FROM the
FROM the
Servant Leader
President
The Gift
Dear Vincentians,
Over the past year, I have visited many councils
and conferences, seeing the awe-inspiring work our
Society accomplishes across the country. At the same time, I
have also tried to explore more deeply the realities of poverty
and the challenges we face as we work to end poverty. For me, the work that
we are currently doing and the desire to end poverty intersect in our service ?
our gift to the desperate, to our communities and, we know, to ourselves.
My first thought led me to believe that to end poverty, we needed to attack
the root causes. I believed those root causes are issues like lack of a living
wage, single parent households, poor health care, unreliable child care, etc. As
I learn more and reflect more deeply, however, I have come to believe that
these are not root causes. The roots go even deeper.
In the military there is a term called “collateral damage” that is used to
explain the unintentional but very real damage that happens from an attack
on a target. We hear a great deal these days about “drones” and the moral
rightness or wrongness of using them because of this collateral damage they
inflict.
If we translate this into our thinking about poverty, we find that those
things which we called root causes are actually collateral damage. So where
do we find the roots? What are the drones (the weapons that cause the
collateral damage), the symptoms that we see and try to alleviate?
As God created this beautiful world and human society, he established a
“right order,” a natural law that guides both the growth and development of the
planet, and the growth and development of the human person and of society
with its cultures, systems and values. When a people or a nation follows these
principles, society is stable, sustainable and just for all its members. When we
stray from them, the result is a disordered society and broken systems.
Where can we find these principles? They are encased in the body of
teaching, the treasure that we call Catholic Social Thought ? in reality, not just
Catholic but universal. So to look for the root causes of poverty, we need to
look for the “drones” that mount the attack on these principles. Imagine, if you
will, that such drones attack the basic principle that each of us is created in the
image and likeness of God (in effect, attacking our human dignity). That attack
plays out in comments such as: “the value of the individual is measured by
what he or she can produce;” “some lives are worth more than others;” or
“unborn life, the elderly, the convicted murderer have no God-given right to
life. If we accept that line of reasoning, that means we can determine for
ourselves when life should end.
The same holds true for other principles: expecting rights without
responsibilities, my “good” take precedence over the common good,
destruction of family life and values, or preying on the poor and vulnerable
among us. These are all examples of the drones that fly about in our nation
today. These drones cause the collateral damage of homelessness, hunger,
addiction, child abuse, and more. These drones destroy, or make impossible,
the opportunity for changes to broken systems of government, education,
health care, employment, and so on.
As Catholics and as Vincentians, what is our challenge and responsibility?
It is first to know these basic principles, to study them at more than a surface
level, and then to communicate them to others. We can then begin to evaluate
both our own and our nation’s values and culture with respect to these
principles, and work for change where change is needed.
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