L’Osservatore Chicago: Evangelicals and Catholics together on the front lines of helping the needy

(POSTED: 3/12/10) Greatly touched by stories of human suffering in the wake of Haiti's earthquakes, yet leery of being defrauded, American Catholics were relieved to find that reliable Catholic Relief Services was already operating in Haiti. Donors could have faith that their dollars would be spent where they were most needed.
Catholic Relief Services is among a group of highly respected social agencies with stellar track records in poor countries. I can think of Save the Children, the Heifer Project and CARE, for starters.
The last Sunday in February, Nicholas D. Kristof, in The New York Times, called our attention to a stunning addition to the list. For most of the last century, he wrote, the "save-the-worlders, primarily Democrats and liberals," took the high road on government aid programs. In contrast many Republicans and religious conservatives took the low road and denounced government aid programs, which Sen. Jesse Helms famously called "money down a rat hole."
Now the two roads have converged into one as evangelicals have become the new internationalists, "doing superb work on issues from human trafficking in India to mass rape in Congo."
Currently, the largest U.S.-based international relief and development organization, Kristof wrote, comes from strong evangelical roots. It is World Vision, a Seattle-based Christian organization, which has roughly tripled its budget over the last decade. World Vision has 40,000 staff members in 100 countries. Kristof credits the head of World Vision in the United States for exhorting evangelicals to rush to the front lines of compassion in the AIDS crisis. Richard Stearns has galvanized evangelicals with his book, "The Hole in Our Gospel" ("fascinating," according to Kristof). Stearns asks, "Where were the followers of Jesus Christ in the midst of perhaps the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time?"
Kristof also praises the many Catholic nuns and priests he has seen heroically caring for AIDS patients, "even quietly handing out condoms."
"One of the most inspiring figures I've met while covering Congo's brutal civil war is a determined Polish nun in the terrifying hinterland, feeding orphans, standing up to drunken soldiers and comforting survivors -- all in a war zone.
"I came back," he said, "and decided: I want to grow up and become a Polish nun."
Margery Frisbie, a graduate of Mundelein College, has raised lots of kids and written lots of columns. She is the author of several local histories, two graphic histories published in Europe, and An Alley in Chicago, the Life and Legacy of Monsignor John Egan.
Contacts: margeryfrisbie@sbcglobal.net or info@chicagocatholicnews.com
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