Catholicism, Poverty and the Pursuit of Happiness

Abstract

ABSTRACT The following article is divided into three substantive sections. In the first section, “ontology, poverty and Catholicism,” I will attempt to lay out the basic parameters of a Catholic approach to the human person and the subsequent implications of that approach for understanding the question of poverty. In the second section, “liberalism, poverty and welfare in the U.S.,” I will juxtapose the Catholic approach with what is arguably the dominate orientation toward the human person and his or her relationship to property and wealth in the United States of America as derived from a certain brand of liberalism. In the third section, “poverty, religion and human rights in the U.S.,” I will try to make the case in the context of the history of the American welfare state and recent developments in the area of welfare reform, that the current consensus and mode of discourse surrounding poverty and welfare in the United States stands in direct opposition to the most fundamental aspects of Christianity in general and the social teachings of Catholicism in particular. More specifically, I will argue that the contemporary approach to poverty and welfare engendered in legislation like Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) represent at their root a fundamental violation of the most basic of all God-given human rights, namely to give one's self in agapic love to the Other. If that argument is made successfully, the implication regarding the approach to welfare in the United States will be that the public policy that sustains such a violation it is at least partially reflective of what is now called a structure of sin. In turn, serious Christians are then called to confront and work to change its nature in the name of their faith.