Catholics and other Christians advocate for support of worldwide hunger programs

Catholics and other Christians from across central and southern Indiana pose on June 5 in the Indianapolis office of Sen. Todd Young with letters from their faith communities advocating for support of federal hunger programs. The letters were part of the annual “Offering of Letters” sponsored by Bread for the World, an ecumenical organization that seeks to end hunger in the U.S. and abroad. (Submitted photo)

By Sean Gallagher

As Congress returned from its Labor Day recess, one of the many items on its agenda was consideration of a federal budget proposed earlier this year by President Donald J. Trump which calls for significant cuts to several social safety net programs.

Earlier this summer, Catholics and other Christians across central and southern Indiana expressed their concern about the proposed cuts, especially to programs aimed at fighting hunger in this country, in more than 3,600 letters delivered to the offices of senators and representatives from throughout the state.

This annual “Offering of Letters” is a program sponsored by Bread for the World, a Washington-based ecumenical organization that seeks to end hunger in the U.S. and abroad.

Charles Gardner, a member of Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ Parish in Indianapolis, has long been involved with Bread for the World and helped to coordinate this year’s local effort in the Offering of Letters.

“It’s an opportunity to show ecumenical cooperation in a concrete way,” he said.

Twelve parishes in Bloomington, Columbus, Indianapolis and Terre Haute, as well as the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, joined 26 other Christian congregations from across the region in participating in the program this year.

Gardner said that it is appropriate that Catholics work to bring Christians together in this kind of advocacy for the common good.

“We’re supposed to be pretty good at gathering people under the same tent,” he said. “That’s supposed to be one of the things we do. We can be instruments of gathering.”

Father Rick Ginther, director of the archdiocesan Office of Ecumenism and pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Indianapolis, said that this kind of effort is a way to involve all the faithful in the work of promoting Christian unity.

“This is where ecumenism really takes place for most people,” he said. “We can stand together with a common belief rooted in the Gospel. We can do something that the Gospel calls us to. That’s the way that you build a relationship.

“And then you find ways to talk to each other about what you believe and it’s much less threatening.”

Whether or not the letters delivered to Hoosier legislators will have an effect on their consideration of the proposed budget is ultimately not important to Gardner.

“We do this, first of all, to be faithful and second of all, to be successful” Gardner said. “We do this because this is what it means to be a follower of Christ.

“It’s just part of living out my faith. It’s encouraging to me and my faith to see people who might not be of my tradition who share this passion for trying to be the face of Christ in the world in their own way.”
 

(To learn more about Bread for the World, visit www.bread.org. To learn more about how to be involved locally in the Offering of Letters, contact Charles Gardner at gardner1947@gmail.com.) †