Faith and Justice in the Marketplace

Editor's Note: The following entry is the first in a new series from Michael Castrilli, OSFS, entitled "Faith and Justice in the Marketplace." Michael is a graduate student at Washington Theological Union and a campus minister at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in Washington, DC. Michael has extensive experience in the corporate world, having worked for Corporate Executive Board and Booz Allen Hamilton Consulting. He utilizes this experience and his love of Salesian spirituality and Catholic social teaching in his writing.

Introduction

When one reads the words faith, justice and market, it would seem that the terms do not go together, especially, when we consider the variety of places we all work. Many people tell me that talking about faith in the workplace is either uncomfortable or inappropriate. However, Catholic social teaching and Salesian spirituality have much to say on this important topic and can really help guide us in our day-to-day lives.

Whether you work in corporate, non-profit, educational, or government entities, or something in between, the Catholic Church and Salesian spirituality speak to us in practical and accessible ways. We all work: whether we are the chief executive officer of a multinational company, a line worker on the factory floor, a stay-at-home mom, or a student, meeting daily responsibilities touches all of us. There is a place for faith and justice in the variety of places we call “work.” It is important to note that the Catholic Church has a long tradition of advocating for the dignity of workers and social responsibility. Most scholars agree that modern Catholic social teaching began with Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical letter Rerum Novarum (The Condition of Labor, 1891). This encyclical was monumental because it advocated for workers’ rights, employee and employer relationships, and an individual’s right to private property. Throughout the 20th century, the Church has been outspoken on economic issues through numerous papal encyclicals (e.g., Populorum Progressio, Paul VI, 1967; Laborem Exercens, John Paul II, 1981 and others) and documents from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (e.g., Economic Justice for All, 1986). When one complements these teachings with the practical advice of the Salesian tradition, we find wisdom that can transform all aspects of our lives.

Contained below is Part I of the new series on this blog discussing Catholic social teaching, Salesian spirituality and the marketplace today. Through this series, we will discuss how we can take the rich Catholic tradition along with Salesian spirituality to help us make sense of our day-to-day economic lives. We will use the Gospel as our guide and the heart of Salesian spirituality to lead us on our journey. Please feel free to comment based on your own experience of trying to live the Gospel in the marketplace.

Gospel Integration – Defining a Personal Business Ethic
This past summer, Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical letter, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth, 2009), addresses issues of the economy and the importance of business ethics in daily life. Caritas in Veritate carries a multi-faceted message to the world on issues of labor, economic justice, globalization, environmental stewardship, and technological development. This encyclical, similar to the other Catholic social teaching documents, is an example of how the Church connects our faith through Jesus Christ to our daily lives and articulates living Gospel values for the world. This first post in this series on Faith and Justice in the Marketplace will consider the ways in which we bring Gospel values to the marketplace and to help us consider our personal business ethic.

Caritas in Veritate contains clear direction on a variety of related subjects and numerous examples of how our business ethic plays out in the market. Although the issues are diverse, the core message is what I term “Gospel integration.” Gospel integration is the intersection between all aspects of our daily life with the message of Jesus Christ. The encyclical discusses the promotion of business ethics that focus not only on stakeholders but also on the community at large (No. 36), governing globalization with the principle of subsidiarity (No. 57), using technology responsibly (No. 70), and an appeal throughout the document for individual responsibility and a focus on the common good (No. 7). Pope Benedict writes, “The Church has always held that economic action is not to be regarded as something opposed to society. In and of itself, the market is not, and must not become, the place where the strong subdue the weak” (No 36).

The question then becomes how do we take the Church’s teaching, apply it to our daily life, and implement Gospel integration? First, like any time we want to make a change or improve an area of life, we must admit that at times, we all can be vulnerable to putting Gospel values aside. It is easy to live Gospel integration when the choice between right and wrong is simple. For example, most people would never consider stealing from their employer. But what about the ordinary moments, when the situation is a bit more grey? Francis de Sales writes in the Introduction to the Devout Life, “While we must resist great temptations with unconquerable courage and while the victory we gain over them is in the highest degree helpful to us, it may be that we will profit more by resisting small temptations…It is easy enough not to steal our neighbor’s property, but it is difficult not to desire and covet it” (IV:8). Francis’ point is clear: the “small” temptations of life can be the most difficult to confront. Related to the topic of business ethics, Francis might caution us to be careful not to rationalize and justify our actions in what we consider small business matters because they all have an effect on our relationship with God, neighbor, and self.

