USCCB Marks Poverty Awareness Month With New Spanish Poverty USA Website, Calendar, Guest Bloggers

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Conferenceof Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is marking Poverty Awareness Month with a newSpanish-language website, updated online statistics, blog posts on poverty anda calendar to educate Catholics about poverty through the month of January andbeyond.

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is marking Poverty Awareness Month with a new Spanish-language website, updated online statistics, blog posts on poverty anda calendar to educate Catholics about poverty through the month of January and beyond.

"We hope Poverty Awareness Monthraises the consciousness of Catholics and other Americans about thedebilitating poverty that smothers the spirit and weakens the soul of ourneighbors everywhere," said Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, California,chairman of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the U.S.bishops' domestic anti-poverty program. "As we wrestle with the effects of theenduring economic crisis, let us work together so that this vital apostolate ofjustice and mercy will reduce poverty and restore human dignity in oursociety."

The Poverty USA website at www.PovertyUSA.org has been updated toreflect latest census statistics. These include that 9.5 million U.S. families,or 11.8 percent of families, live in poverty, 25 percent of children under theage of 6 live in poverty and 20.4 million people live in deep poverty or livingat less than half the poverty line. Also, 23 million people are unemployed orunderemployed. A Spanish version of Poverty USA is also now available at www.PobrezaUSA.org.

A January Poverty Awareness MonthCalendar is also available online at: www.usccb.org/about/catholic-campaign-for-human-development/povertyusa/upload/poverty-awareness-month-calendar.pdf

The USCCB Blog (https://usccbmedia.blogspot.com) willalso feature posts for Poverty Awareness Month by guest bloggers includingBishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, chairman of the USCCB Committee onInternational Justice and Peace; Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson, Arizona,chairman of the board of Catholic Relief Services (CRS); Carolyn Woo, presidentof CRS; and Thomas Meleady, former U.S. ambassador to Burundi, Uganda and theVatican.

More information on recent effortsof CCHD to combat poverty in the United States is available online: www.usccb.org/news/2012/12-199.cfm

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Keywords:Poverty Awareness Month, January, U.S. bishops, USCCB, Bishop Jaime Soto,Bishop Richard Pates, Bishop Gerald Kicanas, Carolyn Woo, Poverty USA, CatholicCampaign for Human Development, CCHD

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