CNS reports: "Pope calls for greater effort to reduce poverty"
The extreme poverty in which millions of the world's people live is an offense to their human dignity, Pope Benedict XVI said at his weekly general audience.
Focusing on the problem of poverty, the pope said, "The disparity between rich and poor is becoming more evident and disturbing, even within the most economically advanced nations."
According to the United Nations, 980 million people live in "extreme poverty," struggling to survive on less than $1 per day.
"This worrying situation calls on the conscience of humanity because the condition in which a great number of people live offends the dignity of the human person and consequently compromises the authentic and harmonious progress of the world community," Pope Benedict told the estimated 30,000 people at his general audience.
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And on it goes. In my life time I have witnessed endless calls to end poverty. Endless books have been written and articles published. Politicians pander to religious groups and tell them how they are concerned with those impoverished at election time and vow to implement policy to uplift those impoverished. Celebrities band together and raise money to help those in poverty and community groups organize. And so it goes.
But who speaks for the poor? Do the poor themselves have a voice? Do they tell us what they need? Do they tell us what would truly alleviate their suffering? Do we hear their cry? Their voice? Often not. Often the story of those impoverished is told by those at high altitudes. They have good intentions, but they are not speaking for the impoverished, they are speaking for their own vanity.
As the disparity between the rich and poor increases, so does the experience that many of previous generations had in experiencing hard times.
We have a whole class and generation of Americans who have never really experienced hard times. Americans have become soft, thus it becomes difficult for their conscious to become outraged. A vast majority of Americans can not even relate to poverty.
B16 is correct. Extreme poverty, any poverty is an offense to human dignity, not just to those impoverished, but to all of humankind.
Until those impoverished are organized into a constituency and they have a voice that is actually heard by the politicians, the poor as Jesus tells us, will always be among us.
B16 has tied extreme poverty to human dignity as a life issue. At this time of presidential elections when poverty polls low on the issue totem poll, will we hear the same pandering as before, or maybe at the Popes urging, Catholics will insist, no demand that politicians finally begin to work for the common good.
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