A young boy in India receives receives polio vaccine drops. Photo by Laura Sheahen for CRS

U.S. poverty-focused international assistance is making it possible for this child in a poor, remote village in India to receive a polio vaccine. While polio is rare, it is a frightening reality in India and other developing countries. Moreover, a polio outbreak in India or elsewhere in the world could have serious consequences for unvaccinated people in far-off places, spreading rapidly and causing paralysis in children for life and sometimes even killing them.

Congress is now preparing to make important decisions about how much funding to make available for programs such as this polio vaccine initiative and many others that are saving and changing lives around the world. While our nation’s fiscal challenges are significant, poverty-focused international assistance makes up less than 0.5% of the U.S. federal budget. This little bit of funding saves millions of lives around the world by providing food to the hungry, shelter to refugees, helping small farmers grow more crops, and educating children for a more prosperous and stable future. Cutting this assistance will not balance the federal budget, but careless cuts will cost lives. For further background, read these recent letters to the House and Senate Subcommittees by Bishop Richard Pates, Chair of the Committee on International Justice and Peace of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Dr. Carolyn Woo, President of Catholic Relief Services.

Your voice makes a difference. Your support for this lifesaving funding last year helped stave off steep cuts. Your voice is now needed again. Contact your members of Congress today and urge them to support poverty-focused international assistance in the fiscal year 2013 appropriations bills at the highest levels possible.

Keddo Umar is one of more than 302,000 people to take part in the CRS Productive Safety Net Program in Ethiopia. Photo by David Snyder for CRS

Imagine you lived in Ethiopia, where millions of people like Keddo do not know where their next meal will come from. Before they could rely on their farms to provide much needed food to eat and to sell, but increasingly unreliable rains have changed this. Now many families must sell precious household items like their chickens or goats just to get through the hungry season. They are increasingly trapped in a cycle of poverty and hunger.

But imagine that something simple could be done to help people like Keddo.

With just six annual distributions of wheat, dried peas and vegetable oil, Keddo has been able to feed her family during lean times and use the money she saved from her small business to buy an ox and a cow. Although she owns only sixth-tenths of an acre, formerly the sole source of her family’s food, she can now use that land exclusively for more marketable high-value crops such as tomatoes and potatoes. With more assets, Keddo had the collateral required to successfully apply for a loan to buy three goats that she plans to breed and expand her business. Perhaps most importantly, Keddo says the money she saved has allowed her to put all of her six children in school, something she was unable to afford before.

This is just one example of what some of the programs funded by the United States Farm Bill can do. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, along with Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities USA and the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, are united in their support for passage of a Farm Bill that feeds and changes the lives of poor and vulnerable people here at home and around the world, promotes conservation that protects God’s creation, lifts up small family farms and helps rural America thrive.

Your action is needed now! Make sure the Farm Bill feeds the hungry, preserves God’s creation, and supports small family farmers and rural America. Visit this website to send an e-mail to your Representative or call 1-702-577-2339 to reach your Representative now. Click here for call instructions and talking points.

Double your impact! Copy and paste your message to your Representatives and submit it on the House Agriculture Committee feedback form.

I do not envy our elected officials these days. They are faced with many difficult choices, with many pressures coming from different directions, with many asking for resources and many others trying to limit those resources.

In making difficult choices to reduce future unsustainable deficits, our leaders must keep in mind the plight of the poor, here and around the world. Those among us who have the least power and the greatest need should be at the forefront of their minds.

For me, this is a moral choice. My church asks that we — individually, as communities and as a nation — give special consideration to the poor, that we recognize our obligation to help those who are not just at the bottom of the ladder, but those who are below that, trying desperately to reach the bottom rung, constantly pushed down by forces beyond their control.

But helping the poor is not just a matter of good morality, it also makes good sense.

Read the full article here.

This is just another example of how your voice matters and makes a difference. Pope Benedict XVI said in his Easter message: “May the risen Jesus comfort the suffering populations of the Horn of Africa and favor their reconciliation; may he help […] Sudan and South Sudan, and grant their inhabitants the power of forgiveness.” Your prayers for peace are needed now. Use this prayer resource for individual reflection or group setting.

