Poor & Vulnerable
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Public policy has a role to play in creating a more just society, where all peoples are able to access what is due to them as creatures made in the image and likeness of God. Private charity is essential, but given man’s fallen state, must be supplemented with laws and initiatives that address the needs of the poor and vulnerable. Our policies should aim to merely to provide material goods to people; they should also help people fully participate.
The preferential option for the poor and vulnerable is not optional. A basic moral test for society is measuring how we treat the most vulnerable in our midst. Poverty is not simply a lack of basic food and financial resources. It also includes deeper deprivations, such as:- Denial of full participation in the economic, social, and political life of society.
- The inability to influence decisions that affect your life
- A lack of access to basic healthcare
- An absence of opportunities to help ourselves, through such means as employment opportunities with fair wages
"The poor and sick are the heart of God. In serving them, we serve Jesus Christ."
- St. Camillus de Lellis -
Current Issues
- Combatting Human Trafficking
- Preventing Predatory Lending
- Promoting Fair Banking Practices
- Expansion of Healthcare Services
- Preventing Sports Betting & Equine Wagering
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Human Trafficking
Many vulnerable adults and children have been trapped in modern-day slavery. Human trafficking is a terrible crime against the dignity of the human person involving the “recruitment, transportation, harboring or receipt of persons by means of force, fraud or coercion,” as defined by the United Nations Protocol on Human Trafficking.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “the seventh commandment forbids acts or enterprises that for any reason—selfish or ideological, commercial, or totalitarian—lead to the enslavement of human beings, to their being bought, sold and exchanged like merchandise, in disregard for their personal dignity. It is a sin against the dignity of persons and their fundamental rights to reduce them by violence to their productive value or to a source of profit” (2414).
Anti-trafficking laws and programs should be strengthened to discourage the growth of this trade, and support networks for both labor- and sex-trafficking victims should be created and funded. We support legislation that adheres to these efforts and seeks to uphold the dignity and rights of the human person.
“The trade in human persons constitutes a shocking offense against human dignity and a grave violation of fundamental human rights. . . Such situations are an affront to fundamental values which are shared by all cultures and peoples, values rooted in the very nature of the human person.” - St. Pope John Paul II