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U.S. poverty rates continue to rise - and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development continues to meet needs nationally and locally.

The annual collection, which funds services like daycare centers for low-income Americans, affordable housing programs and support for laws that enforce fair wages, will be taken up in parishes of the Albany Diocese Nov. 19-20.

Mary Olsen, director of the collection for Catholic Charities of the Albany Diocese, noted that Catholics should not be swayed by recent allegations that the U.S. bishops' anti-poverty program has funded agencies in conflict with Church teaching.

"I believe that these attacks are attempts to divide Catholics and create confusion," she told The Evangelist. "I also believe that CCHD will stay committed to the preferential option for the poor."

The American Life League alleged that 55 CCHD-funded agencies promoted abortion, homosexuality or Marxist ideology. CCHD investigated but found just one agency non-compliant, a Minnesota-based immigrant rights group discovered to be distributing condoms. It was then defunded.

CCHD found the other agencies did not violate its requirements and vowed to link its activities more directly to the priorities of the U.S. bishops and seek help in reviewing the grant-making process.

Mrs. Olsen said groups make similar allegations annually and that no group in the Albany Diocese has ever been targeted.

As part of her job, she investigates agencies for adherence to CCHD principles: priority for the poor, focus on local communities, solidarity between poor and non-poor communities and Catholic social teaching, among others.

A quarter of funds collected in the annual CCHD collection stay in the Diocese. The rest is divided by the national office among grassroots, community development groups and economic development programs.

One recent beneficiary of CCHD monies was Omaha Together One Community (OTOC), which advocates for parental involvement in Omaha, Neb., schools, worker safety and wages and improvement to sewage systems in poor areas.

Locally, the Albany Diocese currently funds the Albany Community Land Trust, a non-profit business that revitalizes neighborhoods and works to prevent homelessness by acquiring and renovating vacant buildings that are then sold to low-income families every year. The organization also concentrates on rentals.

Other funds benefit local food pantries.

Community-led organizations allow low-income individuals to make decisions and help themselves, said Mrs. Olsen: "Basically, everyone benefits. The more we can do from a grassroots level to make that happen, the better off we all are. That is our baptismal call: the dignity and humanity of everyone."

More than 683 Catholic priests and 776 Catholic parishes are involved in the work of funded groups across the country.

"The Catholic community in the United States can take a justifiable pride in the accomplishments of CCHD," Bishop Howard J. Hubbard observed in a letter to parishes, "because it is one outreach that enables the poor to grapple with the root reasons for their poverty."

Asking Catholics to support the CCHD collection, the Bishop prayed "that in these difficult economic times that affect us all, we may find the opportunity to live in a radical way the words of Jesus: 'Whatever you do for these, one of my least ones, you do for me.'"[[In-content Ad]]

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