Your voice for peace in solidarity with our Sudanese brothers and sisters is needed now more than ever. The promise of lasting peace and stability after South Sudan peacefully seceded from Sudan last year hangs in the balance. Read more about the situation in Sudan and South Sudan.

Stand with the Sudanese people and for peace. Sign this letter to Secretary Hillary Clinton, urging her to do what she can to promote peace, stability and a hopeful future for our Sudanese brothers and sisters.

Take action now!

If you live in the following states: Michigan, Vermont, Iowa, North Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Colorado, New York, Kansas, Indiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, Arkansas or South Dakota- you can make a huge difference in helping the hungry worldwide by taking a simple action today. Find out how here.

Among those who work for social change, healthy zeal can easily be accompanied by impatience. When change is slow in coming, doubts creep in like the taunting voices in the narratives of Jesus’ passion. “What can just a few of you hope to accomplish?” they sneer. “The rest of the world isn’t going to change. You’re working so hard for nothing; it’s everyone else who is the problem.”

The solution is community, especially the community of faith. When doubt seeks to paralyze and isolate us, we can lean on the community during the Mass, even when our own mouths are too dry with doubts to say the prayers. We can reach for Eucharist when just about all we can manage to do is show up. And the community of faith, that communion of God and God’s people, strengthens us in prayer when our own faith seems challenged or weak. Read more.

During Lent, Catholic Relief Services and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops encourage you to participate in weekly ‘tiny retreats’— or five-minute reflections — to better lead you to solidarity with your brothers and sisters around the world.

This week’s reflection takes us to India, where the intervention of community health workers trained by Catholic Relief Services can mean life and hope for the unborn and for young, undernourished children. India has seen substantial economic growth over the years, but millions of its people continue to suffer from extreme poverty and malnutrition. Ethnic and religious clashes, seasonal floods, drought, cyclones and violent storms have prevented the poorest of the poor from achieving economic growth and sustainability. CRS’ health programs in India focus broadly on pre-natal and newborn nutrition, routine immunizations and polio eradication. Providing people with the skills and the resources they need to protect and nurture the children in their care is one way the Church lives out its social teaching to make a preferential option for the poor and to empower the most vulnerable.

Read the entire reflection.

As Pope Benedict XVI said earlier this year, “Sadly, tensions and clashes have ensued in recent months, and I express my hope that all may unite their efforts to enable the people of Sudan and South Sudan to experience at last a period of peace, freedom and development.”

In the Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states of Sudan, aerial bombardment, reported attacks on civilians, and a refusal by the Sudanese government to allow international humanitarian aid may lead to large-scale displacement of people and famine. Relations between Sudan and South Sudan are tenuous because negotiations over oil revenue have failed and oil production has ceased in South Sudan, threatening both countries’ economies. The status and security of “people of southern origin” residing in Sudan is in flux, as is the border between Sudan and South Sudan and the town of Abyei that straddles it. Inter-communal violence in South Sudan—primarily in the Jonglei and Unity states—has taken thousands of lives, causing widespread hunger and displacement. While some transitional aid has been possible, the suffering and insecurity of the people in Darfur largely continues unabated.

Stand with the Sudanese people. Pledge your support for peace. Sign this letter to Secretary Hillary Clinton.

In a letter to the leaders of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, representatives of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities and the National Rural Life Conference urged support for a Farm Bill that ”provides for poor and hungry people both at home and abroad, offers effective support for those who grow our food, ensures fairness to family farmers and ranchers, and promotes stewardship of the land.

“We also urge that this Farm Bill target limited resources, such as subsidies and direct payments, to those farmers and ranchers who truly need assistance to be competitive and successful,” the letter said.

The Farm Bill is legislation renewed every five years that governs federal farm and food policy.

Read more.

