”Fighting Poverty to Build Peace” is the theme of the 2009 World Day of Peace celebrated on January 1, and it coincides with the U.S. Conference of Bishops’ designation of January as “Poverty in America Awareness Month.”
In issuing this year’s message on World Day of Peace, the Holy Father decried the growing gap between rich and poor, especially in the most developed nations, and suggested that poverty is “a problem which the conscience of humanity cannot ignore, since the conditions in which a great number of people are living are an insult to their innate dignity and as a result are a threat to the authentic and harmonious progress of the world community.”
Here in the United States, the widening gap between the rich and poor is greatly increasing. In the midst of a failing economy and growing unemployment, the news that more than 37 million Americans are living below the poverty line, and the child poverty rate of 18 percent, higher than most other major industrialized nations, is a grim reality. In Rhode Island, the news appears even worse as the unemployment rate continues to rise and is quickly approaching 10 percent. According to the Poverty Institute the gap between rich and poor is increasing while the safety nets for basic needs for Rhode Island families are decreasing.
This gloomy news should spur Catholics and all people of good will to increase their awareness of the poverty and join the Holy Father’s call to fight poverty by building the peace. This fight must include holding both the new Obama Administration and Democratic Congress accountable in meeting the needs of the poor and marginalized of our nation. Likewise, the newly sworn in Rhode Island General Assembly must be held accountable in serving the common good and not placing the burden of balancing the state budget upon the backs of the poor and vulnerable of our state. Government has a moral duty to serve the poor with safety nets that provide basic needs of food, clothing, housing, education and healthcare.
Pope Benedict XVI’s call must be heard by all. The Holy Father stated: “At the start of the New Year, then, I extend to every disciple of Christ and to every person of good will a warm invitation to expand their hearts to meet the needs of the poor and to take whatever practical steps are possible to help them. The truth of the axiom cannot be refuted: “to fight poverty is to build peace.”
