THEOLOGY 4:

• LIVING THE CHRISTIAN VISION IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD:

UNIT 3: Harmony with All Creation

Justice for the Poor

JMJcba
“Photography
helps people
to see.”
– Berenice
Abbott
 POVERTY PHOTOGRAPHY

• Photography of the world’s poor is a powerful tool.

Photographs offer a visual language, one that situates
the viewer in a specific moment and allows headlines
and statistics to become real and palpable. Many non-
profit and news organizations have utilized
photography of the world’s poor in order to inform,
mobilize and inspire the public to further help those in
need.
• Photography can inspire empathy and mobilize viewers
to care more about the world around them. This is
especially true for photography of the world’s poor.
However, along with photography’s power comes an
ethical responsibility to ensure that it does not objectify
or exploit its subjects.
With photography’s power comes consequences. Photography
of the world’s poor has the potential to objectify and exploit
its subjects. Some describe such photos as “poverty porn.”

This type of photography is not only one-dimensional, but it is

dangerous. Poverty porn creates a culture of paternalism and
objectification that paints the viewers as saviors and reduces
the poor down to their struggles. Furthermore, poverty porn
disregards a community’s capability, strength and resilience,
and instead “evokes the idea that the poor are helpless and
incapable of helping themselves.”
 God's
Beloved
Poor

©️ Zeyn Afuang
 JUSTICE FOR THE POOR
Our quest for harmony with God and with
Pope Francis (Laudato Si’): there is an
all creation in response to God's call to "a true ecological approach
"inseparable bond" that links concern for
stewardship does not end in our concern always becomes a social
nature, justice for the poor, commitment
for nature alone but flows into our concern approach."
to society, and interior peace.
for one another, especially the needy.
In an extended way,
The truth is that we This stewardship of
we are brothers and
are stewards of one one another takes
sisters not only with
another as brothers the form of a special
our blood siblings
and sisters, and concern to attain
but with all human
together we are justice for the poor,
beings for we all
stewards of the neglected and
have the same
earth. marginalized.
heavenly Father.
 A. Old Testament Witness
Indeed, Israel's fundamental
Writings of the prophets who
Israel's experience of oppression experience of election and
denounced the injustices
in Egypt and how God delivered liberation by God despite their
committed against the poor by
His people from slavery and sinfulness and unworthiness is a
God's people and their leaders in
injustice through his servant, thread that runs through the
the various stages of their
Moses. Hebrew Bible and continues to
history.
the New Testament.
B. New Testament Witness
how Christ proclaims and
actualizes the "Good News to
Mystery of the Cross and the
the Poor" that he was sent to
Redemption as the place
proclaim, bringing "liberty to
where the maximum of
the oppressed, recovery of
injustice is ultimately
sight to the blind and
defeated by the transforming
freedom to captives" as the
faith and love of the Savior.
prophets had foretold (cf. Lk
4:18).
 C. Church
Witness
Some of these texts will
include excerpts from the
writings of the saints,
Documents from different
quotations from Church
periods in the history of
Councils and papal
the Church to see how the
encyclicals, passages from
Church has understood
the documents of the
and lived out this mission
Second Vatican Council, all
from the time of Jesus to
the way to the teaching of
our present time.
our present Pope,
especially Evangelii
Gaudium.
THE HUMAN ROOTS OF THE PRESENT POVERTY IN THE PHILIPPINES

©️ Chitto Cancio
Overview of Pertinent CBCP
Pastorals

• Some key texts include:

• To Bring Glad Tidings to the Poor
• Poverty that Dehumanizes, Poverty
that Sanctifies (2014),
• The Dignity of the Rural Poor: A
Gospel Concern (2007),
• I Was Homeless and You Took Me
In (1997) and
• On the Plight of the Poor (1991).
 To Bring Glad Tidings to the Poor (2014)

It is a document that springs from the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii

Gaudium, raises a number of points that are worth deepening:

that poverty in the

that sharing, for a Christian, is national level, continues at
not just a matter of choice
but of conscience;
Philippines, although it has
that the problem of poverty is
been decreasing on the
not to be blamed only on the
government or in societal
"scandalous" levels in certain
structures but we must
areas such as the ARMM
accept our own responsibility
where almost half of the
for it.
population live below the
poverty line;
Poverty that Dehumanizes, Poverty that Sanctifies (2014)

It served as the CBCP's Lenten Message

for that year, attempts to distinguish
between different forms of poverty
experienced on the material, moral and
spiritual levels and

to offer a "framework" for discerning

which ones are destructive and which
ones are helpful for our spiritual life.
 Poverty that Dehumanizes, Poverty that Sanctifies (2014)

Poverty that Dehumanizes

Material Moral Spiritual

Personal destitution slavery to vice or sin loneliness and hopelessness
Societal exclusion corruption religious intolerance
Global consumerism inequality relativism and loss of the
sense of transcendence

Poverty that Sanctifies

Material Moral Spiritual

Personal commitment to the
surrender to God
Societal simplicity Good, the Just and
Global the True
 The Dignity of the Rural Poor: A Gospel Concern (2007)

Written at the end of

the Year for Social
Concerns, the bishops
focus on the rural
poor whom they call
"the greatest victim of
our unjust economic
order" and called the
transgression of their
dignity as "a negation
of Christian love."
 Firstly, the document dispelled the common impression that
poverty in the Philippines is concentrated in urban areas.

