A NEW APPROACH IN THE WAR ON POVERTY

By Bill Dunn

A recent news story described the efforts of a local Catholic parish to implement an innovative approach to its social justice ministry. The Church of St. Anthony in Prospect, Conn., will integrate social justice activities throughout the entire parish, in the hope it will be much more effective than the occasional clothing drive or food basket handouts.

The Rev. Mark Suslenko, pastor at St. Anthony, explained, “It’s one thing to say, ‘We’re going to collect food for the needy.’ That’s a hands-on re­sponse. But there’s another part of it, which is ‘Why is (poverty) happening in the first place? Why do we have this gap? What is it in our lifestyle that contributes to these gaps?’”

Michael Accuosti, a pastoral council member in the parish, said, “We wanted to move away from just giving out money. We want to find out what the root cause of the problem is and not just throw money at people.”

Halleluiah! Finally, someone has the common sense to realize the current “band-aid” approach to helping the poor is not working. Finally, someone has the courage to address the root cause of poverty.

In a recent column, economics professor Walter E. Williams wrote about the true root cause of poverty: “In all too many cases, [material poverty] has been replaced by a more debilitating kind of poverty: behavioral poverty, the poverty of the spirit. This kind of poverty refers to conduct and values that prevent the development of healthy families, work ethic and self­-sufficiency. The absence of these values virtually guarantees pathological lifestyles that include: drug and alcohol addiction, crime, violence, incarceration, illegiti­macy, single-parent households, de­pendency and erosion of work ethic. Poverty of the spirit is a direct result of the perverse incentives created by some of our efforts to address material poverty.”

What better organization to combat “poverty of the spirit” than the Church? Unlike government social services agencies, which ignore the importance of moral values and virtuous lifestyles, the Church has been preaching a clear message of personal holiness and family responsibility for 2,000 years (although, admittedly, during the past 40 years this message has been rather muddled).

Just think, instead of handing out food and money to poor people with the condescending attitude of, “You’re a victim, you can’t do it on your own”—which is so common nowadays with most government entitlements and charities—this new approach presumably will challenge those in poverty to confront the true reasons for their troubles. Instead of treating large segments of society as helpless and hopeless, it will be a breath of fresh air to treat these people with dignity, to view them as being capable of self-sufficiency if they only develop the virtuous habits of disciple, responsibility, and delayed gratification.

And the Church is the perfect institution to implement this innovative approach in the battle against poverty. Unlike state-run welfare programs, where social service workers and politicians have a vested interest in keeping poor people poor and forever dependent on the scraps from government’s table, the Church can cut through all the self-serving bureaucracies and get to the heart of the matter.

The Church can offer the compassion and caring Jesus offered the sinful woman when He said, “Neither do I condemn you.” And just like Jesus, the Church can address the root cause of many desperate circumstances: “Go and sin no more.”

What a wonderful day it will be when poverty-fighting, social justice programs are measured, not by how many people need hand-outs, but by how many people no longer need hand-outs. May God bless this innovative ministry.