Pope Francis has appealed to us to be a Church for the poor and the
Catholic Church in England and Wales is answering that call by
organizing a seminal conference to tackle rising levels of domestic
poverty.
In
the aftermath of the economic crisis, Archbishop Peter Smith says there is
clear evidence that the poverty crisis is worsening and how more and
more people in the United Kingdom “are finding it difficult to feed
their families.”
“It’s been quite obvious with government
austerity (measures), people losing their jobs and so on, that there’s a
great increase in poverty in this country.”
He says the statistics
bear out this trend: “3.6 million children are living in poverty,
approximately 5 million people are earning less than the living wage and
350,000 people are coming regularly to food banks.”
Asked about
the aims of the conference and whether he hopes it might persuade the
government to rethink some of its social spending cuts and austerity
measures, Archbishop Smith says he is not that optimistic.
“To be
honest, I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
However he goes on to say that
it’s “important to engage with the government and put the Church’s view
to them.”
“It’s about raising awareness in the government of the
realities of life" for those living below the poverty line.