Let me give a personal example of how I see a relatively minor business transaction that could lead someone to believe that it is okay to take advantage of neighbor. As a teenager, I remember my mom taking me to see a movie in the theater. When we approached the box office, I quietly said, “Mom, let’s try to get a child rate instead of the adult ticket that costs more, I look young enough!” I clearly remember my mom’s response. She said, “Michael, we do not lie in order to get a break. If we lie in small things, what stops us from lying in big things?” My mom’s point was well taken and I never forgot what she said. When I think of my personal business ethic, I sure try to live this principle. It can be too easy to say, “Oh, this is no big deal, it is just a few dollars.” But, when we devalue the small matters our deception can grow like weeds in fertile ground.

When one thinks of the major corporate scandals of the last few years, no doubt people engaged in very selfish and greedy tactics. However, I often wonder if some individuals believed, “It is no big deal, I am just moving some money from one account to another, what is the harm, we will make it up and put it back next week/month/year?” The Ponzi- scheme engineered by Bernie Madoff resulted in $13 billion being stolen from people since 1995. The corruption all began at some moment, and some place, when an individual made the decision, and maybe even a minor decision, to pull away from Gospel truth. As Benedict writes, “Economy and finance, as instruments, can be used badly when those at the helm are motivated by purely selfish ends… it is not the instrument that must be called to account, but individuals, their moral conscience and their personal and social responsibility” (CV, No. 36).

Therefore, what are the core values, formed from our faith that will lead us to honesty, love, and Gospel integration, not only in large or small matters, but in ALL matters? It would serve us all well to consider our personal business ethic, whether it is our activity in the grocery store, the bank, or with our employer. When in doubt, we can recall the words of Jesus to always be women and men of integrity. As written in the Gospel of Matthew, “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one” (5:37).

The Earthquake in Haiti

Editor's Note: The following entry is from Fr. Mike McCue, OSFS, director of De Sales Service Works in Camden, NJ. Fr. Mike visited Haiti in 2007 and offers a reflection on that experience and his reaction to the tragedy in Haiti. As reports of how devastating the effects of the earthquake was continue to come out, let us pray for the people of Haiti and be generous in our support of the actions to help the people of Haiti. To help with the relief efforts that Fr. Tom Hagan, OSFS, is coordinating in Haiti, please click here: http://www.oblates.org/haiti_relief.php


The images and stories coming out of Haiti are heart breaking. It was already the poorest nation in our part of the world; it did not need this earthquake.

In the summer of 2007, I visited an Oblate, Fr. Tom Hagen, who heads up a mission in Haiti called Hands Together. This organization sponsors seven grade schools, a vocational secondary school, a clinic, (each of which also serves thousands of meals each week to the kids and to elderly people), and a radio station, all in the Cite Soleil section of Port-au-Prince. We also visited some projects in the country and a school in the city of Gonaives.

The visit made an unforgettable impression. Tom is a man with abundant energy and charisma. During my four days there, we were in near constant motion, visiting each project. He spends over 25 Sundays each year in the US preaching and raising money in parishes across the country. So when he is in Haiti, he regularly checks up on the operation of each Hands Together project. He basically serves as inspector general, and I traveled with him to each project.

When we visited the first school, we pulled into its walled courtyard, and guards shut the solid metal gate behind us. We toured the school with classrooms of 40+ kids, in bright green uniforms, sitting close together on concrete benches, a young teacher at the blackboard of each room. Every building I saw in Haiti looked like it was homemade. The schools are constructed of concrete block, and stairs would appear in odd places. A visitor could see the record of addition after addition to the original structure. Doorways between sections were clearly just broken through walls. I often had to step over the remains of the wall to pass through the doorway, and the floor on the other side would be at a different level than the one on which I was just walking. Despite all this everything was functioning and clean.

At the completion of the school tour, Tom led the way outside the walls and into the neighborhood. He spoke with everyone we passed, promoting the school and explaining that meals are a part of the school day. If the concrete block buildings seem homemade, the houses in the neighborhood can best be described as “shacks.” They are put together from scrap wood, cardboard, plastic and sheet medal. Cite Soleil is waterfront property on a Caribbean Island, but it could not be further from anyone’s idea of a vacation getaway. In fact, the whole slum grew up on land that cannot be more than one or two feet above sea level, so the sea is always a looming threat.

