WASHINGTON — In his Feb. 2 State of the Union address focusing on changes in Social Security, peace in the Middle East and securing democracy for Iraq, President George W. Bush also spoke of the need for society to "build a culture of life."

He said a society is "measured by how it treats the weak and vulnerable" and that medical research can help societies reach that goal by "developing treatments and cures that save lives and help people overcome disabilities."

Speaking to a joint session of Congress gathered in the House chamber for slightly less than an hour, Bush stressed that to build a culture of life "we must also ensure that scientific advances always serve human dignity, not take advantage of some lives for the benefit of others."

The president, in the first State of the Union address of his second term in office, said he planned to work with Congress "to ensure that human embryos are not created for experimentation or grown for body parts, and that human life is never bought and sold as a commodity."

"America will continue to lead the world in medical research that is ambitious, aggressive and always ethical," he added.

One of the invited guests at the State of the Union address was Sister Constancia Parcasio, a Missionary Sister of Our Lady of La Salette who is the prison ministry program director for Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Arlington.

Sister Parcasio, who sat two seats away from first lady Laura Bush, was invited as a representative of a faith-based group. Since 2001, the Bush administration, through its White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, has been trying to help faith-based social service providers gain better access to federal funds.

The Catholic Charities prison ministry program coordinates outreach ministry offered by parish volunteers and offers spiritual and temporal assistance to inmates and their families.

President Bush, who has stressed the importance of working with faith-based groups, pointed out in his Feb. 2 speech that the U.S. government will continue to "support faith-based and community groups that bring hope to harsh places. Now we need to focus on giving young people, especially young men in our cities, better options than apathy, or gangs, or jail."

The president said he is proposing a three-year initiative, to be spearheaded by the first lady, that will help keep young people out of gangs as part of a broader outreach to at-risk youths. The initiative will involve "parents and pastors, coaches and community leaders, in programs ranging from literacy to sports," he said.