Temporal Memory Algorithm

dignity of the human person is the foundation of all Catholic social teaching. The Catholic Social teaching affirms that all persons, even those on the margins of society, have basic human rights: the right to life and to those things that are necessary to the proper development of life, including faith and family, work and education, housing and health care.

According to Pope Leo XIII in his Rerum Novarum: Condition of Labor (1891):

―It‘s the Church's desire that the poor should rise above poverty and wretchedness, and should better their condition in life; and for this it strives (no.23) . Going further on the dignity of the poor, he submitted that: ―when there is a question of protecting the rights of individuals, the poor and helpless have a claim to special consideration. The rich population has many ways of protecting themselves, and stands less in need of help (no.29).

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Vatican 11 Document, "Pastoral Constitution on the Church and the Modern World" - Gaudium et Spes (1965) showed genuine concern for the poor in the following words:

Faced with a world today where so many people are suffering from want, the council asks individuals and governments to remember the saying of the Fathers: "Feed the people dying of hunger, because if you do not feed them you are killing them,"

and it urges them according to their ability to share and dispose of their goods to help others, above all by giving them aid which will enable them to help and develop themselves (no.69).

At its core, the document asserts the fundamental dignity of each human being, and declares the Church's solidarity with both those who suffer, and those who would comfort the suffering: ―The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ (no. 1).

Paul VI in his Populorum Progressio: ―On the development of Peoples‖(1967) opined:

If someone who has the riches of this world sees his brother in need and closes his heart to him, how does the love of God abide in him?‖ (1 John 3:17) It is well known how strong

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were the words used by the Fathers of the Church to describe the proper attitude of persons who possess anything towards persons in need. To quote Saint Ambrose: ―You are not making a gift of your possessions to the poor person. You are handing over to him what is his. For what has been given in common for the use of all, you have arrogated to yourself.

The world is given to all, and not only to the rich. ( no.23).

By way of proffering solution, Paul V1 said that the superfluous wealth of rich countries should be placed at the service of poor nations. Pope John Paul II in his Solicitudo Rei Socialis (1987) taught that:

A consistent theme of Catholic social teaching is the option or love of preference for the poor. Today, this preference has to be expressed in worldwide dimensions, embracing the immense numbers of the hungry, the needy, the homeless, those without medical care, and those without hope (no.42).

Pope John Paul II (1998) in his Lenten Letter taught as well:

The Church continually combats all forms of poverty, because as Mother, she is concerned that each and every person be able to live fully in dignity as a child of God. He exhorts every Christian, in this Lenten season, to evidence his personal conversion through a concrete sign of love towards

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those in need, recognizing in this person the face of Christ and repeating, as if almost face to face: ―I was poor, I was marginalized and you welcomed me (no.38).

Pope Benedict XVI, from his own point of view in his Caritas in Veritate (2009), expressed concern for the poor in these words:

Feed the hungry‘ (cf. Mt 25: 35, 37, 42) is an ethical imperative for the universal Church as she responds to the teachings of her Founder, the Lord Jesus, concerning solidarity and the sharing of goods. Moreover, the elimination of world hunger has also, in the global era, become a requirement for safeguarding the peace and stability of the planet (no.27).

Pope Francis (2013) maintains that:

The times talk to us of so much poverty in the world and this is a scandal. Poverty in the world is a scandal. In a world where there is so much wealth, so many resources to feed everyone, it is unfathomable that there are so many hungry children, that there are so many children without an

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education, so many poor persons. Poverty today is a cry (Words of Pope Francis on Poverty, para. 1).

Again, Pope Francis (2013) in his ―Address to the Food and Agricultural Organization,‖ goes beyond expressing genuine concern to proffering practical and concrete solution to the plight of the poor thus:

A way has to be found to enable everyone to benefit from the fruits of the earth, and not simply to close the gap between the affluent and those who must be satisfied with the crumbs falling from the table, but above all to satisfy the demands of justice, fairness and respect for every human being (Words of Pope Francis on Poverty, para. 3).

The teaching of the catholic Bishops of England and Wales (1996) is very thoughtful, inspiring and revealing. They maintained that people who are poor and vulnerable have a special place in Catholic teaching. According to them, this is what is meant by the preferential option for the poor.

According to ―The Ten Themes of Catholic Social Teaching‖ (2016), the teaching of the Magisterium on the poor and poverty can be summarized thus:

(1) The moral test of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable members.

(2) The poor have the most urgent moral claim on the conscience of the nation.

(3) The "option for the poor," is not an adversarial slogan that pits one group or class against another. Rather it states that the deprivation and powerlessness of

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the poor wounds the whole community. The option for the poor is an essential part of society's effort to achieve the common good.

(4) A healthy community can be achieved only if its members give special attention to those with special needs, to those who are poor and on the margins of society.