Bishop: We must combat poverty

For the next three years, I have the privilege of serving as chairperson of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), which was founded in 1970 by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to address poverty through education, social justice advocacy, and an annual collection to fund programs designed to empower the poor and to combat the systemic causes of poverty.

Over the past 35 years, CCHD has distributed $270 million to more than 4,000 community-based, self-help projects in every state of our nation.

As a member of the committee for 25 years, I have observed first-hand the impact the Campaign has had in mobilizing people to assess their needs, and to work cooperatively and collaboratively with others in bringing about effective change in affordable housing, day care, health care, job creation and training, food and credit co-ops, welfare and criminal justice reform, immigration empowerment, leadership training and grassroots organizing -- just to mention a few of the types of initiatives CCHD has spawned since its inception.

Great accomplishment

I believe that the Campaign is one of the greatest accomplishments of the Church in the United States; and we, as a faith community, can be very proud of the practical and effective way it enables us to fulfill the Gospel mandate to respond to the needs of the least among us.

As part of the Campaign's goal to educate the Catholic community specifically and the public in general about the harsh realities of poverty being endured by more than 35 million of our fellow Americans, CCHD has conducted a national poverty awareness program for many years that utilizes print, radio and TV advertisements, along with the internet.

This year's campaign features some of our nation's greatest symbols of freedom and unity -- the Liberty Bell, Old Glory and the Statue of Liberty -- to call attention to the pressing issue of the millions within this land of hope and dreams for whom the American ideal of independence and self-sufficiency still remains an unfulfilled reality.

Poor numbers

Unfortunately, for the third consecutive year, the poverty rate and the number of Americans living in poverty has risen from the prior year. Since 2000, the number of poor Americans has grown by more than four million. The official poverty rate in 2003 (the most current year for which statistics are available) was 12.5 percent, up from 12.1 percent in 2002.

Particularly distressing is the fact that children account for 35.9 percent of the those living in poverty. In New York State, for example:

* every 10 minutes, a child is born into poverty;

* every seven minutes, a child is abused;

* every six hours, a child dies before his or her first birthday;

* 79,049 children are victims of abuse and neglect; and

* 42,730 children are in foster care (source: Children's Defense Fund).

Also disturbing is the number of New Yorkers who have moved from the working class to the working poor. A recent study by the Center for an Urban Future reveals that more than one in four working families in New York State is low-income. The introduction to this study states: "Today, many jobs that once could support a family barely suffice to keep the family out of poverty. The implied bargain America offers its citizens is supposed to be that anyone who works hard and plays by the rules can support his or her family and move onward and upward. But for millions of New Yorkers, that bargain is out of reach; the uphill climb faced by earlier generations has become a vertical wall."

Too many in poverty

Yes, this is a bargain being broken again and again. We are surrounded by poor and low-income people. (Definitions can be elastic and easily blurred, but essentially we are talking about individuals and families that don't have enough money to cover the essentials: food, shelter, clothing, transportation and so forth.) Many of these folks are full-time workers, and some have more than one job.

How did this happen? The economic changes that are rolling across America -- in particular, the steady erosion of low-skilled but relatively well-paying jobs in manufacturing -- provide part of the explanation. Another part, notes the Urban Future report, is welfare reform. In New York, welfare caseloads declined by a remarkable 63 percent between 1995 and 2002, a drop of more than one million individuals. Most of these former welfare recipients have joined the workforce, but they still lack a clear path out of low-wage jobs, leaving them far from self-sufficiency.

Working poor

As David Shipley writes in his excellent new book, "The Working Poor: Invisible in America": "Working poverty is a constellation of difficulties that magnify one another: not just low wages, but low education, not just dead-end jobs but also limited abilities, not just insufficient savings but also unwise spending, not just poor housing but poor parenting, not just lack of health insurance but also the lack of healthy households." [For another superb and insightful book on the plight of the working poor, read Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America."]

It is this constellation of issues and problems that the Catholic Campaign for Human Development seeks to address in breaking the cycle of poverty.

By building solidarity, fostering self-sufficiency and strengthening community, CCHD is striving to create long-term solutions that eliminate poverty for a lifetime and to shape an America that is truly one for all.

The Campaign uses 85 percent of the money it collects to support this core mission of promoting community and economic development, and education about poverty in the U.S.

Measuring ourselves

In his second inaugural address, Franklin D. Roosevelt told a rain-soaked crowd: "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it's whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

Last month, both through government and private donations, we Americans showed our generosity of spirit in responding magnanimously to the needs of the tsunami victims of Southeast Asia and Africa. The record-breaking diocesan collection of more than $692,000 for Catholic Relief Services was one concrete manifestation of this generosity (see page 5).

I hope that we will also evidence our care and concern for the poor and needy within our own country by supporting the equally invaluable work of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development through our programs, advocacy and donations.

(2/3/05)