YOUCAT Question n. 448 – Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 448 – Part I. Are poverty and underdevelopment an inescapable fate?

(Youcat answer) God has entrusted to us a rich earth that could offer all men sufficient food and living space. Yet there are whole regions, countries, and continents in which many people have scarcely the bare necessities for living. There are complex historical causes for this division in the world, but it is not irreformable. The rich countries have the moral obligation to help the underdeveloped nations out of poverty through developmental aid and the establishment of just economic and commercial conditions.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2437) On the international level, inequality of resources and economic capability is such that it creates a real "gap" between nations (Cf. SRS 14). On the one side there are those nations possessing and developing the means of growth and, on the other, those accumulating debts.   

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) There are more than a billion people living on this earth who must make do with less than one dollar per day. They suffer from a lack of food and clean drinking water; most of them have no access to education or medical care. It is estimated that more than 25,000 people die every day from malnutrition. Many of them are children.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2438) Various causes of a religious, political, economic, and financial nature today give "the social question a worldwide dimension" (SRS 9). There must be solidarity among nations which are already politically interdependent. It is even more essential when it is a question of dismantling the "perverse mechanisms" that impede the development of the less advanced countries (Cf. SRS 17; 45). In place of abusive if not usurious financial systems, iniquitous commercial relations among nations, and the arms race, there must be substituted a common effort to mobilize resources toward objectives of moral, cultural, and economic development, "redefining the priorities and hierarchies of values" (CA 28; Cf. 35).

(This question: Are poverty and underdevelopment an inescapable fate? is continued)