Thorghout history and still today there have been people who are unfortunate in the waorld. This will always be the case until the second coming of christ. That is why this issue is so profound today. Although this problem is not totally able to be fixed it should be as limited as possible. We should do all we can in order to help those less fortunate them us. This issue is so important that it is one of the seven pillars of ctholilc social justice. These are seven ideas that the church says you should think about and do in your everyday life. Out of those seven three of them have to do with the poor and therefore it must be important.
Many people and programs throughout history have taken up this call to help the poor and to try and limit those people considered poor. People such as mother theresa and Dorothy Day are two of these people who have taken up th call. In many of Day's works she talks of helping the poor. Reflections on Works, Where Are the Poor?, and Beyond Politics are three such works she has done. She constantly repeats in these works the importance of seeing the poor in your midst. And once you have noticed them then you must do something about it.
Mother Theresa showed an example of how to help the poor. This does not mean you have to do what she did and give up all your possesions and move to Africa to help the people there. What people have to take from her example is the heart she had. People can take that heart and help out with the organizations they have in the United States. Some of these are The United Way and The Catholic-Labor network. The idea and inspiration is what counts. It would be really helpful for everyperson to help out any of the good organization such as the ones listed above to help the poverty in the world.

Ben Hernly

One of the themes of Catholic social teaching is to care for the poor and vulnerable. Pope Gregory was highly concerned about those less fortunate than himself. The Church tells us to care for these and all people as God cares for us. Pope Gregory tried to do just that. He gave as much time and care as he could toward helping those he thought needed the most help. He called us out, wanting us to do the same, to take action and work toward helping others. God wants us to love others as much as we love Him, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We must strive to be the best person we can be, loving and caring as much as we possibly can, and the Church tells us that those less fortunate deserve a certain amount of love that Pope Gregory recognized.

Pope Gredory was a great supported of the poor. In His way we need to do the same. The church teaches us to care for the poor and do what ever we can to help the less fortunate. When we help the poor that doesnt always mean the poor in physical stuff. It also means we need to help out the poor in spirit and the poor in faith. If someone is feeling down we should show compassion and help out. If someone has lost faith we should get them to a church and let them regain their faith. Pope Gregory was a great example of a man that did all he could to help out the less fortunate, but you don't have to be a Pope to do good in the world. You just have to go out and if u see someone in need put them in front of yourself.

Pope Gregory

What makes this statement so profound is that it calls us to service and action, which summarizes the first semester of our religion class. We have studied social injustices across the world, the conditions that created those injustices and the people who dedicated their lives to aiding the oppressed. We are called to aid those that are not as fortunate as us; one of the pillars of Catholic Social Justice is to help the poor, the oppressed and the vulnerable. We pay a debt to others when we aid them. Our present position from life, free from the basic wants of food and shelter, is a gift from God. (Job 1:21) We are warned in the Bible not to become complacent in our place in life; we are not guaranteed another day of life, let alone enough food to eat or a place to sleep. The wealth and accolades that we earn in this life are temporal, nontransferable from this life to the next. By aiding others we become good stewards of the wealth and responsibility that He has placed in our hands; helping those that are not as fortunate as we are. (Luke 12:15-34)
In conclusion, we are called to love others more than we love ourselves. Everything we have is a gift that God has decided to bestow upon us. We obey His commands when we aid the suffering that surround us. (Mathew 22:36-40)

Kevan O'Rear

Response by Kylie Elliott

Pope Gregory's statement mirrors the Church's love for the poor. God states that we must cater to the poor's needs and wants because we shall be separated from Him if we fail to do so. It is our duty to do as much as we possibly can to help the less fortunate not only because its God's will, but because the poor have been entrusted to us. We know that poverty will never be completely gone until the return of Christ, but until then we are to do as much as we can to serve God and help his people.
The Church also realizes that when He speaks of helping the poor, He does not mean just the materially lacking. He is also referring to the people who are poor in religion and culture. Helping these kinds of poor people may be achieved through missionary work and other forms of activism.
God expects us to help the needy and impoverished because we have received his love without pay, now it is our jobs as Christians to give without pay. It is through the Church's teachings that we learn to give to our communities with many works of charity and spiritual mercy. Including in those works of charity would be giving to the poor.
There is an immense relationship between charity and justice, as stated in Pope Gregory's quote. What we give to the poor almost cannot be considered charity because it is just as much their's as it is our's through God. Therefore when we offer charity is should not be presented as a gift, but rather as a reinstatement of justice. Doing this is the only way the duty may be fulfilled correctly.

Kayla Wilmoth

The document is stating that we should treat the poor with the same love that wehave for God. it teaches the people who are so caught up in themselves to help others as God does. This document also states that if we all come to Christ as one he will return for us. It teaches us not to get caught up in worldy wants but to turn to God. He is the one that we need and should want. For the people who are to interested in their other wants God will wait until they realize that they need him.

Poe Gregory Response-Aravind Reddy

This statement by Pope Gregory is very true because by performing acts of mercy, we do pay a debt that we owe to social justice. I think that this statement is so profound because it reaches out to the hearts of people and tells them the true meaning of following in God’s way. The Catholic Church states that The Option for the Poor and Vulnerable is “A basic moral test is how our most vulnerable members are faring. In a society marred by deepening divisions between rich and poor, our tradition recalls the story of the Last Judgment (Mt 25:31-46) and instructs us to put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first.“ That follows exactly what the quote by Pope Gregory states. We are instructed to put the needs of the poor and the vulnerable first just as Jesus was instructed by god to sacrifice himself to allow us to go to heaven. Gandhi, one of the forefront leaders of Social Justice, did also his acts of selflessness and peace not for his own needs, but for the entire country of India. Even Dorothy Dix was spent the entire fighting for justice and we should all follow in her path. Nelson Mandela was another that provided a beacon for the continuation of social justice. The Bible itself tells us as Catholic followers to end poverty and put the poor and the vulnerable first. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church also proves this point because it says that the “poor remain entrusted to us and it is the responsibility upon which we shall be judged at the end of time.” This statement says that is our responsibility to take of the poor and vulnerable until Jesus Christ returns and rids us of poverty forever. Jesus himself says “You always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.” We then must take the responsibility of taking care of the poor. Some people have the money to take of the poor, but their own selfishness prevents them from doing the right thing and in turn falling or their own wants and desires. We can do this by taking our time off wars and constant violence and starting spreading this wasted time to the poor and other ideas that will provide for a better community. That is what The Seven pillars of Justice is telling us to do and as catholic people, we should follow it. My opinion and others will help end this poverty that Pope Gregory so gladly shared his insight on.