Two Impressions
At each stop, we visited a school and its neighborhood. There is so much I could say, but I want to illustrate my experience with two impressions.

Cite Soleil has no sanitation. Sewage collects in gutters; it sits there or washes to the sea. Calling the structures “gutters” is being very generous. There were just sewage and putrid standing water all over. Little kids were running all over, barefoot, paying no attention to running into the water or not. Tom’s dog accompanied us on this tour, and he, too, walked indiscriminately through all sorts of filth. I would get in to the truck after each tour, and he would climb in on top of me, drying his paws as he went. My impression of the whole place was how dirty and makeshift everything was.

However, as we walked or drove places, I have a clear picture of people cleaning: of men and women using big steel bowls with soapy water to wash. People were either bathing themselves or their children, washing dishes and pots, or soaking and ringing out clothes; everywhere we went this washing was going on. There was no infrastructure to support the cleaning: no running water, indoor plumbing, or sewage system, but people used what they had and did what they could.

Second, the children were striking. Like kids everywhere, they were playful, curious, and smiling. They loved seeing their picture on my cell phone and loved touching and pulling the hair on my arms, the long, light, wavy hair of an Irish-American visitor. In contrast to the children, my impression of adults I met, or simply observed from a distance, was how tired, and worn down they seemed from trying to make a living.

I was there only four days; I always say that if there were not a plane back to the U.S. on that fourth day, I would have swum to Miami to get back home. Despite this feeling, the visit was a very full and valuable experience.

Still Point in a Turning World
My home away-from-home was the Hands Together house in the Delmas section of Port-au-Prince. This house was walled, gated and guarded by a couple of men with rifles. On the ground flood there were people cooking, sweeping, or waiting to talk to Father Tom. Chickens wandered in and out of the house. Twenty-five young Haitian men lived there, along with Tom and any guests passing through. The young men came expressing interest in becoming Oblate brothers or priests, and so they lived and prayed together, and worked as teachers in the Cite Soleil schools. They lived in a dorm in a wing of the second floor. The chapel was there as well, in a covered patio, one wall open to the courtyard below.

I stayed up higher in a freestanding, eight by eight, concrete block room on the roof with a bathroom, bed, and chair. There I could shower and approximate the sanitation I am used to as an American. For the four days this tower was my comfort zone in a tragically poor country, my “still point in a turning world.” Since it was up high, it provided a distant view of the neighborhood and beyond to the city and even to the sea. I could see lights from houses in the hills and the haze of smoke from thousands of fires in the valley and surrounding hills.

That building collapsed in the earthquake. Two young men were killed; four were seriously injured. Tom was in his ground floor office and is OK. My sanctuary room on the roof is gone.

Four Responses to the Earthquake:
Sorrow
There is so much to be sad about looking at the results of this earthquake. Every picture from the site gives us a thousand reasons to mourn. I think of people trapped under debris waiting, hoping in agony, all the injured and displaced. I think of all the good that has been destroyed, the progress and hope set back.


Anger
We can be angry that we have a world set up so that we are either winners or losers, and the winners get to take it all. This pattern must go back to Neanderthals. It was plainly at work in French colonial exploitation of Haiti, in cruel slavery. We can see it looking at our country’s history when leaders in our young republic gave in to racial prejudice and withheld support for Haiti emerging from a slave revolt: the first Black nation to join the U.S. in the experiment of forming a democracy. In our own time this same dark force finds expression in our intractable “military industrial complex.” So we can spend billions on two ineffective wars but can only promise 500 million to our neighbor now in dire need. It’s not about money; it’s about vision and priorities.

Insight
I do not want to try to make an easy lesson out of such enormous tragedy and pain. However, I think one key purpose of middle class people traveling to Haiti or to Camden, or to any tragically needy place to volunteer, even just serving at a local soup kitchen, is so that when we return to our usual place, we are changed. Serving where need is plain-to-see contributes to the good being done in that place, but it can renew our ability to recognize needs and to serve in our ordinary setting. It can bring us to deeper gratitude about our lives: a gratitude that brings us to our knees in humble awareness that so much of our accomplishment and security is beyond us.

The thought of the room that served as my oasis in Haiti, atop Tom’s solid house, now destroyed, serves as a vivid image of how all security is unsure. Disaster can strike anywhere, and does strike everywhere. In the end, God alone, and the values God offers us, stands.

