In this month of November, when we gather to give thanks to God for His generosity to us, we cannot ignore the fact that over 1 billion human beings live in extreme poverty. These people lack basic human needs, such as adequate food, clothing and shelter that we in richer nations take for granted.
The MDG hopes to cut in half by 2015 the number of people whose income is less than $1 per day and the number of people who suffer from hunger.[3] Because of the recent global-economic breakdown, however, there has been an increase of 100 million persons denied access to sustainable food.[4] Indeed, the target of halving the number of people who are hungry by 2015 will not be reached if prevailing trends seen before the financial crisis continue.”[5] In 2008, nearly nine million children died from hunger and malnutrition before age five.[6]
Pope Benedict XVI affirms that the world community has the resources to feed the world’s hunger and he urges world leaders to “realize that global resources belong to all people, especially poor and landless people who have suffered the most recent financial crisis.[7]
Human beings legitimately exercise a responsible stewardship over nature, in order to protect it, to enjoy its fruits and to cultivate it in new ways, with the assistance of advanced technologies, so that it can worthily accommodate and feed the world’s population. On this earth, there is room for everyone: here the entire human family must find the resources to live with dignity, through the help of nature itself—God’s gift to his children—and through hard work and creativity.[8]
President Obama noted, “[A]id alone is not development. Development is helping nations to actually develop from poverty to prosperity.”[9] He added, “[W]e are changing how we view the ultimate goal of development. Our focus on assistance has saved lives in the short term, but it hasn’t always improved those societies over the long term . . . Instead of just managing poverty, we have to offer nations peoples a path out of poverty.”[10] With this in mind, we remember the words of Mother Teresa:
I was asked why I did not give a rod with which to fish, in the hands of the poor, rather than give the fish itself as this makes them remain poor. So I told them: The people whom we pick up are not able to stand with a rod. So today, I will give them fish and when they are able to stand, then I shall send them to you and you can give them the rod. That is your job. Let me do my work today. [11]
Feeding the poor is “aid.” Giving them a “rod” is development. Both are essential, for the common good and economic well being of all persons.
Our faith in Jesus Christ “makes it possible to have a correct understanding of social development in the context of an integral and solidary humanism.”[12] Faithful to Her social mission, the Church affirms that solidarity among nations is crucial for proper human development. Without solidarity, we will continue to ignore and marginalize the needy. We cannot ignore that in our modern world interdependence exists, not only among individuals but also among nations. The church, therefore, summons States to “international partnership”[13] Certainly, “The present scenarios of profound transformation of human work, call even more urgently for an authentically global development in solidarity that is capable of invoking every region of the world including those less advantaged.”[14]
It is important that human and economic development be intrinsically motivated and practiced from a moral premise, which values the human well being of all men and women. This includes a fundamental respect for life from conception until the moment of natural death. No development can be authentically human without these principles.--Brother Warren Perrotto, MSC
1 For text to the President’s Speech, see http://whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/09/22remarks-president-millennium-development-goals-summit-new-york-new-york
2 http://www.greenfacts.org/glossary/mno/MDGs-millennium-development-goals.htm
3 Bruce White, Juan Molina, O.SS.T., An Historic Opportunity to Confront Hunger: Lessons from the Global Food Crisis. Catholics Confront Poverty, December 9, 2009, PowerPoint.
4 Cf. Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Urging Our Nations To End Hunger. Bread for the World, http://www.bread.%20org/hunger/global/facts.html
7 White, Molina
8 Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), No. 509 Op.cit. President’s Speech
9 Op cit., President's Speech10 Ibid.
11 Mother’s Wisdom: http://home.comcast.net/~motherteresasite/wis.html
12 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, no. 327
13 Pope John XXIII, Mater Et Magistra [MEM], 1961, no. 36
14 Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, no. 321, 334
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