Responding to the strategy to solve poverty published by think tank the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Philip McCarthy, Chief Executive of CSAN said:
“We welcome JRF’s call for a “new consensus that poverty in the UK is real, matters to all of us, and can be solved”.
The strategy underlines the role of each person has in solving poverty: governments, businesses and employers, service providers, investors, and individual citizens. This spirit of solidarity in tackling what JRF righty terms the “the biggest social evil of our time” is in keeping with Catholic Social Teaching.
Pope Saint John Paul II described this solidarity as a “firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all”,1 and the proposals made by JRF for urgent investment in housing, social security and childcare are a step towards the equitable distribution of wealth which solidarity inspires.
As part of this solidarity, the role of charities cannot be understated. Our member charities have a long tradition of working against poverty and of fulfilling their role to support the most vulnerable in society – those who are the least likely to be able to access help from other sources.”
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s strategy to solve poverty can be read here.
1. Pope Saint John Paul II; Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 38 (30th December 1987)
