Next step: action
Students learn that poverty isn't a good Christian value

Dennis Sadowski, Editor

CLEVELAND- Feeding the hungry has gotten Kevin Koncilja thinking.

The St. Ignatius High School senior thinks about the people he has served every week for the last three years at the community meal hosted by St. Patrick Church on the city’s Near West Side, just a few blocks from his school.

Their situation, their needs and their lives are on his mind frequently. He thinks about why they are at the meal week after week, month after month, year after year.

“I’ve always wanted to be involved with feeding the hungry and sharing time with them,” said Koncilja, a senior.

“I’ve learned a lot about people. I’m getting rid of my stereotypes for them. It’s helped me really connect with people,” he said.

As he prepares to enter college in the fall, Koncilja is thinking about the next step in his life. It’s not only the education he’s concerned about, but about helping change the world’s view of poor people. He thinks about ways to “follow in the steps of Jesus rather than do something for self gratification.”

Koncilja was assisting Father Bob Begin, administrator of St. Colman Church, Cleveland, and a staff member of the Commission on Catholic Community Action, during the March 9 Poverty Summit at St. Ignatius High School sponsored by Catholic Students for Peace and Justice. Father Begin was talking about the cycle of unemployment many poor people face to small groups of teen-age students attending the summit.

The summit brought together 950 students from 21 diocesan high schools to learn about poverty, its causes and its varied impact on large segments of the Northeast Ohio community.

Having the summit in Cleveland allowed students a brief glimpse of the deep poverty afflicting the city. Students and other summit participants had the chance following the opening Mass celebrated by Bishop Richard G. Lennon at St. Patrick Church on Bridge Avenue to walk through a few blocks of the Near West Side, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the nation’s poorest big city.

In 2005, the latest year statistics are available, 32 percent of Cleveland residents and nearly 50 percent of the city’s children lived in poverty, the U.S. Census Bureau reports.

The summit focused on three broad topics: homelessness, worker rights and education. Students heard from nearly 50 advocates of the poor as well as poor people themselves in workshops like the one Father Begin led. Workshop leaders addressed a particular need in each area such as worker training needs, roadblocks to finding affordable housing, quality of public education, racism, lack of access to health care and hunger.

Bishop Pilla’s dream

It was Bishop Anthony M. Pilla who set the tone for the day, with a rousing keynote address that challenged students not only to be aware of the difficulties poverty inflicts on people but to take steps to change the world.

“Our commitment to those in greatest need is not just a nice feeling,” Bishop Pilla said. “This isn’t just we want to be nice. This isn’t just humanitarianism.

“You cannot be Catholic and not be concerned about those in need. You cannot celebrate Mass and the Eucharist without an essential concern for the poor. The book of Genesis teaches us that every person is made in God’s image and likeness and endowed with inalienable dignity. ... As believers we are called to treat all people with respect, with compassion and with justice.”

It will take involvement in the political process to change social policy toward poor people, Bishop Pilla said while encouraging students to join the public debate over budget priorities.

The idea for a high school summit focusing on poverty was advanced by Bishop Pilla two years ago during a meeting with faculty advisors to CSPJ. The organization, started at a handful of high schools in 2002, had yet to reach into each of the diocese’s 22 high schools.

While the summit took two years to come together, planners made sure to broaden CSPJ’s outreach. The result found nearly 1,000 young people talking about poverty for a day and coming away wondering what they could do not only to serve the poor but to advocate for social change.

Ideas abound

After a series of 20-minute sessions, students returned to their school groups to discuss what they learned from the day. Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit High School’s contingent of 35 students seemed to reflect a deeper understanding of the depth of poverty in Northeast Ohio.

Jesuit Father Jim King looked out at the students crammed into a small math classroom, asking what anyone wanted to share. One-by-one hands went up.

Junior Laura Illig offered that it seems that many people who are trying to get back on their feet seem to have roadblocks placed in front of them by government policies. She cited the example of a single mother whose low-wage income was too high to receive welfare, but yet could not afford health insurance.

“Our world is imperfect,” Illig said later. “There are some things that can be better. There’s a way to do that. Why not?”

Another student wondered about the practices of temp agencies that deducted a high percentage of fees from the paychecks of minimum wage workers, leaving them with $3 to $4 per hour on average in take home pay. “They (workers) were really exploited by the agencies,” he said.

A third student said he didn’t realize the Salvation Army shelter for homeless men at 2100 Lakeside Ave., Cleveland, was not only the largest in Ohio but the entire Midwest.

Students also offered ideas on how to improve the situations of poor people. One of the suggestions, which seemed to reverberate strongly through the Walsh Jesuit contingent, was for the school to hire a hard-to-employ person to work in maintenance. By doing so, a person could begin to learn skills that would be more attractive to other employers.

It was those kinds of reactions that Notre Dame Sister Kathleen Ryan, who staffs CSJP for the Commission on Catholic Community Action, and other summit organizers were hoping would come out of the day.

“We have been getting a great response,” Sister Ryan said. “It was a great day for the students.”

CSJP plans to send representatives to the Catholic Conference of Ohio Legislative Advocacy Day April 25 at the Statehouse in Columbus to begin to influence public policy when it comes to the poor