U.S. poverty called a major moral, policy challenge

Published: 2007-01-12

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- "Poverty remains our nation's most serious political blind spot and one of our nation's most profound moral failings," says a new policy paper of Catholic Charities USA, "Poverty in America: A Threat to the Common Good." The policy paper, published in the form of a 28-page booklet released Jan. 10 at a briefing on Capitol Hill, sets the framework for Catholic Charities' new Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America. The paper is also available in Spanish. The goal of the campaign is to cut poverty in half by 2020. That would mean that the 37 million Americans now living below the poverty line, who form 12.6 percent of the country's population, would have to drop to about 6 percent within 13 years. "Poverty in this nation is an ongoing disaster that threatens the health and well-being of our country, which our children will inherit," the paper says. It says the spread of poverty in America "has been largely ignored" in recent years by politicians and the media, while the federal government "has substantially reduced the resources" devoted to assisting the poor. The policy paper and other resource materials are available on the Internet at www.catholiccharitiesusa.org.

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