Opcja na rzecz ubogich

Abstrakt

In his article the author tries to show the essence, forms and areas of contemporary poverty and to diagnose the state of poverty in Poland. He also presents some psychosocial consequences of poverty and deprivation. Then he characterises the Catholic Church's attitude towards the problem of poverty and he attempts to point to some remedial measures that can be taken by local societies and parish communities. The author demonstrates that basically poverty is a structural problem. Generally people are poor not because they are losers, or because they are not clever enough, or they are unlucky. They are poor because the system, in which society is organised, including the economic system, is just as it is. Poverty has many causes and various consequences. The causes and the consequences are not only related to one another, but they reinforce one another. Struggle against poverty should comprise a possibly broadest range of causes. Social, political and economic changes are necessary, and so is making the policies in the domain of social services more dynamic as well as connecting them with charity work. The possibilities of the Church in the field of charity work are still significant. There is still a need for initiatives on the local scale, comprising a decanate or neighbouring parishes. According to the author, it is advisable that when fulfilling the various tasks or programmes connected with aid all available ways of co-operation with social and state institutions should be used. The experience of recent years shows that such co-operation is possible and often fruitful.