Roman Catholics believe that the Mass is the starting point for their Christian life. They must then go out in to the world to ‘love and serve the Lord’, in other words they must help those in need in their local community and in the world wide community. Christians learn from the teaching of Jesus that it is their responsibility to help those in need in the world. Jesus healed the sick, and was always more concerned about the poor and outcasts from society than he was about the rich and those who were comfortably off.
The Vatican, released a report titled Populorum Progression, 40 years ago in 1967. This report informed Catholics around the world about their obligation and duty to help the poor. Pope Paul VI told believers that “The hungry nations of the world cry out to the peoples blessed with abundance. And the Church, cut to the quick by this cry, asks each and every man to hear his brother’s plea and answer it lovingly.” We are being told that if we truly are followers of the Church and God then we must help our fellow man.
In conclusion, the Catholic Church and Bible passages make believers aware of their responsibility for the poor. The underlying and most important message of these two sources is that when we help the poor, we are also helping Jesus; something that all of us, as Catholics, should aim to do.
AO2- Explain how Christians might support those who are poor around the world. You may wish to illustrate your answer by briefly referring to one or two current examples of global poverty.
There are many ways in which Christians can help those who are less well off than themselves. They can pray for them but if they are in a position to help them financially they have a duty to do so. Instead of every Christian helping as individuals, we can get together as members of the Body of Christ and work together. Agencies that bring Christian efforts together are Trocaire and CAFOD. By working in unison with these agencies our efforts are channelled together and therefore are more effective. While these actions are similar to that of Jesus’ teaching on discipleship (“Take up your cross and come follow me”), for some Christians, in today’s selfish society, it can be difficult to follow through and help those in need.
Christians understand that there are people all over the world in poverty through no fault or wrong- doing of their own. Many people live in poverty because the country which they live in is poor and so it is hard to escape poverty. This is particularly important for Christians living in the so- called ‘first’ world- we must help them as it is unfair and unjust to let them remain poor and disadvantaged.
It can be easy to forget that there are people in more developed countries living in poverty. This can be unfair as these people may suffer and not get the support they need. Many people mistakenly believe that the only means of supporting these people is through financial means. This is untrue. People can be charitable through many ways: love, compassion and friendship. It is difficult to provide these things to poor people in other poverty- stricken countries because these people are in dire need of financial aid. This is especially true after natural disasters and wars. The aid given to these people during times like these is called short- term aid. Short- term aid is emergency aid given as a response to disaster which can take the form of food, water, blankets and temporary shelter. On the other hand, long- term aid is the funding of projects aimed at helping the poor help themselves so that they don’t need to rely on the supplies associated with short- term aid. The difference between short and long- term aid can be summarised in Kuan Tzu’s quote “Give a man a fish and he has food for a day. Teach him how to fish and he has food for life”.
CAFOD and Trocaire are examples of charities that provide help both in long- term and short- term aid to many countries and projects across the world. The tsunami that hit Asia on the 26th December 2004 destroyed thousands of lives, homes and livelihoods. People in the UK donated twenty- seven million pounds to CAFOD, including over nine million pounds from the Catholic community, to help the survivors of the tsunami. In the first few months CAFOD distributed food to over 120,000 people and helped find many peoples’ loved ones. This is an example of short –term aid to the people affected by a sudden natural disaster.
Malawi is one of the poorest countries on the continent of Africa. Most of the 11 million people living in the country are subsistence farmers, meaning that they rely heavily on the food they grow themselves. Most of these farmers have tiny plots of land and the extreme heat and poor soil make the challenges they face enormous. Trocaire’s intent is to improve conditions for these rural, poor people by supporting innovative agriculture programmes. While this aid is not greatly financial, the programme provides education to the farmers meaning that they can learn how best they can grow crops and survive. This is an example of long- term aid and has a more sustainable approach.
Christians can support these charities, not only through money donations but through volunteer work, where they may have the opportunity to travel to poor countries and help provide aid, education and care to the local people. Another way could be that they may also visit clubs, centres, groups and churches to raise awareness to the work of charities and the need for more help. A very popular way of helping people in developing is by donating clothes to near- by charity shops of which the sales of the clothes go to projects helping the needy.
To conclude, there are many ways that Christians can help those in need around the world. There is the opportunity for all of us to help the poor and as Christians we should choose to help as many as we can. It is our duty and obligation to help the poor, both those in our country and further abroad. At times it might be hard to help others as well as look after ourselves and our families. However if we make the effort we will be rewarded. It might not be easy but we can have confidence that if we do so we will be well rewarded with eternal life.
A03- “We should look after the poor in our own country before we help the poor in other countries.”
Do you agree? Give reasons for your answer and show that you have considered more than one point of view. Refer to Christianity in you answer.
I agree with this statement because Jesus said love your neighbour as yourself. Therefore we should help the poor in our own country as they are our neighbours and then we should help those who are poor in other countries. It is not often spoken about, but there are many poor people in our own country. Since there is such a lack of awareness, these people may not get the support that they need such as the homeless and people in severe debt due to the demands of our society. These people often have no one to turn to and therefore some would say that it is more difficult being a poor person in a rich country, rather than a poor person in a poor country. The poor in our own country desperately need help.
Another reason why I would agree with the statement is because it has been found that a lot of money that is sent to foreign countries never reaches those who need it. Instead, the money goes towards corrupt and greedy governments in charge of the country who sometimes use the money for things such as weaponry for wars. We should make sure that any money we do send to these countries is going directly to the needy.
However, there are some who would say that the poor in other poorer countries should receive our help first. 80% of the six billion people living on our world live in poor countries and 20% live in the richer countries. However, the people living in the poorer countries only use 20% of the world’s resources and 80% of the resources is being used by the richer 20% of the people living in the world. There are far more people in these poorer countries each day that die of disease, infection, malnutrition and starvation than in our own country. This is unacceptable considering the abundance of wealth that is owned by the richer countries, including our own. The people who would disagree with the statement would feel that our wealth should be going towards improving the standards of living of the people in poorer countries, rather than improving our own country- a country which many people in poorer countries would consider luxurious and lavish.
Indeed there would be people who would neither agree nor disagree with this statement they would say we should help the poor, regardless of where they live. Nationality, race or religion should not be considered when we help those in need. Too often, people in our own country who are in poverty are ignored in favour of those in other countries, who although may be in a more urgent case of poverty; poverty is poverty and it can be disastrous for anyone who is in it, no matter how severe it is. A balance is needed where aid and help is divided equally among those who need it.
In conclusion I believe that we should help the poor in our own area first, and once poverty is eliminated in our own country then we should extend our help to the poor in other countries. While some would argue that poverty can never be eliminated in a country and that no country can be perfect; there will always be people facing money related problems, I think that we can make an effort to improve the standards of living foe many people in our country, especially children affected by debt. However, this is not to say that we should we ignore those in other countries who are in need. I think that when our own country has been improved, we can all really concentrate in making a combined effort to make the world an equal and better place. And in doing so, we can spread the message and love of God to everyone.
