Just
in time for the election campaign, the Canadian Conference of Catholic
Bishops (CCCB) has published a new resource document titled, A Church Seeking Justice: The Challenge of Pope Francis to the
Church in Canada.
Here is an excerpt
from paragraph 25.
Canada is a wealthy country, yet has an ever widening gap between rich and poor. 4.8 million Canadians live in poverty, including 1 million children. In 1989, all parliamentarians committed to ending child poverty in Canada. Today, 1 in 7 children lives this reality, with 4 in 10 Indigenous children living in poverty. Current levels of poverty cost us billions of dollars in terms of increased health and social services costs and severely damage the fabric of our society as a whole. Why does a wealthy country like Canada not dedicate more of its resources to reducing poverty? Provinces like Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador have adopted poverty reduction plans; should we not have a national poverty reduction strategy?
An
important point here is that there is a cost to poverty. You pay to eliminate
it or you pay not to!
A Church Seeking Justice: The Challenge of
Pope Francis to the Church in Canada. The Episcopal Commission for Justice and
Peace of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. 2015. Para. 25.
