The first U.S. “Campaign for Human Development” is not only a drive for $50 million to fight the root causes of poverty but also an attack against the many myths about the poor, the campaign’s director said here.

Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Michael Dempsey made the remarks at a press conference at the Catholic Center. He was here to brief diocesan campaign directors from 12 states, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands.

It is one of six such regional meetings he is attending in preparation for the Nov. 22 collection in all U.S. churches.

Father Noel Burtenshaw, Atlanta archdiocese chancellor, is the local campaign director.

Bishop Dempsey said it is a myth that “the poor you will always have with you.” Some countries, such as West Germany, have abolished poverty, he added.

The educational aspect of the campaign focuses on a major effort to inform the public about the nature of the poverty problem in the U.S. and to dispel the “myths” associated with poverty.

Quoting Pope Paul VI, Auxiliary Bishop Michael Dempsey of Chicago says the campaign marks an all-out effort to “break the hellish circle of poverty.” “It is for us to help provide the resources to see that the poor have both the voice and the opportunity to achieve their own self-determination,” said Bishop Dempsey, who has spent 28 years working for the poor in inner-city Chicago.

John Cardinal Dearden of Detroit says the Church in the United States has given the Campaign “top priority.”

“We have asked all dioceses to set their objective high, taking as their minimum goals their best previous performance in any national collection,” said Cardinal Dearden, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and the United States Catholic Conference.

Funds collected will be used to support a variety of self-help projects and programs intended to help the poor help themselves. Bishop Dempsey said: “These self-help funds will be distributed for projects such as voter registration and community organizations; seed money to develop non-profit housing corporations, community run schools, minority owned cooperatives called credit unions and rural cooperatives; capital for industrial development and job training and placement programs; monies for day care centers, care for the aged, rehabilitation from drug addiction.”

“Projects to be given the highest priority are those not presently funded through other institutions or agencies or those in need of additional funds not presently available,” he stated.

One of every four dollars raised in the Campaign may be retained in the diocese in which it is collected to support local Human Development programs, while the remaining funds will go to a national fund “for disbursement in those areas and for those programs where the poor believe there is the greatest need,” Bishop Dempsey said.

He noted that a National Committee on Human Development is now being formed to oversee allocation of the national fund. Members will include a small number of bishops, together with priests, religious and lay people, many of them directly associated with poverty communities.

As outlined by the bishops, the campaign has two main thrusts-fund raising and educational.

The fund-raising effort centers on the national collection which will take place annually in the Thanksgiving season. Although the bishops set no deadline for raising the minimum goal of $50 million, it has been indicated that this sum is only a first target of a continuing effort to obtain seed money for self-help projects.

As part of this educational effort, an all-media drive is being conducted under the direction of Robert B. Beusse, director of the USCC Communications Department. Elements include a television and radio “spot” series developed by the Franciscan Communications Center, Los Angeles, and an eight-minute film on poverty entitled “Land of the Brave,” also produced by the Franciscan Communications Center. Director of the Center is Rev. Karl Holtsnider, O.F.M.

Adding an ecumenical note to the effort, the Broadcasting and Film Commission of the National Council of Churches is providing professional assistance in promoting and distributing broadcast materials relating to the Campaign.

Following the regional meetings, the diocesan campaign directors will conduct meetings in their dioceses at the diocesan, deanery parish levels. Emphasis at these meetings will be on the involvement of all aspects of diocesan and parish programs -- youth organizations, schools, adult education, fraternal groups, parish councils -- in the campaign.

At the national level, policy formation for the Campaign rests with a National Conference of Catholic Bishops committee headed by Bishop Francis J. Mugavero of Brooklyn. Plans call for the bishops’ committee to work closely with the National Committee of Human Development now being set up in developing procedures for the Campaign and evaluating requests for funding.

“The Church has a further tradition, a tradition of dollar-for-dollar effectiveness in schools, charities,” he says. “And the poor, used to making do with less, undoubtedly will do with more, and they have proven this in self-help programs already undertaken with public and private resources.”

“My optimism is based on people, not on programs. If you have the right people -- and the time has come for the poor - they will make their program work.”