that with john paul we saw a reduction of the role of the italians in the college of cardinals and also of vatican curia cardinals. pope benedict is reversing that. we're seeing more italians and

we're seeing like half of the people appointed as cardinals were from the vatican curia. >> and what's eh, what are people around the world, in the third world especially, latin america, africa, other places, what do they think of that? >> well, eh, i mean it's interesting. two thirds of catholics live in the global south but they only get one third of the cardinals. two thirds of the cardinals are in the global north where one third of the catholics live. the catholic church is not a one man, one vote operation. >> reporter: no, no. and what about in the u.s.? what do you make of the appointments here? >> well, they were not a surprise. we knew that archbishop burke because he's head of the supreme court of the church would be made a cardinal. we also knew that archbishop wuerl would be made a cardinal. >> reporter: but the new york archbishop was not made a cardinal? >> no, and the reason was his predecessor cardinal egan is still under 80 years of age and he will be until april of 2012. after that, archbishop dolan is going to become a cardinal.

>> reporter: for sure? >> for sure. >> reporter: father tom reese, many thanks. >> thank you. a new study of the country's largest charity shows that donations were down overall in 2009. charitable giving decreased across the board by 11%. several religious charities rank among the country's largest, including the salvation army. donations there fell by about 8%. other religious groups including catholic charities and feed the children had an increase in contributions. another survey shows most women donate more to charity than men. researchers at indiana university say women are not only more likely to give, but they give larger amounts. women have become more generous as the number who work and have college degrees has increased. crystal cathedral, the

megachurch in california has filed for bankruptcy. officials blame the bad economy and the decrease in giving but they say the church's ministry and popular television broad cat "our power" will continue. on november 2nd voters in arizona and south dakota decide whether to legalize marijuana for medical use. as 14 state and the district of columbia already have. meanwhile, in california where medical marijuana is legal voters are deciding whether to decriminalize recreational marijuana use. is marijuana a gateway to harder drugs? lucky severson reports from los angeles. >> it is because satan has tried to make us think and have tried to make us believe that it's nothing. isn't that just like the enemy? that it is less harmful than alcohol. isn't that how satan comes in the back door to make you think that one sin is greater than

another? you all have to say "amen." >> reporter: it's sunday, so bishop ron allen is guest preaching in church. any other day of the week and he'll be preaching the same message to anyone who will listen. bishop allen is president of the international faith-based coalition, comprising what he says are over 4,000 churches nationwide. his one mission is to teach drug prevention to church leaders, and more urgently to defeat proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana in california. >> first, it decriminalizes low-level possession of marijuana of up to an ounce by adults 21 and over, eliminates all penalties for that offense and allows adult 21 and over to cultivate small amounts of marijuana also for their personal use. and then the second thing that it does is it allows local governments to decide for themselves whether to regulate and tax sales of marijuana also

for adults 21 and over if they choose to do so. >> reporter: stephen gutwillig is the california director of the drug policy alliance, a nationwide organization working to change the focus of the war on drugs, especially state and federal laws prohibiting marijuana. >> banning marijuana outright has fueled this enormous black market. it wastes hundreds of millions of dollars of law enforcement resources. it makes criminals of millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens. that makes it very, very clear that marijuana prohibition has failed at every single level. >> and today we are in a critical position in the state of california. we have individuals that want to legalize a schedule one drug, marijuana. and what they're saying to us is that it's not dangerous. i beseech you. don't sit at home november the

second. go down to the polls and vote. >> reporter: in 14 states and the district of columbia, medical marijuana is now legal and available in approved outlets like this. other states are considering it. but at the same time as arrests for every category of crime have gone down nationwide, recreational marijuana busts are skyrocketing. the fbi says police prosecuted 858,000 individuals for marijuana violations in 2009, and almost nine out of ten were for possession of an ounce or less. most arrests are misdemeanors but still result in a permanent drug arrest record. >> every independent body that has been asked to look particularly at what should be done with marijuana, the answer has always been we should probably regulate it the way we do alcohol and tobacco, both because it's widely available

and widely consumed and it's going to lead to mass arrests. that's why alcohol prohibition itself was a disaster in the 1920s and '30s and why it's regulated today-not because it's harmless, but because the risks associated with it are only magnified with a prohibition that drives it's consumption underground. >> when we talk about prohibition of 1920s and 1930s, we cannot relate that to what we're dealing with today at all. >> reporter: allen says legalizing marijuana would simply add to the destruction drugs and alcohol have already caused in african-american neighborhoods. >> here's their mantra. marijuana is as harmless as alcohol, and so what i've been offering them is a rattlesnake or a cobra. which one is harmless? >> reporter: joining bishop