Secondly, it decried the poor implementation of agrarian reform

programs, even accompanied in certain cases with the extra-
judicial killing of farmers.

Thirdly, it called to task the government, those who have

"official responsibility," while inviting everyone to examine their
conscience with regard to their own personal contribution to the
problem.
 I Was Homeless and You Took Me In (1997)
• Tackles the issue of the adequate housing, which John Paul
II defined as a full human right in his Lenten Message for
the same year.
• The bishops praised the message of the Pope as being
especially timely for the Philippines, then encountering
issues of mass demolitions of informal settlers for various
reasons, not always just.
• "Most are done in the name of development, which
however often turns out to be soulless." In line with this,
they called for the humane implementation of evictions
with "adequate provision for suitable relocation."
 First, it tackled the issue of the relation between
poverty and sin, stating that: The suffering has
been aggravated by the insinuations of some
that these calamities are punishments from God
On the Plight of the Poor (1991) for personal and social sins…

Second, it highlighted the need to provide

sustained and long-term assistance leading to
rehabilitation and recovery beyond merely giving
immediate relief to the victims… "Our mission
demands that we lift our people out of their
dehumanizing poverty. We must make it
possible for the poor to live in dignity, and in
honor, as the children of God. To become the
Church of the Poor is our vision.“
We are called
to be
committed to
JUSTICE and
CHARITY
Justice and charity are both rooted in the
social dimension of the gospels. Both
reflect the same gospel mandates. Both
can be powerful Christian responses to
human need.
 CBCP
Pastorals
2017: For I find no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies
- oracle of the Lord God

Context:
• Extra-judicial killings
connected to the war on
drugs of the Duterte
Administration; virulent
attacks on those who oppose
the said campaign, including
Church leaders.
Content:
• The problem of drugs must be
eliminated but the solution is not
the extra-judicial killing of
suspected drug users and pushers.
All must work together for a
solution that addresses the root
causes of the problem, which the
bishops identified as "the poverty
of the majority, the destruction of
the family and corruption in
society."
Content:

• The bishops respond by

reiterating the Social
Teachings of the Church in
line with these issues. At
the same time, they
proclaim a message of
hope, identifying some
positive signs such as a
growing sense of political
responsibility among
Filipinos, etc.
 Context:

• Certain policies/programs of the

Duterte Administration,
including those that coincide
and those that collide with 2016: Our Country
Catholic teaching: President and Our Faith: The
Duterte's "heart for the poor," Philippine Socio-
policy against labor
contractualization, war on
Political Landscape
drugs, as well as pending and our Christian
legislations on death penalty, Response
illegal gambling, same-sex
unions, divorce, etc.
Content:

• Here the local Church struggles to

live by the principle of "critical
collaboration" in relation to the
government. On the one hand, it
commends and supports policies
of the government that are in
harmony with Gospel. On the
other hand, it criticizes and
opposes those that are against it.
2013: Proclaim the Message In Season and Out of Season (On Certain Social
Issues of Today)

Context:

• A litany of "storms" aside from

the natural ones: culture of
death and promiscuity,
corruption and abuse of power,
political dynasties, integrity in
the conduct of elections, social
injustice, culture of impunity,
the continued suffering of the
poor/lack of inclusive growth
2013: Filipino Catholic Laity: Called to Be Saints, Sent Forth As
Heroes (Year of the Laity)

Context:
• Year of the Laity 2014. A "paradox of poverty and
abundance" in the situation of Catholic laity
Content: Among the many opportunities of the laity to participate in the
Church's mission (liturgical, catechetical, administrative, etc.) the
document highlighted one in particular: "...your own specific task, and
the special responsibility given to you by the Lord is to find your own
sanctification in the world, and to sanctify the world and transform it
so that this world becomes more and more God’s world, God’s
kingdom, where his will is done as it is in heaven."
 2009: “Love and
truth will meet;
justice and peace
will kiss” (On Lay
Participation in
Politics and Peace)

Context:

• "a great and urgent challenge for active lay participation in principled
politics" in the face of patronage politics, political dynasties, dirty
elections and politics, apathy and cynicism among young people
Content:

• Echoing the social

teachings of the Church,
the document offers some
rather direct and concrete
pointers; on the national
elections, on unrest and
violence.
• In the end, the bishops
reminded the people that
"peace is both our
commitment and a gift of
God."
We as a Church continues to respond to God’s call working
for justice and charity so that His kingdom will come here on
earth where His divine will is done as it is in heaven.
OPLAN KALINGA SA KAPWA AT KALIKASAN

• What possible acts of justice and charity can you do during this
crisis, to effectively help the environment and the poor? Make a
ten-point action plan that shows SMART (Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Relevant, Time bound) qualities.