Today as I write, it is the “World Day of the Poor.” Established by Pope Francis in 2017, it is a day devoted to highlighting the dignity of local and global fellow human beings caught up in the cruel web of poverty.
Every 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (Nov. 16 this year) the Catholic Church underscores the hardships suffered by countless poor brothers and sisters – most often due to the many injustices inflicted upon them by economic systems that invite the rich to feast upon the goods and services of society while throwing crumbs to the poor.
The United Nations estimates that over 800 million people live in extreme poverty – struggling to survive on less than $3 per day. With so little purchasing power, each person living in extreme poverty does not have adequate access to the basic necessities of life – clean water, sanitation, food, medical care, education, decent housing, living wages.
Over three-quarters of people suffering from extreme poverty live in sub-Saharan Africa and areas involved in armed conflict. And Africa remains the worst affected region regarding food insufficiency, with one in five people facing hunger – which is twice the global average.
Poverty, armed conflicts, climate change, the COVID pandemic, and unjust economic systems – like insufficiently regulated capitalism – are largely responsible for the grossly unequal distribution of essential goods, thus causing approximately 735 million of the world’s people to live in hunger, and die in hunger (see: https://www.unicef.ch/en/current/news/2023-07-12/un-report-around-735-million-people-are-currently-facing-hunger).
Especially sad is the reality that more than 8,000 children worldwide die from hunger and hunger related illnesses every single day. They die because they are too poor to live.
Virtually every country has people experiencing some form of poverty – even in more economically developed nations. For example, in the United States nearly 36 million people live below the poverty line, including more than 11 million children.
But extreme poverty and subsequent ongoing hunger is catastrophic in many economically underdeveloped countries throughout the world.
A tragic example is civil war burdened Sudan, which U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described as a catastrophe of “staggering scale and brutality.”
According to the U.N. Sudan “has become the largest and most devasting displacement, humanitarian and protection crisis in the world today” with over 12 million people displaced internally and overflowing into neighboring countries including South Sudan – the world’s poorest country, with 92% of its population living in poverty (see: https://www.africa-press.net/south-sudan/all-news/south-sudan-ranks-lowest-in-average-income-per-person).
Amidst all of this suffering is a wonderful loving Catholic medical facility known as Mother of Mercy Hospital where life sustaining food and heroic high quality medical care are freely given to the 1.3 million people who often travel hundreds of miles on foot to reach the remote hospital in the Nuba Mountains.
Mother of Mercy Hospital founder and director Dr. Tom Catena and staff treat over 750,000 patients per year. But the current extremely intense overflow of patients fleeing from Sudan’s civil war is putting tremendous strain on Mother of Mercy Hospital’s supplies.
Please consider giving a donation to help replenish Mother of Mercy’s medical and food supplies (see: https://sdnrlf.com/campaigns/last-hope-in-the-nuba-mountains/).
And please contact your national government representatives urging them to do all in their power to push for legislation that robustly appropriates funding for essential life-saving organizations like Mother of Mercy Hospital. And urge them to fully commit to the U.N.’s first two Sustainable Development Goals of ending poverty and hunger by 2030 (see: https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals/no-poverty).
Let us constantly remember that we will be judged by our Lord Jesus according to how well we responded to the needs of our suffering brothers and sisters, hopefully hearing from him, “For I was hungry and you gave me food” (Matt. 25:31-46).
Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. Tony can be reached at tmag6@comcast.net.
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