Catholics Confront Global Poverty ‘Tiny Retreat’ Instructions:

Before reading the reflection, take a few moments to breathe slowly and deeply and to enter into the presence of God. Imagine that you are walking with Jesus. Allow yourself to be filled with gratitude for the gift of your body, for the physical, mental and spiritual abilities that you have been given.

This week our global Lenten journey takes us to classrooms and households in Vietnam, where communities are learning to educate and care for children with disabilities. Despite rapid economic growth in the past few decades, Vietnam has seen a widening gap between the rich and the poor. People with disabilities are among those who are often neglected in poor communities, where they have limited access to education and opportunities to overcome physical challenges. Catholic Relief Services offers training and support that allows people with disabilities to experience new life. This is an expression of the Catholic social teaching principle of the dignity of the human person. When Catholics Confront Global Poverty members like you are advocating support for U.S. poverty-focused international assistance, you are helping people with disabilities like Giap in Vietnam.

Pray

In the Gospel reading from Sunday’s liturgy (Mark 9:2-10), Peter, James and John are on a mountaintop with Jesus. While there, they see a dazzling image of Jesus flanked by Elijah and Moses, and hear the terrifying voice of God on the mountaintop. Jesus says not to tell anyone what they saw, “except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” On the way down the mountain, they silently muse about this question: what does it mean to rise from the dead? To this day, we puzzle over it still. What does it mean to rise from the dead? What will eternal life be like? What transformation occurs for our loved ones and their bodies at death?

Jesus’ transfiguration revealed the divine power hidden within his human nature. We can call on that same divine power of Jesus to transfigure us in our fallen-ness so that we, too, might show forth God’s glory more truly. Perhaps we can also learn from the small deaths and resurrections that mark our Lenten lives. In your prayer this week, recall the times when you have left behind sinful behaviors, unhealthy habits, and deadening ways of living. Did this process happen suddenly or slowly? Were you lonely or supported in your endeavor? Where was Christ in these deaths? How did you encounter him in the new life that followed? For those now suffering from injustice, violence, famine or disease, what would it be like for them to experience new lives of hope and stability? These victories on earth can only be a shadow of the spiritual resurrection that we will experience when some day, we see Christ face to face. The kingdom of God will only be fully realized in heaven, yet we are called to assist God’s work to do justice, so that this earth can better reflect the kingdom. Prayerfully ask God how you can be part of work toward resurrection.

Fast

In a culture that prizes fitness, self-sufficiency and independence, the prospect of becoming needy or dependent can be truly terrifying. In his public ministry, however, Jesus embodied both the ability to give and to receive. While he healed the sick, he also relied on others for his food and shelter. He graciously received anointing and assistance from others when he needed it. This week, fast from your independence and self-sufficiency. Graciously receive help when it is offered to you. In a note, e-mail or personal word, thank the people who have supported you, comforted you, carried you and helped to make the life you have possible.

Learn

CRS’ Inclusion of Vietnamese with Disabilities (IVWD) program in Vietnam helps people with physical disabilities achieve higher education and find good jobs. Giap, has used a wheelchair since an illness debilitated his muscles when he was 17. After he graduated from high school, he began attending a CRS-supported college for people with disabilities. While studying at this school, Giap has learned computer skills and also gained experience working in an office setting, and he has started a group that designs websites for businesses. Through the IVWD program, Catholic Relief Services provides children who have disabilities with the resources they need to reach their full potential. These resources include physical therapy, wheelchairs, hearing aids and teachers who are trained and equipped to work with students with disabilities. In Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital, the college that Giap attends helps students recognize and capitalize on their special talents, and links them to real job opportunities after graduation.

Give

Those of us who are able-bodied, who do not rely on wheelchairs or special technologies to help us get around or complete tasks, often forget that our bodies can take us where we need to go. Instead, we rely on cars, elevators and escalators to move us around. Count the times you use technology to help you get from one place to another this week, and put an offering in your Rice Bowl for each instance.

Act

You can magnify the effects of your Lenten giving by helping to ensure that the U.S. government continues to support poverty-focused international assistance, so that Giap and others receive the help they need to flourish. Take action on the Catholics Confront Global Poverty website now.