WASHINGTON (EWTN News/CNA)—Bishops and other Catholic clergy should speak about unemployment and poverty in their homilies, U.S. bishops’ conference president Archbishop Timothy Dolan said Sept. 19.
“Widespread unemployment, underemployment and pervasive poverty are diminishing human lives, undermining human dignity, and hurting children and families,” Archbishop Dolan said. “I hope we can use our opportunities as pastors, teachers and leaders to focus public attention and priority on the scandal of so much poverty and so many without work in our society.”
The archbishop of New York said that 46 million people, 15% of the population, now live in poverty in the U.S. Recent unemployment figures are also “dismal.” Sixteen million children, almost one in four, are growing up in poverty. African-Americans and Hispanics face unemployment and poverty at “far higher rates.”
“For us as bishops, these numbers are not statistics, but people suffering and wounded in their human dignity,” Archbishop Dolan said. “They are parents who cannot feed their children, families that have lost their homes, and jobless workers who have lost not only income, but also a sense of their place in society. For us, each of these persons is a child of God with innate human dignity and rights that deserve respect.”
Economic turmoil takes a “terrible toll” on families and communities, and Catholic dioceses are struggling to meet needs.
Rather than issuing another statement, Archbishop Dolan said, the administrative committee of the bishops’ conference wanted him to ask all the bishops to “lift up the human, moral and spiritual dimensions of the ongoing economic crisis.”
“The best way out of poverty is to work at a living wage,” the archbishop said. Rather than place blame, everyone should accept their personal and institutional responsibility to help create jobs and overcome poverty.
“Individuals and families, faith-based and community groups, businesses and labor, government at every level—all must work together and find effective ways to promote the common good in national and economic life.”
Archbishop Dolan pledged the Church’s solidarity with those who are poor and jobless and help for leaders who assist the poor and jobless by promoting economic growth and fiscal responsibility.
“In these tough economic times, we turn to the God who loves us. We pray for those who need work. We lift up the poor and suffering. We ask God’s guidance for our nation,” he said, calling the present “a time for faith, hope and love.”
Archbishop Dolan noted some helpful materials already exist on the U.S. bishops’ conference website at http://www.usccb.org/about/justice-peace-and-human-development/unemployement-and-poverty.cfm.
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“Rather than place blame, everyone should accept their personal and institutional responsibility to help create jobs and overcome poverty.
...Individuals and families, faith-based and community groups, businesses and labor, government at every level—all must work together and find effective ways to promote the common good in national and economic life.”
—My Reply: Archbishop Dolan is the type of man that should have his speeches and statements reported on network TV. These words are the most positive I’ve heard in a long time concerning America’s economical problems.
With all the venom that is spread by athiests, people that lack faith and try to stifle out our rights to beleive, it is most definately a fact that these actions are what is causing many of America’s problems—That and a constant “bad additude” and the additude of “it’s not my problem.”
The church is TRUTH—And from this article, you can see that Archbishop Dolan is a great speaker of truth of what people need to do to work together as a community and as God’s children.
The real cause of poverty is child abuse. Any time a man and woman has sexual relations without the intent of creating & caring for the child that may come from that marital act, their sexual act is one of child abuse in it’s worst forms. We will never have peace in this world without there being peace in the family. We will never have peace in the family without there being peace in the womb.
In all my years of attending church and listening to sermons, I can count on one hand the number of times I have heard a priest even make mention of this important message. Why?
I sometimes become nervous when our spiritual leaders speak about economics and jobs and so on. I read this and was relieved that the good Archbishop didn’t delve too deep into specifics. It reminds me of Milton Friedman, an economist who said many people have good intentions when it comes to helping the poor, but often the real result is more poverty. It is often a knee-jerk reaction to blame unemployment on not enough government regulation and control, not enough unions, a minimum wage which isn’t high enough, etc. We try to force things into our vision, but unfortunately these usually do not work. Take min wage for example. It seems compassionate and loving to lobby to have it increased, but what often results is higher unemployment. Sure, some benefit from higher wages, but others lose their job and receive nothing at all. It would be better to allow the poorest people to get in on the ground floor, which cannot happen if the wage minimum are too high.
It often comes off as uncompassionate, but I believe in the free market, and ultimately I think that works best in raising people out of poverty. Look at Hong Kong. They were in desperate poverty with few natural resources. Then the British controlled them with benevolent neglect, few government programs. Millions of people were lifted out of poverty and the economy thrived. They enjoyed high quality of life and there were few poor people. Right now they have one of the highest life expectancies. Then compare that to the systems in government-controlled areas like the USSR and Cuba. These systems are based on compassion too, ostensibly anyway, but they end up hurting people.
That’s why I think it’s very easy for religious leaders, who may not be too well versed in economics, to assume that government intervention is the solution. I’m glad Archbishop Dolan didn’t go too far with his comments.
“Posted by Mike Eilers on Tuesday, Sep 20, 2011 10:37 AM (EDT):The real cause of poverty is child abuse. Any time a man and woman has sexual relations without the intent of creating & caring for the child that may come from that marital act, their sexual act is one of child abuse in it’s worst forms.”
—my reply AGREED!!!! All this sexism, teaching kids about sex at too young of age plus not encouraging kids to abstain are huge problems in America. And so many kids are being born truly unwanted and out of wedlock, it has become a vicious circle and an acceptable way to live. Another problem is people playing the system—for people that want a family will deliberatly have kids out of wedlock so they can get foodstamps and the such=The govt. encourages this type of behavior.