Action
Feelings are real, and we can learn from them, and it is good to take lessons from the events of life. But in this tragedy, at this moment, real people are suffering, and they do not have the luxury of distance to simply feel or learn. They are in the position of having to endure this tragedy. Action in this moment is required of Christians.

I am very proud that the Oblate provincial, Fr. Jim Greenfield (who was just in Haiti with Fr. Kevin Nadolski days before the earthquake, staying in the same rooftop room) has set a goal for us to raise $100,000.00 to give to Tom Hagen and Hands Together. Jim’s intention is to get emergency help to people to get through this crisis. It also will support our efforts in Haiti: there before this earthquake, still there after the attention fades, rebuilding, educating, encouraging, and healing.

Devastation in Haiti

(Pictured: Fr. Tom Hagan, OSFS, with children from his Hands Together Project in Part au Prince, Haiti)

Editor's Note: The earthquake in Haiti this Tuesday has caused inestimable damage to the country, and particularly to the poor. The Oblates of St. Francis de Sales are present in Port au Prince, living and working among the poor of the area. The week before the earthquake, Oblate provincial Fr. Jim Greenfield and vocation and communication director Fr. Kevin Nadolski visited with the Oblates and their associates in Haiti. After the earthquake, they met with reporters from the Wilmington News Journal to discuss their experience and update people on the situation of the Oblates and their associates in the area. As we continue to pray for the people of Haiti, we are reminded of how interconnected we all are as a Church and as a human family. The earthquake is also another sobering reminder that the people affected most acutely by natural disasters are the poor. The article may be found here:
http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201001140345/NEWS/1140350

The War in Afghanistan

Editor's Note: The following entry is from Fr. Mike McCue, OSFS, the director of De Sales Servcie Works in Camden, NJ. Fr. McCue reflects on the human costs of war that often are hidden from out sight, and offers a strong challenge from the Catholic tradition about the morality of this war and all the costs with which it is associated.

At our parish grade school, teachers reported recently observing that one boy in kindergarten was eating more than one of our free school breakfasts in the morning and was caught several times bringing food from breakfast or lunch back to the classroom. He was breaking the rules and did not respond to authority telling him to follow the rules. Our principal discerned that he was doing this because he is hungry. He and his 5 brothers and sisters live with their grandmother and frequently go without dinner. The great thing is that the principal and teachers looked to the source of the problem instead of solely addressing the behavior. They could then address the real issue, or one level of the real issue.

This story gives just one example of what makes me proud of our school: simple attention and care for our students as individuals.

The experience also gives a way for me to offer some thoughts about the war in Afghanistan. I hesitate to write about a public policy issue that is complicated and in an area where I have no direct experience or special competence. However, because democracy is all about everyone having a voice, and blogs are all about exchange of ideas; I write.

To put it simply, I think the course of action chosen by our president, sending more troops to Afghanistan, is unfortunate. Even if all goes forward according to best-case hopes, the many downsides which have accompanied the war so far are likely to continue.

1. The war involves a huge expense of money, and I have to think how we could spend the money better. And where does the money go?

2. Camden, N.J. is an American city that has stood out for its poverty and dysfunction for 40 years. Multiple efforts and plans to lead this community out of its dysfunction have come and gone. There is some progress, but entrenched problems remain. Aren’t we basically trying to do the same thing in Afghanistan? In addition, in central Asia we are not dealing with an American city, but with an area where we are outsiders to the many languages and ancient cultures of the region. How can we count on success there when we can’t do it here?

3. The number of Americans who have died in the war has exceeded the amount who died on 9/11. That comparison does not consider how many non-Americans have died so far, or how many non-combatants. How many young people are injured for life, missing limbs, health ruined or mental health stressed to the limits? The number of soldiers who have returned to the United States and subsequently committed suicide is also sobering.

4. Isn’t this war making enemies for America? Doesn’t the violence and disruption radicalize many people the conflict touches? Every bomb, on target or not, kills or maims someone’s son, brother, friend, nephew, husband, father, grandson, and creates anger and makes enemies of the U.S. As long as conflict provides more jobs than actual productive enterprises (put on hold because of war), there are more young men freed up to get into trouble.

If we bring the classic just war criteria (1) to the situation, my list of concerns raises problems. It is very unsure that other means of addressing the risk of terrorist activity are impractical or ineffective. The chance of success is small. My list of downsides most clearly challenges the criteria that the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver that the evil to be eliminated. Simply put, our war effort is creating more aggrieved people with reason to join in opposition to the United States.

