Poverty Awareness Month

 For Catholics, January is Poverty Awareness Month. It is a time when the U.S. Bishops, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, and the Catholic community in the United States take up Pope Francis' challenge to live in solidarity with the poor.

 

This year, Catholics are called to respond to issues such as the dignity and rights of workers,  human trafficking, and the adverse effects of climate change on poor communities. 

 

Among the many resources that are available are a daily calendar and longer daily reflections.

 

People can also sign up for a newsletter here.

Visit Poverty USA

PovertyUSA is the domestic anti-poverty program of the U.S. Catholic Bishops. An initiative of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), PovertyUSA seeks to educate and promote understanding about poverty and its root causes. To achieve this goal, the website offers many useful resources, such as:

The Poverty USA Tour, which helps us understand what life is like at the poverty line.

AND

The Poverty Map, which helps bring to life the statistics and scope of Poverty USA.

January is Poverty Awareness Month

During Poverty Awareness Month, join the U.S. Bishops, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and the Catholic community in the United States in taking up Pope Francis' challenge to live in solidarity with the poor. How do we do this? One way is to use this poverty awareness calendar and contemplate the daily reflections. Another is to join the advocacy network of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office of Government Relations to let our elected leaders hear the voice of the Catholic community in the United States.

We will have more suggestions in the coming days, but these links provide a good starting point.




"I want a Church which is poor and for the poor."              

- Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel (Evangelii Gaudium)

To Go Forth

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development (JPHD) has a new blog called To Go Forth. It takes its inspiration from Pope Francis’ challenge to go forth to the “peripheries” to share the Good News and stand in solidarity with those suffering poverty and injustice.

JPHD promotes awareness of Catholic social teaching and opportunities to live the Baptismal call to love God and neighbor.

Efforts include the anti-poverty mission of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, as well as advocacy in support of poor and vulnerable persons and communities, in the U.S. and abroad.

New Poverty USA Website Offers Statistics, Stories, Resources To Catholics

The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) and the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) have created a website where “Catholics can learn about the state of poverty in the United States and concrete ways they can make a difference.” From the news release:

The website . . . will feature selected news stories related to the state of poverty in the United States. Also, on the county-level view of poverty statistics, visitors will be able to find examples of local organizations working to alleviate poverty in their communities.  

“We are committed to providing educational content related to poverty as well as hopeful examples of what we can do to make the state of poverty better,” said Ralph McCloud, national director of CCHD. "We welcome comments regarding the new site or suggestions for future feature articles or guest editorials."

To learn more about the website or sign up for an e-mail newsletter, go here.

Helping women on the margins

The newsletter of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, here, has an interesting article about helping women in Washington and Oregon:

Twelve years ago, a coalition of Catholic religious communities with an impressive record of seeking social justice in the northwestern United States turned its attention to women on the margins of society, particularly Latina immigrants. Adjusting the traditional organizing model, the Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center (IPJC) helped low-income women form Women’s Justice Circles to identify and address the conditions that keep them poor, unstable, and marginalized.  

More than four thousand women in four dioceses in Washington and Oregon have now participated in the grassroots empowerment process that brings formerly excluded women into the mainstream effort to promote change for the common good. The groups are led by low-income or immigrant women and those living in crisis or otherwise on the edges of society. They work in partnership with economically stable women from local faith communities to devise concrete steps out of poverty.

Living Out Our Eucharistic Mission

Through the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Catholics and friends of CCHD across the country help poor and low income Americans to help themselves and their communities out of poverty.

Since 1970, the Catholic Campaign has contributed over $280 million to more than 7,800 low-income–led, community-based projects that strengthen families, create jobs, build affordable housing, fight crime, and improve schools and neighborhoods. CCHD requires that projects develop community leadership and participation so that their solutions to poverty will be long-lasting and effective, and so that CCHD’s investment in people will help break the cycle of poverty. CCHD also educates Catholics about the causes of poverty and seeks to build solidarity between impoverished and affluent persons.

In the newsletter of the CCHD, Jill Rauh, a staff member of the Peace and Human Development Office of the USCCB, writes an article entitled Living Out Our Eucharistic Mission:

In the new edition of the Roman Missal that will be used in English-speaking parishes starting in late November, we will hear two new phrases that may be used at the Dismissal: “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord,” and “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.”

For Catholics involved in the good work of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), these words will describe what many already experience: after gathering and being transformed, we are then sent out to announce the Gospel!

What does it mean to announce the Gospel? Luke 4:18 describes the work that is central to Jesus’ life and ministry, and that continues to inspire Christians: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, / because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. / He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives / and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, / and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”

This is the same verse that CCHD often uses to describe its own mission for transformation of communities—communities where children are captive, oppressed, or burdened by weak education systems, unsafe neighborhoods, absent fathers, inadequate nutrition, and systemic racism. Announcing the Gospel involves spiritual transformation; it also involves addressing poverty, overcoming oppression, and working for social transformation.

Celebrating the Eucharist with spiritual sincerity transforms us individually and as members of a community called to bring love and hope to the person living in poverty, the stranger, the unborn—all those whose dignity is threatened. Participating in the eucharistic celebration also reminds us of the God-given dignity of all people; it inspires people who have been marginalized to reclaim their dignity and empowers them to fight poverty and injustice.

In Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that the “food of truth”—the Eucharist—“demands that we denounce inhumane situations” such as poverty, inequality, and violence (no. 90). The Eucharist also spurs us to imitate Christ’s sacrifice through our own “self-gift” to others (no. 14). But the idea that the Eucharist propels us to social mission is not new. In the fourth century, St. John Chrysostom reflected on Matthew 25:31-46: “Do you wish to honor the body of Christ? Do not ignore him when he is naked” (Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, 50:3-4: PG 58, 508-509), and St. Augustine urged us, “Become what you receive” (Sermon 272). More recently, Blessed John Paul II called the Eucharist “the school of active love for neighbor” (Dominicae Cenae, no. 6) and that which “increases, rather than lessens, our sense of responsibility for the world today” (Address, June 26, 2003).

The rest of the article is available here.