It’s a sad, catch 22-For you want the best interest for children, yet the parents of these kids are usually evil, irresponsible and are raking in the doe by immorally bearing children…
When Orthodoxy is once more preached in our poor, abused Church, we will have a return to Jesus Christ. The bishops need to stop doing the social workers jobs & preach the Truth of the Gospel & Jesus Christ Crucified! Orthodoxy in our Church is the only way to bring “Social Justice”. (AKA: Socialism!)
‘The bishops need to stop doing the social workers jobs….’
MY REPLY: wrong! People of the church’s priority is to help the people. Ever hear of missionary work? MANY of the things that are the norm in our society was started be the church: Hospitals, nurses, orphanages, feeding the hungry. People of the church has the responsiblity of not only speading the good news, but to perform Jesus and saint like duties.
Stating what you have in you post is like saying what Mother Teresa did was unjustified—for she saw Jesus in the suffer of all that she cared for.
Teedy-excuse me? I’m 70 yrs old & know church history, good & bad, cannon law, & have actually read the Vat. II documents. In addition & most importantly, I still have the Eucharist & a personal relationship with Christ AND His Mother. I had 5 kids, 18 grandchildren, & worked full time as a nurse for 30 yrs. In the Medical field, a nurse does not do the social workers job, wouldn’t even try. Now do you get it?? Try reading the Early Church Fathers. Mother Teresa was NOT a Bishop! I grew up in a Church of service. Our holy priests did not have to preach about it because they taught the full Truth of the Gospel. I don’t know how old you are but, don’t you get it!! If people follow Jesus Christ we would have 1000’s of “Mother Teresa’s!!!
Pax Christi
Kathleen
And how does Abp Dolan address the far more brutal poverty in Africa and Asia? One hears lamentation about the low wages and bad working conditions of the makers of our shirts and pants and electronic devices; but what would happen were these jobs eliminated?
Like all human activity success has bred failure: comfort and ease are maladies.
“Posted by Kathleen Riney on Wednesday, Sep 21, 2011 10:48 AM (EDT):Teedy-excuse me? I’m 70 yrs old & know church history, good & bad, cannon law, & have actually read the Vat. II documents. In addition & most importantly, I still have the Eucharist & a personal relationship with Christ AND His Mother. I had 5 kids, 18 grandchildren, & worked full time as a nurse for 30 yrs. In the Medical field, a nurse does not do the social workers job, wouldn’t even try. Now do you get it?? Try reading the Early Church Fathers. Mother Teresa was NOT a Bishop! I grew up in a Church of service. Our holy priests did not have to preach about it because they taught the full Truth of the Gospel. I don’t know how old you are but, don’t you get it!! If people follow Jesus Christ we would have 1000’s of “Mother Teresa’s!!!
Pax Christi
Kathleen”
—-my reply….My, my, my. Your responce to my posting makes for a wonderful cover letter to apply for the position of the Pope!
Frankly, I don’t care if you’re 170 years, have 15 kids and you’ve read the bible 50 times over in your over half a century on this planet. Just becuase you’ve done so much for the church, are a senior citizen and you’ve have a few kids doesn’t make you better or more educated than anybody else. Your self-righeousness doesnt’t seem to be very christian to me. And I didn’t say Mother Teresa was “Bishop Teresa.”
Don’t you get it? You want people to “follow Christ?” Well, the only way that can be done is people of the cloth (That means, bishops, priests, nuns, deacons, etc.) do their best with their homilies during mass and practicing missionary work.
Priests and Bishops are respresentations of Christ and their job is not just to be preachers—they are counselors, educators, activists and missionaries. At least the Priest that I know are!
When Catholics are the single, largest voting block the pro-abortion party has going on 38 years now since Roe v. Wade, I can just imagine how the bishops are going to be “speaking out about unemployment and poverty.” I bet the good Archbishop doesn’t even know that the USCCB was a major supporter of the Community Reinvestment Act(CRA) which was a fundamental factor in the U.S. economic turn down starting in 2008 crushing the housing and financial markets because of the subprime mortgages the Democrat Congress and USCCB supported, rebuffing all attempts by President Bush and the Congressional Republicans to place legislative controls on such lenient mortgage lending practices that developed under pressure of legal action by Democrats going all the way up to the collapse. And lets not forget the bishops support of unionization, even the public unions that now earn twice the wages of what similar jobs pay in the private sector, and have to pay nothing or 75% less for their benefits than private sector union and non unions pay for theirs. Remember the Wisconsin Bishops Conference supported the union’s fighting Wisconsin Governor and Republican majority Legislators’ attempts to bring their state budget under control. And the USCCB sent a letter out in support of the Wisconsin Bishops’ statement.
So, I tremble when Archbishop Dolan sends the letter to the U.S. bishops saying what he did. The Catholic laity need real brave, knowledgeable, and wise leadership from their bishops but what we have gotten from them especially since the mid 1980s produced abortion on demand remaining the law of the land; the first pro-abortion, pro-infanticide President ever; and the worst economy since the Great Depression all because of Catholics who feel so righteous being Democrats, and that includes Cardinals, bishops, clergy and religious, as well.
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