DIOCESAN NEWS
01/19/07
..............................................................................................................................................
Charities hopes to cut poverty in half by 2020
        JACKSON — Catholic Charities Jackson (CCJ) today joined a new multi-year initiative lead by Catholic Charities USA to cut poverty in half by 2020. The campaign will urge Congress and the Administration to give a much higher priority to the needs of the poor in budget and policy decisions on issues such as health care, housing, nutrition, and economic security.
        Quoting from “Poverty in America, A Threat to the Common Good,” Linda Raff, executive director of Catholic Charities Jackson, said, “There is a growing gap between the haves and have-nots in our nation.
        “For example, in 1998 (the last year for which figures are available) the top 20 percent of the population held 83 percent of the total net wealth in the country while the bottom 80 percent held only 17 percent of the net wealth. Our nation has not seen such extreme inequality since the 1920s.”
        Raff said, “We must address this growing disparity. Thirty-seven million people live below the official federal poverty level, which in 2006 is $20,000 for a family of four. Poverty rates are highest in inner cities and in rural areas.
        “Closing our eyes to these disturbing statistics undermines our social contract and weakens our democracy. It violates the challenge of the Gospel to reach out to the hurting community by giving preference to the needs of the poor. It undermines human dignity and the common good.”
        Citing the Judo-Christian perspective in the report, Raff said, “We have no option but to end poverty in the United States. We as a nation have the resources, the creativity, the ingenuity to end poverty; all we lack is the will. We are committed to join in this critical campaign by challenging our communities, state, and nation to have the will to defeat this blight on our Nation once and for all.”
        The goal of the Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America is to cut the poverty rate in the United States in half by 2020. Catholic Charities of Jackson is involved in the broad effort by Catholic Charities USA that will involve partners in social service agencies, the faith community, and other groups in a sustained effort to convince government officials of the importance of making systemic changes in government programs to help the poor and most vulnerable in our society.
        “The Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America is about who we are as a nation,” Father Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, said. “We must no longer ignore the injustice of poverty and the extreme inequality in America and instead must seize this opportunity to advocate for changes that promote human dignity and the common good.”
        In agreement, Bishop Joseph Latino of the Diocese of Jackson added, “In Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 26:11, Christ says to us: ‘The poor you will have with you always.’ Is this simply a sad prediction of a burden we would have to live with or is it rather a challenge to always be our brother’s keepers? I submit it is a challenge for when we minister to the least of his brothers and sisters, i.e. the poor, we minister to him.”
        With more than 275 years of experience in serving those living in poverty, Catholic Charities agencies have a unique understanding of this growing problem and its devastating impact on families and the nation.
        “As a whole, Catholic Charities agencies provided help and offered hope to more than 7.4 million people last year -- 30,000 in Mississippi,” according to Raff. “Our agency has been coping with a steady increase in demand for emergency assistance, primarily among working families, like many agencies across the nation. Each day, our agency serves families who work hard but still do not earn enough to provide for their basic needs.
        Father Snyder said, “We know that as local agencies continue to help the working poor families meet their daily needs, we must also advocate for policy changes that will help lift them out of poverty. Our Catholic tradition teaches that society, acting through government, has a special obligation to consider first the needs of the poor.”
Sister Donna Gunn, director of Parish Social Ministry for Catholic Charities Jackson, said,         “Through the Catholic Charities USA’s Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America, we will encourage our members of Congress and elected state government representatives to improve programs and policies in four key issue areas: health care, affordable housing, nutrition assistance, and economic security for the poor and vulnerable.”

Back to Diocesan News