Poverty must be tackled by overhauling social structures, pope says

Published: 2007-09-26

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Handouts to the poor are not enough; poverty must be tackled by overhauling social structures that deny people basic human rights, Pope Benedict XVI said at his weekly general audience. "It is not enough to give alms and help the poor on a case-by-case basis," he said, citing the teachings of St. John Chrysostom. The saint saw that a new structure, based on the Christian vision of the human family, is needed, the pope said. Pope Benedict returned briefly to the Vatican from his papal summer villa south of Rome for his Sept. 26 audience in St. Peter's Square. The pope continued a catechesis he began Sept. 19 that focused on the life and writings of St. John Chrysostom, the fourth-century doctor of the church and archbishop of Constantinople, now Istanbul, Turkey. Pope Benedict said St. John Chrysostom was one of the great forefathers of the church's social doctrine, and with St. Paul the Apostle he fostered the idea of a city built upon the primacy of the person.

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