February 17, 2008

God promised to make a great nation of the descendants of Abraham and Sarah.  God would bless them and make their name great.  This promise resounded through the ages from generation to generation.  The assurance of being honored as God’s chosen people lifted the spirits of the Jewish people, even in their darkest hour. 

Little did the Jews understand that although God was faithful to the divine promise, they, the people, were not fulfilling their part of the agreement.  Despite warnings from the prophets, they strayed from God’s path: oppressing the poor, worshiping false gods, abandoning widows and orphans, and rejecting immigrants.  When God sent messengers to warn them, they killed the prophets.  They did not understand that to be the chosen people, they had to do justice, live in peace, forgive one another and be compassionate to the less fortunate. 

Today, we as a people believe our nation is blessed and that we have a responsibility among the nations to construct a world without poverty, war and violence, a place where no one goes hungry; all races and ethnic groups flourish as in a vast garden of many colors.  In this world few will want to emigrate or leave their own country because their homeland will be lush with food, timber, and jobs.  But building this world of peace and justice will require hard work and sacrifice on our part.

One of the five principles regarding immigration reform outlined by the American bishops states that the United States, should promote the economic development of poor countries so that their people need not leave them in order to survive.  Most of us do not realize how much or how little our country does to eliminate poverty in other countries and thus stem immigration.  Few people are aware that the free trade agreements our country heavily promoted with Mexico, Central America and other Latin American countries have actually increased immigration among poor people from those countries.  Instead of promoting development which would limit immigration, we have fostered policies that aggravate immigration.

Our country is the richest nation on earth.  We have the highest standard of living in the world.  One common measure of our wealth states we have only 6% of the world’s population but we consume 40% of the world’s resources.  That means we consume almost 7 times as much resources, such as food, minerals, and petroleum as our population size would warrant, if all things were equal. In fact, while our country grows richer, the world’s poor are becoming poorer. 

Few people realize that our country’s financial contribution to eliminate poverty in the world is declining even as the need escalates.  More than a billion people, one sixth of humanity, live in extreme poverty. Their cash earnings are pennies a day. They are trapped in poverty by disease, physical isolation, climate stress, and environmental degradation.  Six million children under the age of five die each year from malnutrition and disease; millions more live so malnourished they are physically or mentally underdeveloped.  These families and their governments lack the financial means to make the crucial investments to free themselves from poverty.  And this poverty generates increasing more immigrants.

In 2002, the 191 nations belonging to the United Nations committed themselves to end this extreme poverty by 2025 by steadily infusing for 10 to 15 years $100 per person in these poor countries.  These funds will provide improved roads and energy, safe drinking water and sanitation, access to anti-malarial bed nets and HIV/AIDS medicines, nutrition programs for vulnerable populations, primary education for all children, access to home cooking stoves and fuel and improved agricultural inputs, such as fertilizers.  In each of these areas, the nations of the world have established specific goals, called the Millennium Development Goals.

Necessarily, the money for this development must come from the richest countries, and they have agreed to donate one half of one percent of their Gross National Product – a tiny fraction of their wealth. It doesn’t seem like much.  But the United States is not meeting its commitment.  Since 2002, when the rich countries committed to make these donations, they have not only not met them, but have decreased their contributions from 3 cents to 2 cents of every $10; and the contribution of the United States is the lowest of all, about one and a half cents on $10.  What a tragedy.  Just think of the more than $500 billion our country has spent on the war in Iraq.  And when the war is over, will we give just a fraction of that amount to fulfill our commitment to the poor of the world?  Currently, the war costs more than $5 billion a month while our commitment to the world’s poor is just 20% of that, $1 billion per month, and of course, we are not meeting it..

What can and should we do about all this?  First of all, we must counter the common myth that the United States is so generous with foreign aid.  We do give more money than other countries but that is because we have so much more. Actually, we give a smaller percentage of our income to the world’s poor than 25 other rich countries.  Remember Jesus’ praise for the poor widow who deposited a few coins in the Temple poor box.  He recognized she didn’t give much but he commended her because she gave so generously.  Our country should give of its wealth, generously, to end extreme poverty in the world.  Such generosity would help promote development and alleviate the need for so much immigration.  How can we complain about the poor trying to enter our country when we do so little to reduce the poverty in their homeland? 

We are a great country.  We have been enormously blessed.  Let us make our name great among the nations and our descendents proud of who we are by helping to eliminate extreme poverty in the world in our time. 

Prayers of the Faithful

For the rich countries of this world, including the United States, that we recognize our responsibility to work together to eliminate extreme poverty on this earth.

For our governmental leaders, that they develop programs to assist countries sending immigrants to the United States so that their people do not have to leave their homeland in order to survive.

For all of us, that we might be more generous in sharing what we have with those in need.

For all people of faith, that we might always believe and act like members of the same human family, helping each other as brothers and sisters.