[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 28 (Wednesday, February 14, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E348-E349]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       ARCHBISHOP GEORGE NIEDERAUER'S EDITORIAL ON GLOBAL POVERTY

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 14, 2007

  Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I would like to use this opportunity to 
direct the attention of my colleagues to a very important opinion piece 
written by the Archbishop George H. Niederauer, Archbishop of the Roman 
Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco and chair of the Communications 
Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which last 
October sponsored a national conference on global poverty. As a 
champion of the poor and a well-respected constituent, I value his 
commitment to eliminating global poverty and his mission to translate 
faith into action.
  I emphatically agree with the Archbishop's position outlined in this 
article, that ending global poverty is one of the great challenges of 
our time and we have a moral obligation, as a civilized nation, to help 
eliminate the scourge of extreme poverty. As the Archbishop points out, 
foreign policy is indeed a moral endeavor. The United States, in 
keeping with its core humanitarian values, must be a model for other 
countries by promoting sustainable development. While we know that 
poverty does not cause extremism, the United must use all of the tools 
at its disposal to limit the breeding grounds for terrorists seeking to 
take advantage of the millions of economically deprived human beings in 
the world today. We must work with our partners in the faith-based 
community, non-governmental organizations, and development activists to 
end suffering, hunger, and death.

                  The Moral Scandal of Global Poverty

                       (By George H. Niederauer)

       It's easy to forget that more than a billion people survive 
     on a $1 a day when we live in the world's richest country. 
     Whether in the fields of Africa, the factories of Asia or the 
     streets of our own cities, we often pay scant attention to 
     the abject poverty that degrades our fellow human beings. 
     Ending global poverty is one of the great challenges of our 
     time that requires urgent political will and solidarity with 
     our brothers and sisters around the world.
       Catholic leaders, economists, international-development 
     experts and activists from several countries will meet in San 
     Francisco tomorrow and Saturday to explore strategies for 
     addressing the Moral Scandal that is global poverty. We come 
     together to raise awareness, mobilize resources and reflect 
     on how putting faith into action can build a more just world. 
     As Catholics, we pray that we can embrace the hungry, the 
     sick and the suffering as Jesus called us to do with 
     compassion and love. As engaged citizens who understand that 
     foreign policy and budgets are moral endeavors that reflect 
     our values, we call on our leaders to do more to help the 
     world's poor.
       Our gathering will help build national momentum for the 
     Catholic Campaign Against Global Poverty, an effort led by 
     the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Relief 
     Services, which engages citizens to advocate for policies 
     that increase development aid, offer debt relief to poor 
     countries and ensure that trade agreements benefit more than 
     the wealthy. Guided by Catholic social tradition that teaches 
     us to have a ``preferential option for the poor,'' we know 
     that upholding the dignity of all human life does not end at 
     our borders. When our neighbors in other countries suffer, we 
     too are diminished. What we do to the least among us, we do 
     to Christ himself.
       In the San Francisco Bay area, the Catholic community 
     strives through its social service agencies to relieve the 
     suffering of local poverty, and funds international anti-
     poverty and development programs through Catholic Relief 
     Services. Local Catholic priests, nuns and lay people are 
     working in some of the poorest countries to ease the burden 
     of extreme poverty. We also work with people of other faiths 
     in efforts to increase awareness and understanding about 
     global poverty and to encourage our legislators to make 
     greater efforts to address this crucial problem. In 2000, the 
     United States and other nations signed the U.N. ``Millennium 
     Development Goals'' to halve extreme poverty, increase 
     development aid to 0.7 percent of gross national income, stop 
     the spread of HIV/AIDS and provide universal primary 
     education by 2015. The United States still falls near the 
     bottom of the list when aid by developed countries is 
     measured as a percent of gross national product.
       Some ask why we should care about starvation or disease in 
     remote corners of the globe. Along with being the right thing 
     to do, retreating from this cause is also not practical. The 
     forces of globalization have made nations, and their 
     destinies, more interconnected than ever before. As the 
     world's largest economy, the United States has considerable 
     influence to galvanize resources for the poor, push to end 
     curable diseases in Africa and be a model for other countries 
     when it comes to development.
       Each year, governments spend billions of dollars on 
     sophisticated weapons. The technological creativity and 
     energy it takes to build these systems should be matched by 
     the best of our minds and hearts in fighting the enemy of 
     poverty that kills 50,000 people every day, far more than 
     even the ravages of war. A robust development agenda that 
     helps uplift and support the poorest countries can also limit 
     the appeal of terrorists who exploit political instability, 
     desperation and poverty to recruit converts to extremist 
     ideologies. Nothing can justify terrorism, but we can also 
     build a world in which terrorism finds fewer places to breed.
       As daunting as the challenge of ending global poverty may 
     seem, this is not an unreachable goal. Renowned poverty 
     expert, Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University, who will 
     deliver the keynote address at our gathering, has identified 
     practical steps such as increasing crop productivity and soil 
     efficiency, providing nutritious school meals and helping 
     poor countries reform internal agencies. We know that 
     governments alone can't solve this problem. Faith-based 
     groups,

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     nonprofit agencies, academics and activists must work 
     together with a renewed sense of urgency. Anything less will 
     lead to more suffering, hunger and death. That's not an 
     option the poor of the world should be expected to endure any 
     longer.
    

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