Outline Catholic teaching on wealth and poverty.

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Hannah Atkinson

Cardinal Allen, Catholic High School, Fleetwood.

Year 10  Religious Studies Coursework

February 2004

A) i) Outline Catholic teaching on wealth and poverty (4)

 Catholics believe that wealth is not a bad thing in its self. It can be used for good or evil depending on how you choose to live. They believe that if you have earned it in honest and lawful ways, it is a gift from God. Many biblical teachings show us this. Examples of this are the parable of the sheep and the goat: This parable explains that when the world came to be judged the people who had done good and helped others were sent to heaven. As for the goats they would spend the rest of their life in hell. This is one of Jesus most important parables. The message that is being giving is that if you have helped people you will earn you place in haven for everyone you have helped it is as if you have done it to God.  Another important parable is Matthew 6:24, this tells us that we either love God or we love money.  We cannot love both at the same time.  An example of this is people who stopped going to Church on a Sunday because if hey go to work they get double money this shows that these people have a love for money and do not think about God.  You cannot be a servant of two masters.  In the parable of the Good Samaritan, we are taught that there is a well off man who has the decency to help the poor.  As no matter how well off or how poor people are, we are all human and all equal no matter what race or religion. This is telling us that we should help anybody we see that is in need.  Timothy told us that people, who long to be rich, fall into all types of foolishness and harmful ambitions. If people love money then it is a root to evil.

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ii) Explain why there is need for world development (4)

 From about 1950 to 1985, it was common to cal the poor countries “Third World” countries.  This is because some people in the world were divided into three:

  • First World- the west (USA, Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan)
  • Second World- the communist countries (USSR, Eastern Europe, China)
  • Third World- all other countries, which are regarded as the poorest countries in the world.

 Nowadays some countries regarded as Third World are now richer than the West, such as Brunei, Kuwait and Singapore, others are not ...

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