In recent issues of the Catholic Herald, we’ve had quite a bit of information about Catholic Charities Madison, including flood relief, the annual Faith in Action Awards Celebration, and The Beacon homeless day resource center.
So our readers might think they know quite a bit about Catholic Charities. Yet this weekend, we are observing Catholic Charities Sunday in the Diocese of Madison.
What else do you need to know about Catholic Charities? Quite a bit!
Most of us have seen people holding signs at intersections saying, “I’m homeless. Please help me!”
We feel sorry for them and want to give them some money. But we get the sinking feeling that the money won’t help them break out of the cycle of homelessness.
However, since The Beacon opened almost a year ago in Madison on October 16, 2017, I feel more optimistic about homeless people. And I wonder if I should carry a card with me to give those people begging for money information on The Beacon.
As it happens so many times in places throughout the world, the Catholic Church has come to the rescue of more than one million people taking shelter in relief camps after floods ravaged Kerala state in southwest India.
The Indian effort is the biggest rescue and relief operation the Catholic Church in Kerala has ever undertaken, reported Catholic News Service. All 32 Catholic dioceses in Kerala have joined in the relief work.
As it happens so many times in places throughout the world, the Catholic Church has come to the rescue of more than one million people taking shelter in relief camps after floods ravaged Kerala state in southwest India.
The Indian effort is the biggest rescue and relief operation the Catholic Church in Kerala has ever undertaken, reported Catholic News Service. All 32 Catholic dioceses in Kerala have joined in the relief work.
When we think of the work of St. Teresa (or Mother Teresa as we’ll always know her), we remember her helping the poor, sick, and homeless people in the slums of Calcutta.
But do we realize that there are poor and homeless people right in our own communities? It was shocking for me to read about poverty in our own state in a report issued by the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Most of us don’t know what real hunger is. We may get some hunger pangs when we skip a meal or wait awhile to eat. But we probably have never experienced the pain, weakness, fatigue, and other symptoms of excessive or chronic hunger.
If you check for symptoms of hunger on the Internet, you find that there are many other affects of extreme hunger, especially in children. Hunger hits children physically with delayed growth and development, as well as greater susceptibility to diseases. Hunger also affects children’s learning and impacts their social interactions.
One Human Family, Food for AllOfficial prayer from Caritas O God, you entrusted to us the fruits of all creation so that we might care for the earth and be nourished with its bounty. You sent us your Son to share our very flesh and blood and to teach us your Law of Love. Through His death and resurrection, we have been formed into one human family. Jesus showed great concern for those who had no food — even transforming five loaves and two fish into a banquet that served 5,000 and many more. We come before you, O God, conscious of our faults and failures, but full of hope, to share food with all members in this global family. Through your wisdom, inspire leaders of government and of business, as well as all the world’s citizens, to find just and charitable solutions to end hunger by assuring that all people enjoy the right to food. Thus we pray, O God, that when we present ourselves for Divine Judgment, we can proclaim ourselves as “One Human Family” with “Food for All”. AMEN. |
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What is really sad is that since over 40 percent of households in the United States live below the poverty level, approximately 13 million American children live with hunger or are at risk of experiencing hunger.
What can we do to help those who are hungry? This week Pope Francis helped launch a global campaign of prayer and action against world hunger, according to a Catholic News Service (CNS) article.
Organized by Caritas Internationalis, the Vatican-based federation of Catholic charities, the global “wave of prayer” began at noon on Tuesday, Dec. 10, on the South Pacific island of Samoa and headed west across the world’s time zones.
Pope Francis offered his blessing and support for the “One Human Family, Food For All” campaign in a five-minute video message released on the eve of the global launch (go to food.caritas.org for his message and more information and resources on this campaign to end world hunger).
Caritas Internationalis invited its 164-member organizations and local churches to pray for an end to hunger and malnutrition as well as to act on a local, national, or global level against food waste and promote food access and security worldwide, said the CNS article.
In the United States, Caritas works with Catholic Charities USA (Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Madison is an affiliate) and Catholic Relief Services.
