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Conference to focus on poverty through ‘lens of caring, compassion’
By Ambria Hammel, The Catholic Sun
September 20, 2007
The Office of Peace and Justice is sponsoring a conference to help churchgoers close the gap between praying for the poor at Mass and taking action to address the social ills around them.
St. Paul Parish will host “Beyond the Good Samaritan: A Catholic Conference on Assisting Vulnerable Families” Oct. 5-6 to help Catholics minister to the marginalized.
“Attendance at worship impels us and empowers us to do something,” said Tricia Hoyt, director of the Office of Peace and Justice. She calls it living “out of a lens of caring and compassion.”
Conference-goers will first choose between five workshops that will highlight the elderly, unborn, sick, hungry and homeless in Arizona.
Sr. Adele O’Sullivan, CSJ, will lead a session on the problems in society that contribute to homelessness and who is susceptible to it during her workshop.
“The big one is the lack of affordable housing,” Sr. Adele said. She said, on average, a full-time worker earning minimum wage cannot afford a modest, two-bedroom rental anywhere in the country.
Sr. Adele said 13,000 people are homeless in the Phoenix area, including those in shelters.
The second set of workshops features community leaders who created solutions that address poverty issues introduced earlier in the day, Hoyt said. Conference-goers can choose from up to six workshops pertaining to workforce development, parishioner support of the poor, public policy and supportive housing.
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