allen's coalition are conservative church leaders, the state's two democratic senators-dianne feinstein and barbara boxer, republican senate candidate carly fiorina, outgoing governor schwarzenegger, and the two candidates who want his job-jerry brown and meg whitman. >> i am firmly opposed to proposition 19, which is the legalization of marijuana. but don't ask me. ask law enforcement. every single law enforcement official is against proposition 19. >> reporter: not every single law enforcement officer opposes prop 19. several former police chiefs and the national black police association support it. so does the california council of churches and the california naacp, where alice huffman is president. >> i would like to see it approved across the country. i believe prohibition has failed us, and it is failing us now. >> i have called constantly for

the resignation of alice huffman as the state president of the naacp for this one reason. if you want to be a civil rights leader, you have to understand this one thing. what causes the devastation in the colored community? it's not rocket science, lucky, we all know it's drugs. >> marijuana should be a different classification of a drug. it should not lead to any criminal arrests. it should not destroy our families. >> reporter: there's another reason the california naacp supports prop 19, and it was underscored in a recent study of marijuana possession arrests in california. >> statewide, african americans are arrested at more than triple the rate of whites, typically

double, triple, quadruple in all of the 25 major counties. >> reporter: according to the study, if, as a case in point, you lived here in south central los angeles, and you were african american, you were seven times more likely to be arrested and cited for possessing marijuana than if you were white. the gap may be even greater because studies have shown that blacks are less likely to use pot than whites. bishop allen says the disparity, in part, is because the police discover marijuana possession while in they are in african-american communities investigating other crimes. >> if we can do something about the drug abuse and the crime in these neighborhoods, then maybe the police officers won't get the call to go and arrest in that particular area. >> one law enforcement person says yeah, we call your community the pond. we go down to the pond. that's where we go, i guess, fishing is what he was implying,

and that's exactly what happens. it's like they target our communities. >> reporter: national studies indicate that enforcing marijuana laws costs american taxpayers over $8 billion annually. the costs of pot arrests in california are estimated at over a billion a year. >> police will always deny that there are such a thing as arrest and ticket quotas, but clearly these exist. arresting, detaining, citing petty marijuana possession offenders are among the safest and easiest ways to meet those quotas. >> reporter: the greatest fear of opponents to prop 19 is that marijuana is a so-called gateway drug, that smoking it will lead to other stronger drugs like crack cocaine and heroin. >> they said to me that it's not a gateway drug. i have to disagree with them. i can only talk about bishop ron allen. when i started my seven years of crack cocaine my first experience with drugs was marijuana. >> the overwhelming evidence shows that the enormous majority of people who try marijuana or who even smoke marijuana

regularly never consume any other illicit substance. it's actually what's referred to as a terminus drug. it is the only illicit substance that most people ever try. >> reporter: governor schwarzenegger recently signed a law reducing the fine for marijuana possession to that of an infraction, like a traffic violation. but alice huffman says it won't do anything about the disparity of arrests, and it won't stop gangs from running illegal drugs in black neighborhoods. >> i thought that the war on drugs was going to protect us. i did not realize that the war on drugs was going to destroy my families and destroy my community, and so i am very passionate now that i understand, and i think that this is a great opportunity to raise the awareness in america about a failed drug policy. >> reporter: even if voters approve prop 19, u.s. attorney general eric holder says the government will continue to enforce federal marijuana laws. but without the help of state and local police that wouldn't be easy, because they're the ones who make virtually all

marijuana arrests nationwide and in california. for "religion & ethics news weekly." the latest poll shows the marijuana proposition trailing among likely voters 51% to 39%. in other news, thousands from around the world met in cape town, south africa, this week for what organizers say was the most diverse gathering of christians other. the event is known as the lozan congress on world evangelization. there was controversy after the chinese government refused to allow some 200,000 chinese christians to attends. chinese officials said tf;)