This brings us back to the kindergarten story. The school officials might have simply addressed the problem of a student taking more than his share of food via discipline and punishment. Instead, the school had the good sense and skill to see and address the underlying issue. I want to suggest that an approach to this war in Afghanistan that thinks U.S. security concerns can be effectively addressed by more armed troops fails to address root issues.

Andrew J. Bacevich teaches history and international relations at Boston University. He articulates a critique of what he sees as an excessive dependence on military power to pursue foreign policy goals. I have heard him speak a couple times in radio interviews and have read one book, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. His arguments make sense and carry particular weight for three reasons: 1. he is a retired Army colonel, he began his career during the Vietnam War era, 2. His son was killed in this war, 3. He is a Catholic who deliberately brings the insight of this tradition to his thinking.

He also argues that we simply do not have the resources to effectively fight an open-ended, world-wide “war on terror.” He argues that it would be more accurate and effective to treat the terror threat as a law enforcement issue. The terrorists are criminal thugs, rather than national actors, soldiers.

American economic prosperity is not infinite, not something that is guaranteed, he argues. Costly military actions divert resources and economic focus away from medicine, education, infrastructure and technology to things that support what, he argues, is a self-perpetuating reliance on military force. On the topic of American resources, he points out that our soldiers and their families are being asked to bear the burden of “the war on terror.” Isolating the responsibility of defense to a subgroup, distances the human cost of armed conflict from the rest of the nation. Talking about the draft-a structure that was supposed to distribute the burden of defense across economic and cultural lines of the citizenry-he writes, “Whatever the threat posed by Al Qaeda, most parents with teenagers will view the prospect of a draft as posing a greater immediate danger to their children’s well-being.”

What most advances American and world security? I recommend Andrew J. Bacevich’s work as a help to understanding the problem, and to seeing another way.

(1) These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called the "just war" doctrine. The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good.

The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:
· the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
· all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
· there must be serious prospects of success;
· the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.

Drug Use in Camden

Editor's Note: In today's entry, De Sales Service Works director Fr. Mike McCue, OSFS, discusses the rampant drug problems in Camden. Despite the obvious problems and the temptation to despair, he highlights the possibility of hope for people and what some people are doing to help people who suffer from addiction. Frequently, people addicted to drugs can be moved to the margins of society. However, as Christians, we are challenged to follow Jesus who ministered to those who lived on society's margins.

One of the most disturbing things we have experienced living here is the evidence of drug abuse. Illegal, dangerous drugs are all around us here.

We see it in the drug trade carried on “hidden in clear sight” everywhere, at intersections and in the middle of blocks. In fact, for our first year here, until about a month ago, a house directly across the street from the front door of our grade school was a busy drug house. Teenage boys and young men manned the front porch and sidewalk as buyers visited in car or on foot beginning late morning and continuing late into the night. All this occurred with mother and extended family-sisters, cousins, babies-coming and going as well.

We see it in people we meet who are clearly high: either hyper-energetic or just out of it. We see it in people young and old who are wasted away physically: skinny with vacant, distracted eyes. We feel it in conversations that have no energy of commitment: no one is home. This is most shocking and depressing when we see people in their teens or early twenties who clearly just arrived here from their middle class lives. Seeing the look of people caught in this subculture is depressing in everyone, but seeing young people who are not yet wasted away, whose skin in not yet scribbled on with tattoos that are on everyone on the street, often just makes me angry. They have to have other options, I think to myself.

The third evidence of drug use is discarded syringes that can be seen all over in the neighborhood. Every alley or shadowy corner seems to be the place to shoot up. An alley near our house, between us and our grade school, is where we see needles the most. This alley is a disaster, with junk everywhere. For a couple months in the summer the alley even featured chairs, a discarded cooler, and two plastic milk crates with a canopy rigged above it set up for shooting up.

We have to ask how anyone gets to the point in their lives where they are willing to sit in a place like that, for any purpose. And who likes needles, even in a safe and sanitary medical environment? I suppose people get so caught in addiction that they end up here. I suppose some see so few options for themselves that the escape that alcohol and drugs offer seems like a viable option, one that is within reach.

