Introduction
Social, political, and economic changes have largely affected the history and rise of income security globally. As society has developed and changed, approaches to addressing poverty have changed as well. Throughout history, the Roman Catholic Church largely influenced social welfare through the delivery of church-based poor relief. Poor relief “encompass[es] all forms of aid, charity, and public assistance to the poor” (Kidd, 2005). The goal of poor relief is “to provide a safety net by which the poor could maintain a bare subsistence” (Kidd, 2005). There are many methods of delivering poor relief, and often the church and state have held conflicting views on the matter. The Roman Catholic Church’s approach in addressing poverty
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Although the creation of the welfare state has largely changed how income security is delivered today, historically the Roman Catholic Church played a large role in the delivery of poor relief.
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Prior to and during the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church primarily delivered poor relief through charity and mercy. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church viewed almsgiving as a necessary aspect of ensuring salvation. Kahl (2005) infers, “poverty was associated with powerlessness, manual labor, and social problems but this was outweighed by the glorification of the poor as an image of Christ” (p. 95). Individuals believed that donating their money to the church and giving alms directly to the poor would bring them closer to Christ and ensure their entrance into heaven (Kahl, 2005, p. 95-96). However, the occurrence of the Reformation largely impacted and restructured the Catholic method of delivering poor relief. Pullan (2005) noticed that a movement for social reform coincided with the Reformation (p. 449). Kahl (2005) describes the effect of
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450). TRANSITION SENTENCE? “In the course of the Counter-Reformation, Christian benevolence became an important part of Catholic renewal” (Kahl, 2005, p. 99). Although almsgiving and begging continued, the principle of caritas came to the forefront of Catholic poor relief (Kahl, 2005, p. 99). Michielse (2005) defines caritas as charity or good works to humankind, given out of God’s love (p. 3). The principle of caritas implied that poor relief was the responsibility of the Christian community, and therefore should be practiced by family, friends, and the church. Since compassion should be central to the giving of poor relief, the churches were the primary provider of help, rather than the state (Kahl, 2005, p. 101). Therefore, the Roman Catholic Church performed different forms of charity to help those in poverty. The common chest is one example of how charity was delivered in this era. Michielse (2005) describes this concept, saying: “all the alms intended for the poor were brought together in a common chest, deriving in part from the almshouses, poor tables, and so on” (p. 5). This system was of advantage as it
In the 15th Century, growing awareness towards the plight of the destitute led many to partake in almsgiving (charitable donations to the poor). Many well-off members of society took this as an opportunity to attain salvation, donating money--as Jesus advocated--so that their deeds might be smiled upon from above. A Catholic priest, in a sermon in France in this time period, cautioned against this, praising those who contributed money while in good health, but rebuking those who donated when they were sick or near death: "There is no great value in giving" when one will be dead shortly, and has no use for the money. While he encouraged almsgiving, he warned that God would see if selfish reasons existed. In addition to private donations, handled through religious institutions, civil governments also felt a responsibility to help the poor. A resolution, passed by the town council of Dijon, France, in 1482 stated that "[The town] will rent...a barn to put [the destitute] for the night," in addition to caring for the needs of the poor as well as possible.
In de-emphasizing the role of the Church, it’s rituals, and offices, and supplanting them with a more direct and personal approach to God and spirituality; the Protestant Reformation, through the works of Martin...
In Peter Singer’s Famine, Affluence, and Morality, he critiques the way in which modern societies have grown accustomed to their ordinary thoughts about famine, affluence, and morality in general. Singer describes a situation in which nine million refugees from East Bengal are living in poverty, and it is the responsibility of the wealthy, and better-off nations to take immediate and long term action to provide for them and to end poverty overall. (Singer, 873) Through his essay, Singer envisions a new world where giving to those in need is no longer seen as charity, but rather a moral duty. He states that in the world we currently live in, it is seen as generous and partaking in a good deed when you donate money to charity, and no one is blamed for not (876). Singer proposes that excess money should be given to those in need, rather than spending it in “selfish and unnecessary” ways (876).
Chapter one, ‘Beginnings at Assisi,’ offers a vivid description of the social, political, economic, cultural, demographic description of Assisi and its inhabitants. Here, the author describes the life of Francis and the situations and circumstances prompting his journey to spread the ideal gospel life to the world. This chapter is relevant in determining the circumstances that instigated a need for reforms in the Catholic Church. This chapter is applicable in my life because it offers insight on the fundamental Christian I can rely on in my daily life.
As a Dominican, poverty is upheld as being praiseworthy because the order renounces materialism such as possessions and family. At the time of Meister Eckhart’s life in the Middle Ages, there was a religious phenomenon known as imitatio Christi or the imitation of Christ; to live how Christ lived. Christ and his disciples lived in povert...
