The Message m for Catholics of Southwestern Indiana
-- Taking the time to make a difference--
I saw my breath the other day.
That's what we used to say,
anyway, when I was a child. It was
an exciting time, that first day of
fall cool enough to let you see the
warm moisture from your breath
condense in the air in front of you.
Perhaps you remember such a time
too.
Back then, on the first cold
and sunny morning in October or
November, with the memory of hot
summer days still fresh in mind, it
was fun to see your breath. The
first long sleeved shirt of fall cov-
ered the tee shirt tan'of summer.
A walk in the sun felt wonderful then. In the
middle of summer, the sun would drive you to seek
shelter in shade -- but at this time of the year,
when you first could see your breath, it was the
sun that gave you shelter from the chill of the
shade.
Then the walk to school was fun -- blowing
out the warm air that you must have somehow
stored at home overnight, and watching your
breath turn into a cloud. You had to be careful, be-
cause if you tried too hard or blew too fast or too
often, it wouldn;t work. But if you did it right, the
walk to school was quick and easy and over too
soon.
The same walk a week earlier would have
been slow and uneventful. The bag of school books
A sign of fall, a gift of God
By PAUL
R. LEINGANG
EDITOR
would grow heavier at each step.
The same walk a week later
would be uncomfortable. It's no fun
to see your breath when your face
feels cold, when you try to keep in-
side of you the little warmth that
you have. You don't waste it,
breathing it out just to see it.
Seeing your breath for the first
time in the fall is exciting. It is a
moment of nature's playfulness be-
fore the seriousness of winter ar-
rives.
Seeing your breath is a re-
minder that it was God who
breathed order into a formless
wasteland and life into a lump of clay.
"The Lord God formed man out of the clay of
the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of
life, and so man became a living being." (Genesis
2:7)
* * * * *
The natural world is full of the signs of God's pres-
ence. Some of us find God in the brightness of the
sunlight. Some find God in the cool comfort of the
shade.
God is in the mighty wind that sweeps across
the waters. God is in the gentle breath of a baby's
life.
If you live in an area where seasons change,
you experience the annual cycle of death and re-
birth, where winter's darkness is followed by new
light, where the gentle
low the harsh winds of wintry day.
If you live in an area where the
moderate the year around, the signs
subtle -- but just as strong: the tides, or the
and waning moon, or the growth cycle of a
plant.
Observe the signs of God's creation
live -- and take the time to give thanks.
more that you can do.
Talk with some friends or the
family about the air that you breathe.
clear? A gift of God or filled with 1
and chemicals? What can you do about it?
Would God -- who made the heavens
earth, and all living creatures R be pleased
how we have treated it? Would Jesus
the children to come to him -- be ple
today's grown-ups have prepared the world
next generation?
Take the time to do one thing with
of your household each week to cut back
tion. Plant a tree. Don't drive if you don't
Walk to church together. Contribute to
battling lung disease. You can make a
(Questions and comments ar(
the Christian Family Movement, P.O.
Ames, Iowa 5001, .)
-..--- Washington Letter
Children and families first? Statistics say r00o. and everyone pays
By NANCY
FRAZIER O'BRIEN
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) --
Wealthy businessman Dick
Doe might not be worried that
4-year-old Johnny Jones
doesn't have enough to eat.
But he should, according to a
new book by a senior official
for the Children's Defense
Fund.
Poor nutrition can make
Johnny iron deficient. A child
with an iron deficiency absorbs
lead into his bloodstream more
easily, and lead paint is preva-
lent in the low-income housing
that Johnny's family can af-
ford. Lead poisoning can cause
learning difficulties for Johnny
and prompt behavior problems
at school, leaving him unedu-
cated and unemployable. The
next step for Johnny might be
a lifetime in jail or on welfare,
with Doe and other taxpayers
paying the tab.
"You can't intervene along
The MESSAGE
4200 N. Kentucky Ave.
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Weekly newspaper of the
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Address all communications to P.O.
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1 i i
the way and expect to solve all
the problems," said Arloc Sher-
man, a senior policy analyst at
the Children's Defense Fund.
"You've got to go to the root of
the problem. To solve poverty,
you really have to solve
poverty."
Sherman is the author of
"Wasting America's Future: A
Report from the Children's De-
fense Fund on the Costs of
Child Poverty," to be published
Nov. 15 by Beacon Press.
"The. human costs of child
poverty are soberingly high,"
he said at a Nov. 1 seminar on
his book at the Washington of-
rices of the Institute for Policy
Studies.
Catholic leaders long have
been concerned about the is-
sues raised in Sherman's book,
especially since the U.S. bish-
ops launched the Catholic
Campaign for Children and
Families following the issuance
of their 1991 pastoral letter,
"Putting Children and Fami-
lies First."
"We urge a reordering of pri-
orities -- personal, ecclesial
and societal -- to focus more
on the needs and potential of
our children," the bishops said.
"This message is a call for con-
version and action -- a spiri-
tual and social reawakening to
the moral and human costs of
neglecting our children and
families."
But-in the years since that
letter came out, things have
gotten worse instead of better
for the nation's poor children
and families.
According to the annual
poverty and income data re-
leased by the Census Bureau
in October, the number of poor
people rose from 38 million in
1992 to 39.3 million in 1993.
The poverty line for a family of
three was $11,522 in 1993; for
a family of four, it was
$14,763.
Those numbers place the
national poverty rate at 15.1
percent of all Americans. But
children are much worse off
than the average.
The child poverty rate
showed only a small increase
-- from 22.3 percent to 22.7
percent -- between 1992 and
1993, but has jumped from
16.2 percent in 1977. Hardest
hit are black children, with a
46.1 percent poverty rate,
and Hispanic children, who
at a 40.9 percent poverty rate
are almost as likely to be
poor as black children.
Even when noncash bene-
fits such as food stamps,
Medicare, Medicaid, public
housing and fringe benefits
at work are counted as in-
come, the poverty rate for
1993 remains at 12.1 percent.
A report from the Wash-
ington-based Center on Bud-
get and Policy Priorities at-
tributes the rising poverty
levels to several factors --
wage erosion among low- and
middle-income working par-
ents, the rise in single-parent
families and "a weaker safety
net, for children.
"In 1993, fewer than one in
every seven children who
were poor before receipt of
government benefits were
lifted from poverty by these
benefits," the report said. "In
1979, nearly one in five chil-
dren who were poor before re-
ceipt of benefits were lifted
from poverty by them."
The center also noted that
the poor are poorer than ever
before. In 1993, more than
four of every 10 poor people
had income below half the
poverty line, or $7,382 for a
family of four. In 1977, three
of every 10 poor people had
incomes that low.
Around the country,
Catholics are working with
state and local leaders to im-
prove the plight of children
and families. In Maryland this
October, the state's Catholic
bishops put their hopes for the
future -- and 38 specific policy
recommendations -- in a 50-
page statement called "Putting
Families and Children First."
"Let us insist that the needs
of families and children, espe-
cially the poorest and most vul-
nerable among them, be as-
signed first priority in the
political debate," they said.
Sherman of the Children's
Defense Fund sayshe and
other 'children's advocates
must present not only the grim
statistics about children and
families but also the "the cru-
cial and optimistic message
that the United States can re-
duce family poverty."
"There are solutions that
aren't just expanding the cur-
rent welfare system, which
everyone on and off the welfare
rolls hates," he said. Among
those are child
ance, a famil
wage, expansion
Income Credit and
range of things
work," including u!
health care and
cost, high-(
"We
ative things we say
is broken with
can be done and
done," Sherman said.
Bishop's sched
The following activities and events are
schedule of Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger.
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