This chilly morning I looked out my office window to the night shelter of a man we see here every day. Sometimes he sleeps with friends or in abandoned buildings, but when he sleeps in our parking lot, he gathers cardboard to construct a box for himself to sleep. He chooses a somewhat sheltered spot against the wall of a tall brick building. He never seems high; he says he has been free of drugs for years. Yet looking at his circumstances, I think that the temptation to simply numb his awareness must haunt him as an appealing option against the cold, loneliness and lack of direction.

I met another man a couple weeks ago here to get a sandwich. He is a young guy, clean-cut, not wasted away, without tattoos. We talked, and he told me he is a vet. He served in Iraq. He is in the reserves (if I got the terminology correct) and is waiting to be deployed overseas again. He can’t be more than 24. His family situation is scattered and chaotic, so he is on his own, living in Camden’s “tent city.” He said he spent much of his downtime during his deployment high, with earphones plugged into loud music just to get through the constant stress of war. So he is here trying to keep things together until his unit re-gathers for training for a deployment in Afghanistan in the spring. I suggested he use the resources of the Veterans’ Administration to treat his drug dependence and the effects of combat. He feels that doing that would jeopardize his career. The only option he sees is holding out until training begins.

That weekend members of the student government of DeSales University were here for a service retreat, and they took on the alley. Graduates of Holy Name grade school joined them, and together they cleared away old tires, mattresses, carpet, weeds: junk and more junk. They filled a construction dumpster with the debris. The pavement still looks like it belongs in a developing country, but clearing the alley has made a huge difference.

These students are aware of a wide horizon of options for their lives. Thank God that service and concern for those with constricted options is on that horizon; our community benefits from that generous vision.

Elizabeth of Hungary

Editor's Note: Francis de Sales loved the saints and referred to their lives frequently in his writings. Today, Fr. Michael Murray, OSFS, director of the De Sales Spirituality Center, reminds us of the high esteem Francis had for St. Elizabeth, whose feast we celebrate today. This reflection is a good reminder to all of us that we all have a responsibility to our brothers and sisters in need.

On Tuesday, November 17, we remember the life and legacy of St.Elizabeth of Hungary: princess, wife, mother and widow who died in 1231. She is considered the patroness of the Franciscan Third Order and of Catholic Charities.

In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales observed: "St.Elizabeth, daughter of the king of Hungary, often visited the poor. For recreation among her entourage she would sometimes clothe herself like a poor woman, saying to them, 'If I were poor I would dress in this manner.' O God, dear Philothea, how poor was this princess in the midst of all her riches and how rich was her poverty...There is no one who at some time or other has not felt the lack and want of some convenience.It sometimes happens that we are visited by a guest whom we would and should entertain very well but at the time lack means to do so. At other times our best clothes are in one place and we need them to be in another place where we must appear publicly. Again, sometimes the wines in our cellar ferment and turn sour so that only bad or green wines remain. At another time we are out in the country and have to stay in some hovel where everything is lacking and we have neither bed, room, table nor service. In fine, it is often very easy to lack something, no matter how rich we are. This is to be poor in effect with regard to the things we lack. Rejoice on such occasions, Philothea, accept them with a good heart and put up with them cheerfully." (IDL, Part 3: 15)

We remember and admire St. Elizabeth of Hungary because her wealth was only surpassed by her generosity, making her truly rich in the eyes ofGod. Her example calls us to consider that our personal wealth and success is gained best by seizing the opportunities we have each day to share what we have and who we are with others. Leave it to Francis deSales to remind us, however, that true poverty of spirit (being poor inthe midst of riches and rich in the midst of poverty) is a two-edgedsword: it is not only a function of how well we share what we have, but very frequently is practiced by how well we accept what we lack.

Hope Works in Camden

(Pictured: Students at HopeWorks)




In a number of entries, Fr. Mike McCue, OSFS, director of De Sales Service Works, has highlighted one ministry in which volunteers in Camden participate, HopeWorks. HopeWorks is a program founded by a Jesuit, Fr. Jeff Putthoff, that is a technology training center for young people in the city of Camden. This week, there is an aritcle from the National Catholic Reporter on Fr. Putthoff and what HopeWorks is doing for Camden.

In the article, NCR editor Tom Roberts explores the questions Fr. Putthoff wrestles with as he engages in this ministry in such a poor area. Fr. Putthoff raises some interesting questions about the future of religious life in our culture today. The article can be found here: http://ncronline.org/news/hopeworks-n-camden.