[4] Vatican II theology “stressed a very different notion of the Church as the people of God, assigned a more important role to the laity, redefined the authority of the Pope over the hole Church and the bishops over the diocese” (Mainwaring 1986). Vatican II theology stressed the need for social justice and vowed to help the less fortunate, this came to be known as the option for the poor.
Christianity propagated charity as one of the necessary acts that a good Christian should follow. Graham Gordon believes that in Christianity, "Charity is considered chief of the Christian virtues," and that "Charity is commended by St. Paul for being the true way to the end which religious practices seek"(10). We can see that in being a chief virtue, charity is highly encouraged in the sense that helping others is considered to be a great deed of good doing. Therefore, we can draw the notion that those who wish to follow the "true way to the end," are those that contribute the most to the poor, as opposed to those mentioned by Walsh who see themselves as "not responsible for the welfare of human beings.
Poverty has conquered nations around the world, striking the populations down through disease and starvation. Small children with sunken eyes are displayed on national television to remind those sitting in warm, luxiourious houses that living conditions are less than tolerable around the world. Though it is easy to empathize for the poor, it is sometimes harder to reach into our pocketbooks and support them. No one desires people to suffer, but do wealthy nations have a moral obligation to aid poor nations who are unable to help themselves? Garrett Hardin in, "Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping The Poor," uses a lifeboat analogy to expose the global negative consequences that could accompany the support of poor nations. Hardin stresses problems including population increase and environmental overuse as downfalls that are necessary to consider for the survival of wealthy nations. In contrast, Peter Singer's piece, "Rich and Poor," remarks on the large differences between living conditions of those in absolute poverty with the wealthy, concluding that the rich nations possess a moral obligation to the poor that surpasses the risks involved. Theodore Sumberg's book, "Foreign Aid As Moral Obligation," documents religious and political views that encourage foreign aid. Kevin M. Morrison and David Weiner, a research analyst and senior fellow respectively at the Overseas Development Council, note the positive impact of foreign aid to America, a wealthy nation. Following the examination of these texts, it seems that not only do we have a moral obligation to the poor, but aiding poor nations is in the best interest of wealthy nations.
The Church in the 1400’s was the center of everyone’s life and a peasant’s life was the hardest to live. The Church convinced everyone that if they broke the rules their soul would be damned. One of the rules was to devote time to the church where peasants would give hours of free labor in the churches’ fields instead of working on their own land to feed their family (“The Medieval Church”). The Church would gather tithes of food and money from every person and store them in a tithe barn where the food would rot or be poisoned by rats (“The Medieval Church”).
The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved February 21, 2010 from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org
Finally, the friars were to wander around the neighbouring towns to preach and aid the needy.... ... middle of paper ... ... The Roman Catholic Church’s reputation for wealth and power furnished them with the ability to have a major impact over feudal society.
There are countless social justice issues that Christian ethicists have the opportunity to address. The aim of Christian ethics is to determine one’s moral responsibility based off of a biblical framework. When discussing many social justice issues, it is easy to decipher precisely what scripture has to say, and what humanity’s moral stance should be. Yet, in many ways, humanity will still struggle to accept that moral and ethical responsibility, even when that moral stance is clearly mapped out in scripture. One such issue is poverty. This paper will look closely at the biblical teachings on poverty, the key ethical standpoints of sacredness of life, love, and justice, as well as the moral responsibilities Christians face. It seems,
The reformation of the Charity Organizations didn’t grant relief themselves however they served as a resource to simplify the transaction of relief to relief applicants by: maintaining relief applicant requests, records of the aid given to them, and referring those worthy or unworthy to the proper agencies (Trattner, 1999). Their goal was to eradicate fraud and duplicity of services while also maintaining efficiency and treating poverty. The charity organization movement intended to treat poverty by enacting “friendly visitors” to look into each case and define the cause of destitution while also watching for overlapping relief. These “friendly visitors” and their investigations were the cornerstone of the Charity Organization Society’s (C.O.S) treatment; granting aid without investigation was like giving medicine without diagnosis (Trattner, 1999).
One of the most basic teachings in the Catholic Church is to ?Love one another as I have loved you.? This can be implied towards people living in poverty as we can follow the steps that Jesus had undertaken to love other people even if they are your enemies. By showing love and compassion we can create a world that is aware of poverty issues and help the declination of poverty. Countless organisations are heavily involved in carrying missions to help ultimately eradicate poverty. These charities and organisations include CARITAS, World Vision, Oxfam, St Vincent de Paul and many other non profitable organisations which help carry out work to help those who are in need.
In the 19th Century, the Catholic Church’s survival depended, in part, on its success in developing a powerful role as a social provider. Catholic schools, hospitals, orphanages and other similar services increased and multiplied in the course of the 19th century. Overall, the Catholic Church’s role as a service provider was an extraordinary organisational achievement and exceeded anything that had been provided by any other non-state organisation.