All five of the Catholic bishops of Indiana, together with representatives of Catholic institutions statewide, will meet at the University of Notre Dame Friday (April 26) for a day-long conference to explore and recommend new initiatives to reduce poverty and alleviate the suffering it causes.
The Indiana Catholic Poverty Summit, sponsored and hosted by Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns, is inspired by Catholic Charities USA’s Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America and the PovertyUSA initiative recently begun by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. In addition to the Catholic bishops, summit participants will include Rev. Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA, and Sheila Gilbert, president of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, as well as social service providers from healthcare and educational institutions and Catholic religious orders.
According to conference organizers, “It is a moral outrage that so many of our fellow Hoosiers experience the despair of material poverty—currently 16 percent of all state residents and 311,000 or 20 percent of our children.
“The Catholic Church is in a unique position to lead the way in eliminating poverty. It has the experience serving the poor, the moral authority, and a Gospel mandate to do so. Catholic Charities and other Catholic social service providers, together with Catholic healthcare, and Catholic education stand on a set of values—embodied in Catholic Social Teaching—that offer a tremendous framework to lead the way in reducing poverty in our state. Although these institutions have their own unique missions, we share this set of values and guiding principles that bind us together.”
Contact: John Guimond, guimond.2@nd.edu, 574 631-3209