Catholic Campaign for Human Development aims to help people help themselves

In the Gospel of Luke (4:18), Jesus tells us his mission: “To bring glad tidings to the poor,” “proclaim liberty to captives,” “recovery of sight to the blind,” and “let the oppressed go free.” The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops developed the Catholic Campaign for Human Development to continue this mission throughout the church.

Rather than imposing an outsider’s idea of what the solution to unjust systems and chronic poverty should be, CCHD works with those who are impacted by these very systems to help them develop programs to break the cycle of poverty in their communities. CCHD provides a hand up, not a hand out, to programs that are working with and in low-income communities to empower the people in addressing and overcoming the unjust systems and structures that perpetuate poverty.

In addition to the grants program, CCHD also aims to educate the church on poverty and the causes of poverty in our communities. CCHD provides concrete opportunities for the faithful to act on our call to love our neighbor through education, advocacy and action.
The work of CCHD is made possible through the annual parish collection that will be happening in our diocese on Nov. 21-22. Please prayerfully consider helping this important ministry of our church. Twenty-five percent of all of the funds raised will go to anti-poverty efforts in our diocese.

(Dr. Nicole M. Bourgeois, LMFT, is the executive director for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux.)