Today, looking at the first topic of chapter 4, The Drama of Poverty.
36. One of the phenomena that contributes significantly to denying the dignity of so many human beings is extreme poverty, linked as it is to the unequal distribution of wealth.
The sad thing is that so many Western Catholics are conditioned by the specter of Socialism! that they can’t really see the underlying indignity.
As Pope St. John Paul II emphasized, “One of the greatest injustices in the contemporary world consists precisely in this: that the ones who possess much are relatively few and those who possess almost nothing are many. It is the injustice of the poor distribution of the goods and services originally intended for all.”[John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis 28]
Distribution is far more than some imaginary authority lining people up to give them an equal share. Sometimes powerful people game the system and cut the many out of a fair share of their labors. In the US, that’s pretty much been the game for the past four decades. But-socialism! tends to reinforce the unfair labor practices.
Pope Benedict took a look at comparing nations:
Moreover, it would be misleading to make a cursory distinction between “rich” and “poor” countries, for Benedict XVI recognized that “the world’s wealth is growing in absolute terms, but inequalities are on the increase. In rich countries, new sectors of society are succumbing to poverty and new forms of poverty are emerging. In poorer areas, some groups enjoy a sort of ‘super-development’ of a wasteful and consumerist kind, which forms an unacceptable contrast with the ongoing situations of dehumanizing deprivation.” The “‘scandal of glaring inequalities’ continues,”[Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate 22, quoting Paul VI, Populorum Progressio 9] where the dignity of the poor is doubly denied because of the lack of resources available to meet their basic needs and the indifference shown toward them by their neighbors.
Indifference, prejudice, racism, misogyny: a lot of sins spread under the guise of wealthier people looking down their noses and the non-rich.
Click this link to read the DDDF document on the Vatican site.