BISHOP LARRY SILVA | Catholic Campaign for Human Development

Dear Friends in Christ:

We know how many families in Hawaii are struggling to make ends meet. The failing economy has created a bleak landscape for all who have been affected, either personally or through association, by layoffs, pay freezes, furloughs, dwindling retirement accounts, falling home values and lost assets.

However desolate the financial climate is from “Wall Street to Main Street,” those affected most are the nearly 40 million Americans who were living in poverty even before the current crisis. “Low-income families and individuals are experiencing the greatest hardship and have the least capacity to cope in this time of economic crisis.” (Bishop William F. Murphy, Chairman of the Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops)

As you know, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) has been lifting low-income communities out of poverty for 40 years. CCHD has funded community groups who work to create their own solutions to poverty through finding fair wages and affordable housing, creating access to health care and providing vocational training. Locally, CCHD funds the Ponahawai Ola Transitional Housing Program. This community reintegration program helps men and women to reintegrate into the Big Island community as productive citizens after incarceration.

In Catholic Social Teaching, we are called “to bring glad tidings to the poor … to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free” (Luke 4:18). Our support of CCHD is vital to solving poverty in our country and in our state. Let’s set a goal for our diocese of at least $10 per family and/or one day’s wage per employed person. It would be a wonderful way to share with our brothers and sisters in need. Thank you for your generosity.

Please join me in praying to St. Damien to intercede for those affected by the weak economy, those whose struggles are magnified by it, and those who are working to create solutions for it.

                                    Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Larry Silva

Bishop of Honolulu