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Washington D.C., Jun 11, 2016 / 06:14 am (CNA).- After U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan announced a task force on poverty this, Catholic leaders and economists weighed in, saying that it was a good starting point, but that more needed to be done.

Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami voiced hope that the proposal would be a conversation-starter on poverty, saying it “ought to be a catalyst for strong bi-partisan dialogue about our brothers and sisters in need and our obligations to give them priority in our policymaking.”

Speaker Ryan’s 35-page plan, A Better Way: Our vision for a confidant America, proposes changes to the welfare system, more cooperation between faith and community-based initiatives and the federal government, and a more results-based critique of federal anti-poverty programs.

“No amount of government intervention can replace the great drivers of American life: our families, friends, neighbors, churches, and charities,” the introduction states. “And Americans do not need more one-size-fits-all, top-down government programs that limit their ability to get ahead. Instead, they need opportunities to help them escape poverty and earn success.”

Among the plans proposals are work requirements for welfare recipients, letting workers avoid the welfare “cliff” by keeping some benefits as they accept wage increases, giving states and local governments more freedom to tailor welfare benefits and incentives to the needs of specific communities, promoting the use of data and information technology to determine the effectiveness of anti-poverty programs, and working with community programs for at-risk youth, to prevent incarceration.

“All too often, our current system of welfare programs and education programs are too complex, or don’t provide the assistance that individuals need in their unique circumstances,” the plan stated. “This is the beginning of a conversation.”

Ryan, who ran for U.S. vice president in 2012, has publically described his budget principles as being based on the Catholic pillars of solidarity and subsidiarity.

Prominent Catholics voiced gratitude to the House Speaker for raising the issue and starting a dialogue on the matter, although they added that the conversation is only beginning.

“It is time for a major national discussion on the moral challenge of overcoming poverty in the richest nation on earth,” John Carr, director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, told CNA. “I think Speaker Ryan’s proposal is a contribution to that, and I hope it will encourage others to offer their own plans and priorities.”

Carr was glad that the plan avoided touching “block grants, Medicaid, and food stamps,” noting that to do so “posed major practical and political problems” and did “not help the poor, in my view.”

Archbishop Wenski agreed. “Commendably, the plan does not seek to be a blunt instrument with regard to the social safety net,” he stated.

However, John Médaille, an adjunct professor of theology at the University of Dallas, said many of Ryan’s proposals “turn out to be aspirational at best, and contradictory at worst.”

The document “concentrates on symptoms, not causes” of poverty, he argued. “Poverty is the result of not having a job” or of “not having a job with a sufficient wage,” he said, but Ryan’s plan has “no wage-support programs” like a minimum wage hike, and has “no jobs program” to create jobs and bring people out of poverty.

Work requirements for welfare can only be a part of policies fighting poverty, Archbishop Wenski said. Lawmakers should look at other possible causes of poverty and symptoms “like access to nutritious food for people of all ages,” he said.

“While work is crucial for the flourishing of those who are able-bodied – and here St. John Paul II reminded us that work constitutes a foundation for the formation of family life – we need to account for the current state of our job training and the availability of actual, good paying jobs,” the archbishop stated.

And according to a study cited in the poverty report – a 2012 Census Bureau report on Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States – “the poverty programs actually do ease poverty” in that “people who didn’t have them would be starving,” Médaille noted.

Many people who are poor and receiving welfare benefits are actually “working very hard,” he said; in many families both parents are working and having to pay high daycare costs which can be second only to rent in monthly budget expenses.

The “effect of wage stagnation on family life” has had a very deleterious effect on families’ livelihoods, Médaille continued. Young white men earn “about the same” as in the 1970s, he noted, and “household income” has stayed about the same for almost 20 years. It’s definitely “part of the cause” of poverty, he said, but it receives “not even honorable mention in this document.”

One area Médaille agreed with the plan on was support for the Earned-Income Tax Credit. It should be “expanded radically” or even replaced with a guaranteed income, he said, noting that experiments in Canada and India show that people with a guaranteed income are “more likely to take a risk” and “become entrepreneurs.”

Photo credit: Christopher Halloran via Shutterstock.com

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Vatican City, Jun 11, 2016 / 06:48 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As thousands of young people prepare to hit Krakow in July for World Youth Day, the race to spread the word about the event is well underway, with organizers turning to social media as a primary platform in conveying the message of a very “sharable” Pope Francis.

“Francis is a digital Pope because he’s physical. He has a corporeality, a physicality which is expressed very well with his body posture, with the gestures he does, with his facial expressions,” Fr. Antonio Spadaro, SJ, told CNA.

