Why are they poor?

A question seldom asked during Year of the Poor

There are three major questions that we must ask ourselves as we reflect on 2015 as the BCP-proclaimed Year of the Poor. Who are the poor? Where are the Poor? Why are they poor?

For many Catholics the first and the second questions are easy to answer. The reason is mainly because the answers have already been realized.

The Church projects for the poor realized by bishops, priests, women/men religious, and by many individual and organized lay women and men show that they have identified who and where the poor were and are. Yet many of us are not fully satisfied. Poverty is getting worse in the country. But as to the question why the people are poor, there seems to be miserably minimal answers. There are three reasons.

If I give something to the poor, they call me a saint; if I ask why are people poor, they call me a communist.

First is in the famous words of the Brazilian Archbishop Helder Camara, “if I give something to the poor, they call me a saint; if I ask why are people poor, they call me a communist.” The second is just a stark ignorance, a complacent “bahala na” attitude. The third is a valid Marxist analysis that poverty is the result of social injustice. In this are involved the so-called interlocking socio-economic-political systems with which the Government, big business and Filipino-Chinese families are identified, most of whom are Catholics.

This is the CBCP answer to the Question. This answer is referred to clearly in the CBCP Pastoral Exhortation signed by its former president Cebu Archbishop Jose S. Palma on 23 July 2012 as he issued A Nine-Year Era of New Evangelization in preparation for the 500th anniversary of the Christianization of the archipelago.

For 2015, the Year of the Poor, the CBCP president asks, “How shall we assist the materially poor to face the challenges of hunger and poverty… And together with them eradicate the evil of corruption and the economic and political imbalance of our society?”

A definitely serious question to reflect on. Will our Diocesan Clergy of Mindanao Convention on Feb 9-11, 2015 here in Davao City dare to answer the question for our Church in Mindanao? Their theme is: Reflecting on the Challenge of Mercy and Compassion. This is the main purpose of Pope Francis’ visit to our country. I hope and pray that that visit, which ends tomorrow, was a strong wake-up call.