Catholic Teaching about Charity and Christianity - Essay Example

Catholic Teachings Religious Studies 6th July 2006 Catholic Teaching Catholic teaching explains that God is good and due to his power they say that God wants a happy and prosperous life for everyone. Followers are taught that they should strive to create a better world for everyone. Despite these beliefs, the world is a mixed bag of a place where many are poor and suffering whilst others live more comfortable lives. People living in underdeveloped and developing countries often have very low standards of living and do not benefit a great deal from modern medical care and attention. Catholic teaching explains that this is wrong and that everyone is entitled opportunities to benefit from God's bounty. Catholic teaching teaches its followers that they should not be better off than the followers of other religions. However, the world is still filled with many poor and underprivileged people while very rich religious people and institutions continue to bask in their wealth. Charity Catholics believe that they should work towards eradicating poverty and assist others in improving their living standards. Catholics basically follow the First Article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which says: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." The Declaration also says that: freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people. the peoples of the United Nations havedetermined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom. A similar idea is also found in the Tenth Commandment, which teaches: "You shall not covet your neighbour's house. You shall not covet your neighbour's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." Exodus 20:17 Christianity Jesus told his followers that: it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Luke 18:25 When speaking about wealth he taught that people should look after one another: "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." Matthew 25:35-36 On the business front, Christians are encouraged to ensure that how they earn their living does not hurt other people. There are ten major themes on Catholic social teaching (CST 2005). One relates to wealth and poverty and another concerns development of communities worldwide. Common Good for the Community Every individual is both sacred and social. A person appreciates his or her dignity and rights in relationship with others in the community. The community must allow all individuals to grow and achieve fulfilment. The organization of society - in economics and politics, in law and policy - directly influences human dignity and the ability for individuals to develop in community. The compulsion to "love our neighbour" not only has an individual aspect, but it also involves a broader social obligation. Each person is responsible in contributing to the good of the whole society. This behaviour spread throughout all communities in every nation will lead to moral world development and encourages individuals to strive to attain better world economic development. Society is judged morally by the way it treats its poorest citizens as the plight of the poor demands a moral claim from the conscience of the community. Powerlessness and deprivation of the poor hurts the whole community.A community can be strengthened if its members give greater attention to the needy and those at society's fringes. The economy must serve people, not the other way around. Workers have a right to productive work, to fair wages, and to safe working conditions. They also have a right to organize and join unions. People have a right to economic initiative and private property, but these rights have limits. If some individuals amass disproportionate wealth, it must be shared or contributed to those who lack life's basic necessities. Catholic teaching opposes collectivist and statist economic plans but discards the idea that a free market automatically creates justice. Competition and free markets are useful in economic systems. The task of the state and of all society is to ensure that needs are met and markets are kept within limits. Whatever religion individuals belong to, responsibilities cross national, racial, economic and ideological boundaries. Caholics work for global justice and complete human development, respecting and promoting personal, social, economic, and political rights, including the rights of nations and of peoples. Extremes such as underdevelopment on the one hand, and "superdevelopment" on the other must be avoided. Amassing material wealth and technical resources will in the long term be corrupting if little respect for the moral, cultural, and spiritual scope of the person. One catholic agency working for world development is The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development - CAFOD which works with local communities in 64 countries in aiding them to meet their own needs through more than 500 partner organizations - trusted, local organizations staffed by local people who work to eliminate poverty (CAFOD 2006). In 2005 the generosity of Catholics in England and Wales allowed the CAFOD to do more for poor people in the developing world than ever before. CAFOD spent more than 50 million in 2005/2006 for the first time, and this was due to contributions mainly from ordinary Catholics in