The Pope's words are tangibly expressed through his actions, the priest said, noting that this “physicality” emerges on social media “almost with, I would say, powerfulness.”

Pope Francis “doesn’t speak with complex speeches,” but rather in simple phrases, “and these are very easily tweetable and shareable. It’s a message which circulates in networks very easily.”

Fr. Spadaro, editor of the Jesuit journal La Civiltà Cattolica, will be among some 70 journalists traveling to Krakow on board the papal plane with Francis for his appearance at World Youth Day.

A veteran in covering papal trips, Fr. Spadaro said an increasing emphasis on social media was already seen in the 2011 World Youth Day in Madrid, and that the social dimension of this year’s encounter “will be a very important moment to hold in consideration.”

Jamie Lynn Black, a young American working in English on the International Media Team for WYD in Krakow, told CNA that social media “is one of the main ways we communicate the message of WYD.”

With a team of volunteers based in Krakow and individual volunteers working remotely throughout the world, the team is currently interacting in 20 languages.

Gustavo Huguenin, social media coordinator for this year’s WYD event, told CNA that as July draws nearer, “we have intensified our work to inform pilgrims, engage Catholic audience, and attract new followers to discover this amazing experience.”

In terms of platforms, the social media team has already gone digital on 11 different social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, Youtube, Flickr, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, Foursquare, Pinterest, and Soundcloud.

While not all of the networks are available in each of the 20 working languages, Facebook features the entire palate. Among the languages available are Arabic, Croatian, Czech, Hungarian, Japanese, Maltese, Filipino, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.

Black, a native of Philadelphia, said her experience with WYD stems back to a meaningful experience she had in the 2002 gathering in Toronto with St. John Paul II, which had a strong impact on her faith.

Fast forward to 2015, when she was finishing up graduate studies in communications at Rome’s Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. Black was given the opportunity to coordinate international media for the Pope’s visit to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families, and through that experience was able to jump on board with the WYD Krakow team.

She estimates that “as many as 2.5 million pilgrims” could make their way to Krakow in July, and that social media will be a primary way for the youth to share memories and special moments with friends and family.

However, Black also noted that there are many youth who will not be able to make it to the encounter, so social media “is the perfect way not just to inform them about what is happening here but to include them in the dialogue and the experience.”

“We also hope that social media will help us to spread the message of WYD and of Pope Francis, his message of mercy, to those who many not have otherwise known about our event,” she said.

For his part, Huguenin explained that the international media team will be keeping an eye out for anything published on the Pope Francis’ own social media accounts, in order to promote how the Pope himself “talks with young people in the digital world.”

“We will share all messages about WYD and create content inspired by that,” he said, and told those following the coverage to keep an eye out for the hashtag “#krakow2016,” which is the official tag being used by the WYD communications team.

In terms of using social media as a means of evangelization, Fr. Spadaro said that rather than being an “instrument,” the networks actually build their own digital “environment.”

“The network is not an instrument to use for an end, but a life environment in which one’s own reflections, images of one’s life, dialogue between people, are shared,” he said, noting that these can be used for both good and bad purposes.

“So we need to go out from the mentality of the use of social networks and enter that of living evangelically the digital environment…I think that the Church is called to be there where the people are: today people are on social media so the Church is called to be on social media and not to use it.”

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Washington D.C., Jun 11, 2016 / 09:37 am (CNA).- Young women and religious sisters from around the country are gathering in Washington, D.C. to discover and share their unique talents, training them to use those gifts for the good of the Church and of the world.

“There are a lot of leadership initiatives for high school and college women, but we’ve never seen one in the Church that brings forth consecrated women working together, speaking to young women regardless of vocation,” said Sister Mary Gabriel of the Sisters of Life.

“We had a sense that if young women are encouraged and believed in, they’ll fly,” the committee chair for the GIVEN conference told CNA.

GIVEN is bringing together more than 300 women between the ages of 20 and 30 from every state in the country to Washington, D.C. in order to focus on each young woman recognizing, cultivating, and using the unique gifts she has received.

Throughout the June 7-12 conference, the young women will listen to talks on a range of topics from prayer to reclaiming one’s place in the world, as well as pray, talk, and plan their own projects for when they return home. GIVEN is put together by the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, or the CMSWR, one of the two major councils of women religious in the United State.

Attendees were given a full scholarship to attend the conference, after completing an application process detailing why they wanted to attend the conference and what they would bring back from the conference to put into action in their communities. The conference was sponsored by a grant from the Hilton Foundation and the GHR Foundation for the Year of Consecrated Life.

Sister Marie Bernadette, OP, of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia, serves as the Council Coordinator for the CMSWR and told CNA that GIVEN’s focus on making use of women’s gifts was very important, both for the sisters as they planned the event, as well as to have as one of the conference’s themes.