16th named 16 men saints. there to honor one of those. a 19th century woman who devoted her life to educating children in australia's vast outback. blessed mother mary mckillum is her counted's first saint. it's not every day an australian

becomes a santd saint and draws world attention. so there's even a sold out musical of her life that included a brief excommunication because she upset the local bishops. our reporter is stewart cohen in sidney. >>. >> the musical was ten years in the making. the creation of a part time composer the director says her life was well suited to be made into a musical. >> some quite dramatic liturgical, ecclesiastical moments in her life. she gets excommunicated, she gets forgiven, she has to go to the pope, she meets the pope, she comes back. >> reporter: mary mackillop was born to scottish immigrant parents in 1842. she became a nun at 25 and

dedicated her life to educating children throughout australia's isolated rural areas. she co-founded the country's first religious order, the sisters of saint joseph, and opened dozens of schools across the country's vast outback. in 1871 she was excommunicated, in part for exposing a pedophile priest. she was reinstated just five months later, and by the time she died in 1909, at age 67, her order had 750 nuns who were running 117 schools around the country. >> i actually think that the production is serving a great historical purpose for the catholic community as well as the community at large. >> reporter: the members of the

cast of more than 80 are all volunteers, with one exception, mary herself, played by professional opera singer joanna cole. for her it's the culmination of a lifetime of association with mary mackillop's josephite order. >> i was educated by the nuns from kindergarten right through to high school. i really like to play australian women and australian heroines, and i think she's a very special heroine for australia to look at, a very special role model. >> reporter: australians aren't known for being an especially devout people. but when an aussie is recognized on the world stage, the entire country celebrates. in addition to the musical, there's a new postage stamp bearing a picture of mackillop and a light display on sydney's famous harbor bridge with mary mckillop's image. >> she was a visionary and a pioneer, and i think her story should be told from that point of view.

i think we should be very proud of the fact that this fabulous woman was born here in australia and had such an effect on us. >> reporter: the australian government has even taken the unusual step of copyrighting mary mackillop's name and image to protect the memory of australia's new national hero from over-commercialization. >> reporter: for "religion & ethics newsweekly," this is stuart cohen in sydney. story today about veterans and iraqs of america at walter reed. about once a month army chaplain randy haycock takes those to worship, pray, remember and learn a little better with the losses they endured. >> many faith traditions. as well as just a human experience.

a lot of what we do at walter reed, is to help people again reconnect with what it means to be a safe, whole, healthy human being. just relax and try and be in the present moment. one of the questions that a lot of warriors have when they come to walter reed is what's my life for? they're looking for a sense of purpose and meaning, and that's sort of the idea behind the life journey exercise at the beginning is to just get them to stop and reflect a little bit about their life. it's become for me a kind of metaphor for life itself, that really we're all on journeys and learning how to deal with things like loss and the horror of engaging in war. many warriors tell me that they

sometimes feel guilty that their friend had died and they hadn't. i think that's part of what's in a pilgrim's heart. there's this kind of longing for more in life, and the idea of being on a journey with someone else is something that people get well in miliry life, because your life depends on the people around you. you gotta know people have your back. we'll walk this way and go into the war memorial chapel. the war memorial chapel where they have the opportunity to talk about how their own journey intersected with the journey of their friend and basically just to do some grief work, and telling the story is an important part of healing in cases of post-traumatic stress

disorder. >> it was like losing a brother, losing, you know, a family member, and that's just always kind of haunted me. >> thousands of people have come into that little piece of geography to remember their war dead. so i think there is a kind of energy field here that, you know, i could come and just bring soldiers into that space and say "blah blah blah" and something would still happen simply because of the prayers and tears and, you know, heartfelt emotions that others have let loose in that place. the next step is to gather around the high altar, and then using that clapton song there couldn't be a better song written for warriors, because many of them feel like what's the sense of going on?

concluding the way the army ordinarily does with coming to attention, calling off their name, sounding taps helps them to make a letting go of their friend so that they can get on the with the rest of their life. >> reporter: last sunday, october 14, the pope declared six new catholic saints in a ceremony at the vatican. among those was sister mary mackillop, the first saint from australia. >> that's our program for now. you can comment on all our stories and share them. audio and video podcasts are also available. you can follow us on facebook and twitter. now you can watch "religion & ethics news weekly" on smart phones, iphones and ipads.

they offer story lines, video, program video. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, scenes from eastern india where buddhist monks released lanterns that rose into the sky. they wanted to raise awareness of the need for more renewable energy.

♪ additional funding by mutual of america, designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. also by the henry louis foundation and the corporation for public broadcasting.