pews, parishes, schools, and communities who support the work of CAFOD. This pledge echoes the spirit of the Catholic community. CAFOD has used the money to do more work with partners fighting the root causes of poverty. In 2004/2005 and 2005/2006, the CAFOD was able to increase its international plans from 26.5 million to 42.1m and has improve financial support from 3.9m to almost 4.8m for its education, policy and campaigning programmes. Individuals and communities from Catholics in England and Wales contributed almost three-quarters of the funding to CAFOD along with other leading UK aid agencies through the Disasters Emergency Committee. Apart from the 37.7 million of support from individuals and communities, CAFOD received an additional 4.6m for its international programmes from sister Catholic aid agencies and 7.5m from government or institutional donor grants. The funds raised, greatly benefits the lives of poor people in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. In Ethiopia for example, CAFOD partners Action for Development (AFD) have assisted communities to survive droughts. The question of wealth distribution is an important one. Jean Jacques Rousseau said, "Money is the seed of money, and the first guinea is sometimes more difficult to acquire than the second million." Many millionaires have admitted that the period when they were struggling to earn money in the initial stages were the most exciting times in their lives. Being poor offered numerous survival challenges and fed the spirit, inspiring them to seek to rise beyond their plight. Quite a number of those millionaires have risen by the gracious help of others, either through aid from financial institutions, friends or relatives. Only a few grew their wealth from scratch. Yet all of them would agree that their riches could not have been accumulated single-handedly. Numerous people contributed, from providing knowledge or financial backing, and aided in their path to wealth. It is only with other's help that the poor become rich. The world is divided into many classes of people. When it comes to wealth, there are the extremely rich; a majority of others that fall in the middle income category; then come the poor and beyond that the poverty stricken. The last group can usually be found in the developing nations many of which are run by corrupt governments who do little to help their suffering citizens. Without help from their own people, the poverty stricken have slim chance to rise above their dire predicament. Charities, foundations and other worthy causes allow an ordinary person to offer financial aid to the needy. Usually people will give without expecting anything in return, hoping that their small contribution will find its way to buy food and other essentials to those who cannot provide for themselves. This voluntary act of donating money or goods or providing some other support to a charitable cause over a period of time is called philanthropy and a person known for practicing it is sometimes called a philanthropist. Often these persons are themselves are quite wealthy, but ordinary people who possess no great wealth also practice philanthropy (Wikipedia 2006). Philanthropy is a chief source of income for artistic, musical, religious, and humanitarian causes, as well as educational institutions from schools to universities. There are those who do not view philanthropy as universal good. Prominent thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche disagreed with philanthropy contending that it is a means where the weak and powerless sooner or later end up doing nothing and reply just on the charity of the rich. He extends this view to government welfare plans. Some consider philanthropy as a way to shape communities by raising community funds and providing vehicles. These communities who see themselves as being resource rich find better ways to resolve community problems. Though rich individuals, companies and governments can greatly contribute to reduce poverty in many parts of the world, the poor would be better served if they are provided education along with the necessary technical means to be self-reliant, grow their own crops or develop their own industries rather than feed off the rich indefinitely. This is a far more positive step than a situation arising where charitable institutions find out their funds have dried up and can give no more. An old Chinese proverb says, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Catholic teaching strives to better humanity as a whole. It teaches us to renew ourselves in order to renew the world. References Cannon, Dale (1997). Religious Studies - Western Oregon University. Retrieved 4th Jul 06 from http://www.aarweb.org/syllabus/syllabi/c/cannon/rsessay1.htm Godwin, Simon (1999). Roman Catholicism. Retrieved 4th Jul 06 from http://re-xs.ucsm.ac.uk/cupboard/filing/essays/essay1.htm CAFOD (2006). Where we work. Retrieved on 5th Jul 06 from http://www.cafod.org.uk/where_we_work ACF (2006). Why Rich People Give. Retrieved on 5th Jul 06 from http://www.philanthropyuk.org/why_rich_people_give.asp Wikipedia (2006). Philanthropy. Retrieved on 5th Jul 06 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philanthropy CST - Catholic Social Teaching. (2005). Themes from Catholic Social Teaching. Retrieved on 5th Jul 06 from http://www.osjspm.org/cst/themes.htm Read More