Education and Social Justice/You Can Help

As we all know, the Catholic Church is a strong proponent of universal social justice. When one is asked to identify social justice "issues," topics that come readily to mind are the inequities of our criminal justice system, protection of the unborn, poverty and homelessness. The social justice concerns of the Church are not only fostering social justice in our community, but also attempting to ascertain the reasons and causes underlying, creating and/or perpetuating social injustice so that they might be addressed and eradicated (or, at least, alleviated).

A review of certain statistics published by the U.S. Census Bureau regarding the relationship between educational achievement and poverty demonstrate a correlation between a person's level of education and poverty. These statistics make it clear that improving the quality and availability of educational opportunities is a fundamental and necessary component for improving the status and quality of life of individuals, both here and abroad.

For example, data from the March 1997 Current Population Survey provided by the U.S. Census Bureau reveals that for 1996:

• persons without high school degrees earned roughly 25% of the amount earned by persons with advanced college degrees.
• persons with a high school diploma earned almost 50% more on average than persons who did not complete high school ($15,011 compared to $22,154).
• persons who earn a bachelor's degree earned two and one-half times the amount earned by non-high school graduates ($38,112 compared to $15,011).
• persons who do not obtain their high school diploma are significantly more likely to find themselves living in and out of poverty over their lifetimes (impacting not only the individuals but their families as well).

Source: United States Department of Commerce News, U.S. Census Bureau Office, Press Release "Young Women Surpass Young Men in Educational Attainment, Census Bureau Reports" (last revised April 12, 2001), http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/cb98-105.html.

The relationship between poverty, crime and teenage pregnancy is also well-established. Given the close relationship between educational opportunity and achievement and issues of traditional social justice concern (i.e., crime, poverty and protection of the unborn), two recent items reported by the Catholic periodical, The Tidings, are especially worth noting.

One article describes the success of the corporate-sponsored work-study program established at Verbum Dei High School in Watts. This program has directly resulted in the avoidance of the potential closure of this school, increased enrollment and provided both educational and job opportunities for students in one of the more impoverished areas of our local community. See Gahee, Michelle, "Work and Study at Verbum Dei H.S." (September 19, 2003), http://www.the-tidings.com/2003/0919/verbumdei_text.htm. The other article gives the example of one local Catholic community, Holy Family Church in South Pasadena, raising $100,000 to support a Catholic school in one of Haiti's largest slums, a school that feeds, educates and provides a more hopeful future for some of the poorest of the poor in that country. See Gahee, Michelle, "Helping Hands in Haiti from Holy Family," The Tidings (October 10, 2003).

Opportunities to Help

1. You can provide reading materials to prisoners by dropping off your old magazines and periodicals in the Parish Center office marked for "Detention Ministry." Member of that ministry will bring those materials to the prisons during their visitations.

2. The Guadalupe Center in Canoga Park provides food to needy persons and will gladly accept your donations, as does the St. Vincent de Paul Society through its monthly collections at our parish.

3. Our school, St. Mel School, also does its part to assist financially qualifying families to keep their children in our school through the Tuition Assistance Fund.

4. Raise the consciousness of the Parish on social justice topics of interest, particularly those affecting the local community, by e-mailing us at our website. The website is intended to be interactive and to create a forum for persons with competing views on social justice topics to have their views aired.