The bishops of Buffalo’s Catholic and Episcopal dioceses have written a joint pastoral letter urging church members to help make sure immigrants, minorities and the poor, among others, share in the region’s economic progress. While noting new development and revitalization in Buffalo, Bishop Richard J. Malone of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo and Bishop R. William Franklin of the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York said not everyone is benefitting. “Blacks and Hispanics still live in poverty in greater proportion than do other groups in our population,” the two bishops wrote in the letter to distributed in churches this weekend. “Children still go to bed hungry. Jobs and security elude too many families.” In what they called a pioneering letter, the two called on business and political leaders to “further all efforts to make opportunities for employment, training and advancement that grow out of this hopeful time of growth and expansion accessible to all.” For all church members, “what we say and pray on Sundays must now go out into the world, into the workplace, to the ballot box and to the councils of government to ensure that Western New York becomes a more prosperous community, not only in dollars, but in our investment in each other,” they wrote. The letter marks the first time a Catholic bishop from Buffalo, leader of more than half a million Catholics, and the Episcopal bishop, who leads about 19,000 members, issued a joint pastoral letter.