Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, November 2, 2000
Faith Alive 1
The Southern Cross, Page 9
Beckoned as a parish into our neighborhood
By Father Maurice J. Nutt, CSSR
Catholic News Service
w;
For instance, our food pantry sup
plies families lacking adequate nutri
tion with food as well as education on
hat began as our parish’s
plan to evangelize the surrounding
community evolved into something
more. Our parishioners learned that
those living within our parish bound
aries needed Jesus — and they needed
justice.
It was the first time many of our
parishioners, living throughout the
St. Louis area, realized that in the
21st century there still are citizens
deprived of basic human rights.
Our evangelization plan revealed
that our neighborhood’s average
household income is $5,600 (far below
the national poverty line).
Parishioners also discovered that
many parish households are headed
by African-American women who are
single parents.
—The unemployment rate is 25
percent.
f —These adults’ job skills are mini
mal; 51 percent of adults in our com
munity don’t have a high school di
ploma.
So our evangelization efforts
quickly joined forces with our social
outreach ministry.
ence of sharing a “family meal.”
Finally, our health and social-ser
vice ministry sponsors an annual
health fair. Professional medical vol-
'ur food pantry supplies
families lacking adequate
nutrition with food as well as
education on preparing
healthy meals.”
CNS photo by Bill Wittman
preparing healthy meals. We also sup
ply financial planning and budgeting
seminars.
Our youth ministry developed a
weekly tutoring and mentoring pro
gram. With that, some parish women
prepare a nutritious meal at which
children also benefit from the experi-
unteers offer basic health screenings
to the poor — another human right
the disadvantaged are deprived of.
Many parishioners struggle with
the fact that in the world’s wealthiest
nation so many live in abject poverty.
Residents are entering welfare-to-
work training programs, but it re
mains a slow, tedious process.
We know our efforts won’t totally
reverse our community’s cycle of pov
erty. However, compelled by the Gos
pel, we won’t quit: “As you did it to one
of the least of these, you did it to me”
(Matthew 25:40).
We also are inspired by church
Human rights, family rights
By H. Richard McCord
Catholic News Service
F
amily rights are human rights
— human rights expressed in commu
nity language. At the heart of Chris
tian belief lies an astounding truth.
God chose to become human in the
person of Jesus by being born into a
family.
Now, an essential part of Catholic
teaching is its recognition of human
dignity. And human dignity leads the
church to affirm and defend human
rights, particularly when they are vio
lated by oppressive political systems
or unjust laws.
No society or government can
grant human rights. These already
exist within a person. Broad human
rights are expressed in specific groups
of rights that are political, civil, eco
nomic, social and cultural. Laws and
public policies should support and pro
tect these in concrete situations.
As important as it is to recognize
the dignity of every person by uphold
ing human rights, it is possible in
doing so to lose a needed sense of bal
ance between the individual and com
munity. Individual freedom and a con
cern for “my right” can often overtake
any sense of the common good and
“my responsibility” to contribute to it.
Every person lives in relationship.
When we forget that we’re meant to be
All contents copyright©2000 by CNS
in community with one another, we
begin to focus too much on rights and
too little on responsibilities and rela
tionships.
With this danger in mind, I find it
especially helpful that the church,
along with its emphasis on human
rights, reminds us of family rights. To
speak of family rights is to signal that
there is no such thing as the autono
mous, unconnected individual. All hu
man rights, though expressed in per
sonal, individual terms, have a social
dimension because every person is a
social being.
Moreover, if the family had no
rights and no protections, then this
fundamental community, which Pope
John Paul II calls a “school of a deeper
humanity,” could not do its job of
teaching about human rights and re
sponsibilities, of instilling respect for
them and encouraging behavior that
promotes them.
Just as the state does not give a
person human rights, neither does it
confer fundamental family rights.
The family exists before any other so
ciety or the state.
With this in mind, the Vatican in
1983 prepared a Charter of the Rights
of the Family and presented it to na
tions and organizations as a way not
only of safeguarding the family but,
ultimately, of guaranteeing the safe
exercise of human rights by all people.
The charter contains 12 articles
which speak of rights to:
—Freely choose marriage (or not)
and to live as spouses with equal dig
nity.
—Found a family and responsibly
decide on the spacing and number of
children.
—Protect human life at all stages.
—Educate children in conformity
with parents’ moral and religious con
victions.
—Collaborate with the state in the
education of children and freely choose
schools or other means for this.
—Profess religious faith and wor
ship publicly.
Others in the list include the rights
to:
—Family dignity, privacy and sta
bility, including decent housing and
an environment that provides basic
services.
—Economic conditions which as
sure a standard of living appropriate
to human dignity and full develop
ment.
—Just remuneration for work,
along with working conditions that do
not hinder family stability and well
being.
The charter makes clear that such
rights are not some new social program
or the demand of a particular group.
No, these rights arise from that “law
which is inscribed by the Creator in the
heart of every human being.”
(McCord is the director of the U.S.
bishops’ Secretariat for Family, La
ity, Women and Youth.)
teachings to respect every human
person’s dignity.
Our evangelization team realized
that we are called as a parish to bring
good news in many forms. The team
describes its mission as threefold:
—Finding the isolated and welcom
ing them back into the church and
neighborhood.
—Healing and meeting the needs of
those who are sick in body, mind or spirit.
—Freeing those imprisoned by op
pression, prejudice, ignorance or pov
erty.
Our faith community has prepared
itself to make real the words of the
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.:
“I have the audacity to believe that
peoples everywhere can have three
meals a day for their bodies, education
and culture for their minds, and dig
nity, equality, and freedom for their
spirits. I believe that what self-cen
tered men have torn down, other-cen
tered men can build up.”
(Redemptorist Father Nutt is pas
tor of St. Alphonsus Liguori "Rock”
Church in St. Louis, Mo.)
FAITH INTHE MARKETPLACE
What human right too
often is neglected, ignored
or abused?
“Life. We’re killing our kids,
the unborn — more than we’ve
lost in any war.... Also, life in
Third World countries is pretty
cheap, and we can all do some
thing about that.” — Deacon
Jim Hatch, Bonita, Calif.
“ Basically, the rights of
children.... Parenting is the
highest calling, and often it is
done as an afterthought.” —
April DeNike, Seattle, Wash.
“Health care can sometimes
be neglected, and this is a basic
human right. Also, prejudice
can still be a problem.... In our
community we’re working
together to do better.” — Elsie
Houston, Clarksdale, Miss.
An upcoming edition asks: Tell when
or how an aspect of a sacrament you
always had known about (or heard, or
seen) suddenly becomes meaningful
to you in a new way. If you would like
to respond for possible publication,
please write: Faith
Alive! 3211 Fourth St.
N.E., Washington,
D.C. 20017-1100.
Ina Nutshell
In the 21st century many still are deprived of basic human
rights.
Human dignity lies at the core of discussions of human rights
— a God-given dignity not derived from accomplishments or
productivity.
A few of the human rights are the right to employment and
self-fulfillment; the right to life, health care, education,
nourishment and decent housing; the right to religious
freedom and practice.