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Economic progress and the 'invisible poor'

The 1990s marked a period of unprecedented economic progress for larger numbers of Americans. In fact, the statistics on poverty from the 2000 census report positive indications that overall poverty rates at the national level did fall significantly. The data on Kentucky lined up favorably with the national trends insofar as the average rates in the state dropped from 19 percent in 1989 to 15.8 percent in 1999.

In spite of the improvements statewide, however, one-third of the 120 Kentucky counties still subsist at rates higher than 20 percent.

Moreover, there remains a geography of poverty which is not simply limited to remote and/or underdeveloped counties. Although urban living is marked by greater prosperity, pockets of poverty in selected urban regions still reflect disproportionate ratios when compared with the general level of affluence in upscale urban and suburban enclaves.

Welfare-to-work programs have been successful up to a point. But oftentimes the move from unemployment to the work force has become a placement among the working poor. That sort of result is particularly applicable to unskilled labor.

As a result, the generally optimistic charting of socio-economic progress in the past decade may serve as a screen hiding the yet '.invisible poor."

When the National Conference of Catholic Bishops published A Decade After Economic Justice for All (1995), that pastoral message identified "three nations living side by side" with economic growth "distributed too inequitably."

The prosperous are coping well (in reality, a whole new category of wealth has become visible -that of "the superrich"). A second community is experiencing decline in real income and potential displacement caused by global economic competition. The third category is classified as "an American underclass, their children growing up desperately poor in the richest nation on earth.’

 In this commemoration of the Conference's 1986 pastoral letter on the U .s. economy, the bishops again issued "an urgent call to renewed Catholic dialogue and action in the pursuit of a more just, productive, and human economy." In that call to renewed commitment, the bishops invited "leaders to further integrate these principles and tasks into their prayer and preaching, their education and formation, their outreach and advocacy."

Since 1999 the statistics on poverty have generally confirmed notable progress. Consensus also has been narrowing the gap created by ideological differences in the debates about welfare reform.

At an abstract political level, liberals and conservatives had tended to be divided into stereotypical postures on the causes of poverty and remedies for welfare dependency. On the one hand, liberals leaned towards explanations of social ills based on structural causes. On the other hand, conservatives emphasized cultural and moral roots of social pathologies as well as flawed social programs.

Realistic public policies should confront both aspects, namely, the structural barriers and a need for personal responsibility and reciprocal duties of the disadvantaged towards society. Thus, in recent years these erstwhile contrasting approaches have continued to move to a higher common ground on the question of poverty and welfare reform.

Perhaps the growing rapprochement on this issue has evolved from the recognition that both viewpoints reflected only part of the truth. Neither was a total explanation as Rod Sider, the president of Evangelicals for Social Action, has astutely observed: "The multiple causes of their [welfare recipients] poverty go well beyond temporary setbacks; and a long term solution will require personal transformation as well as structural change and temporary assistance."

With regard to the global economy, the plight of the Third World poor hold center stage for initiatives for social justice. The apostolic letter Church in America (Ecclesia in America,1999) candidly states the Church's moral ideal: "The goal of the Church is to ensure that no one is marginalized." (EIA n. 58)

Throughout his papacy, Pope John Paul II has untiringly set forth appeals imbued with the spirit of social justice. For example, in “The Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum” (Centesimus Annus ,1991) the Holy Father identifies two demands for assisting the countries of the Third World.

First, the Holy Father declares that mobilizing resources for attaining economic growth and common development should be accompanied by "redefining the priorities and hierarchies of values on the basis of which economic and political choices are made." In addition, he writes of the necessity "to abandon a mentality in which the poor-as individuals and as peoples-are considered a burden, as irksome intruders trying to consume what others have produced." (CA n.28)

If the global situation can be viewed as the national or local situation "writ large, " both insights provide a much needed moral wisdom for the pursuit of justice at the national, state and regional levels.  In effect, this outlook harmonizes with an integral principle in contemporary Catholic social teaching--- an option for the poor and vulnerable.

In retrospect, Centesimus Annus describes the substance of Pope Leo XII's “On the Condition of the Worker” (Rerum Novarum, (1891), the first social encyclical as being consistent with what is now called “the preferential option for the poor.” 

Pope John Paul II states: "Re-reading the Encyclical in the light of contemporary realities enables us to appreciate the Church's constant concern for and dedication to categories of people who are especially beloved to the Lord Jesus.” (CA n. 11)

When Pope Leo XIII issued Rerum Novarum at the end of the 19th century, "the worker" and "the poor" were practically synonyms in that historical context. The negative impact of the laissez- faire economics of the Industrial Revolution were largely eliminated by social and legal reform measures.

Some commentators argue that conditions in a growing "survival of the fittest" or "winner-take-all" economy are twenty-first century mirrors of the injustices visited on labor during the "gilded age" of unbridled capitalism.

The constant principles of Catholic social teaching face fresh challenges in the context of an international economy intertwined with its fallout on the national economy.

Economic Justice for All (1986) does not create "a blueprint for the American economy" nor adopt any specific economic theory. (EJ n. 12)  Nonetheless, it does adopt standards based on biblical norms and the social teaching of the Church.

In the summary of six basic moral principles from that tradition, the pastoral letter affirms that "(a)ll members of society have a special obligation to the poor and vulnerable." It notes that the "'option for the poor' does not mean pitting one group against another, but rather, strengthening the whole community by assisting those who are most vulnerable." (EJ n. 16)

The passage concludes: "As Christians, we are called to respond to the needs of all our brothers and sisters, but those with the greatest needs require the greatest response." (EJ n. 16)

The "invisible poor" ought not be marginalized in society or in societal consciousness. Neither ought the "option for the poor" be invisible in guiding social policies or marginalized in the consciousness of Christians.

Catholic Conference of Kentucky

1042 Burlington Lane

Frankfort, Kentucky 40601

502-875-4345 502-875-2841 Fax cckstaffATccky.org

Last modified: April, 2008