“Truly it’s our joy and privilege to support the local Churches, to support bishops, and to support the dioceses these women will go back to. As women religious, that’s really why we’re here: we’re here to serve the Church and to uphold and build the Body of Christ,” she said.

The sisters’ work supporting young women through GIVEN is already a source of excitement and gratefulness from bishops across the country.   

“I personally have been receiving letters daily from bishops who are so grateful that someone is coming back to be light in their diocese, that will be spreading the Gospel, that will be truly living for the Church and spreading their gifts,” Sister Marie Bernadette said. “They’re so excited.”

The conference started to come together nearly a year ago when around 15 communities of religious sisters started planning and shaping what GIVEN would look like. By the start of the conference, communities had sent more than 100 sisters to help run and serve GIVEN. “You have a tremendous powerhouse of prayer and also of service here,” Sister Marie Bernadette commented. “Each community brings its own special charism, their own special gifts, and then each individual sister, her own special gifts.”

The sisters also reached out to communities of cloistered nuns around the United States to ask for their prayers and support.

Conference organizers also reached out to lay women to speak and offer their perspectives on work, prayer, womanhood, and motherhood. “Every one of these speakers has opened their heart in a vulnerable way,” Sister Mary Gabriel said. The talks have sparked conversation and collaboration between the women- including the religious sisters present. “It is really tremendous hope,” she commented.

When planning the conference, organizers also sought to link together Catholic women, and speak to the loneliness facing so many young adults today. “This is a culture where it’s very easy to be alone, even when you’re surrounded by people,” Sister Mary Gabriel said. From the response so far, the experiment seems to be getting positive feedback from the attendees. “So many have said, ‘Oh my goodness, I’ve been waiting for something like this.’”

That is the message that has resonated with Chanelle Leonhardt, who is attending the conference from the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. She told CNA she was impressed by “being surrounded by so many young women – just knowing that you’re not alone,” as well as the communal feel of the conference.

Applying after hearing about the conference from the Sisters of Life, Leonhard said she was particularly inspired to put the conference’s mission into action by a talk by Sr. Norma Pimentel, MJ, who works with migrant families on the US- Mexico border. “I really want to get a group of friends and drive down to see the hands-on work and help,” she explained.

Long-term, Leonhardt also hopes the conference will help her to “own my gifts consistently,” and can help drive the work she is doing writing several books. “I want to carry this conviction I have.”

Ali Hoffman from the Archdiocese of Dallas also has plans to take what she has learned from the conference and apply it to her calligraphy and other artwork, as well as to her work with youth ministry. What has been most impactful for her have been the lectures on the concept of the “Feminine Genius” and the special role of women in the world.

That special role of women is especially evident in the “calibre of the women speaking,” and the other attendees present, Hoffman said. “I’m realizing here how the gifts of 300 other women are all here for building up the Church,” she told CNA.  

“I’m so excited to see what’s going to happen 20 years from now from this conference.”

 

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While Indian officials were working with Afghan authorities to secure the release of an Indian Catholic charity worker kidnapped in Kabul on Thursday, the Christian community in the aid worker’s home city of Kolkata have come around the family.   Judith D'Souza, the 40-year-old Catholic woman from the eastern city, works with the Agha Khan Network in Afghanistan to raise awareness about the role of women.  She was hired by the charity which provides education and health assistance in about 30 countries.  

“We pray for her safe release and return. Judith is someone involved in improving the lives of many people in difficulty,” Archbishop Thomas D'Souza of  Calcutta told AsiaNews.   “I assure the family of my prayers and our support. She is from the Fatima Parish, and just last month she visited her parents,” the archbishop said.  He wished that Judith be able to return home to her family soon through the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima. 

Agnes D'Souza, Judith’s distressed sister tweeted several messages seeking help from the Indian government.  One read: “My sister Judith D'Souza abducted in Kabul. Request your immediate help to rescue her. My old parents are very distressed.”  External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted in response: "She is your sister and India's daughter. We are doing everything to rescue her. Pl take care of your sick father."

Judith is not the first Indian Catholic aid worker to be kidnapped in Afghanistan. Jesuit Father Alexis Prem Kumar from Tamil Nadu state was kidnapped in June 2014 and kept in capitivity for more than 8 months before the Indian government secured his release in Feb. 2015.   Another priest, Fr. Tom Uzhunnalil, a Salesian from southern India, who was abducted by unknown gunmen in Yemen on March 4th this year  is still in capitivity.  The Indian government has confirmed that Fr. Tom is alive and that it is holding talks with the abductors for his release.

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