Denver Catholic

4 I OPINION JANUARY 8, 2014 I DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER B. Gaston THE CATHOLIC DIFFERENCE C. Water runs through a channel to the monastery which the monks desalinize and use for irrigation. 2. The tri-color flag of the French Revolution remains the flag of France today. What flag preceded it? GEORGE WEIGEL A. black with a yellow rooster The poorest of the poor B. green with a cluster of grapes C. yellow and white with the fleur de lis BY PETER WESTHOFF 6. Roc Amadour is a shrine to Our Lady found in a 500-foot canyon wall. Amadour, a hermit, built an oratory there near the time of Christ. His incorrupt body was discovered in 1166. What biblical figure is Amadour believed by some to be? A. Zacchaeus B. Simon the Cyrenian 3. What French pastry had its origin from the Siege of ViC. Lazarus "You enna in which the Turks will find assaulted the forces of something more in 7. There are many Christendom? woods than in books. cities with French A. tarte aux pommes Trees and stones will names in the United teach you what you B. croissant States attesting to can never learn from the French missionary C. éclair masters."—St. effort in the New World. Bernard What does the name of 4. From a noble family of Iowa's capital city mean? Burgundy, this Cistercian foundA. for the heavens ed a monastery at Clairvaux and B. the monks was a leading figure of 11th-century European history. C. with mercy French culture from 'Beauty and the Beast' to a Marian shrine A quiz on Catholic things under the patronage of the "Doctor of Prayer," St. Teresa of Avila. For each question there is one right answer, but the answer for one question is "None of the Above." A. Odo B. Benedict 1. The centuries old French fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" teaches that true beauty is found in virtue. What character is contrasted with the Beast to impart this lesson? A. Belle C. Meinrad 5. What happens to the peninsular abbey of Mont St. Michel at high tide? A. It becomes an island. B. The tides ring a set of bells LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 1. B, 2. C (The fleur de lis, or lily flower, became a symbol of the Blessed Mother and of the Trinity and dates to use from the time of King Clovis.) 3. B (The Turks' symbol on their flag was a crescent. Croissant means "crescent" and was created in celebration of Christendom's victory.) 4. None of the Above - St. Bernard of Clairvaux. 5. A, 6. A, 7. B Pope Francis has ignited a useful and necessary conversation about our responsibilities to the poorest of the poor–those who some may be tempted to write out of the script of history as hopeless cases. That conversation would be enhanced if participants in it took a close look at Paul Collier's suggestive book, "The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It" (Oxford University Press). Collier shares the Holy Father's passion for the well-being of the poorest of the poor. As he wrote, "I have a little boy who is six. I do not want him to grow up in a world with a vast running sore–a billion people stuck in desperate conditions alongside unprecedented prosperity." The poorest of the poor–the "bottom billion," in Collier's trenchant phrase–should be a challenge to everyone's conscience. Meeting that challenge means getting the facts straight, both about our current circumstances and the best means of fostering prosperity. As for our current circumstances, Collier's book was published in 2007, before financial dislocations shook the world economy, but the basic picture he drew remains valid: there are some 7 billion people on Planet Earth; 1 billion or more of us enjoy unprecedented material prosperity; another 5 billion or so are en route to prosperity, although at different rates and to different degrees; and then there are Pope Francis's "peripheries," the "bottom billion," who live in the 21st century as a matter of chronology but whose reality, Collier wrote, is "the 14th century: civil war, plague, ignorance." On Collier's reading of the data, most of the world's poor are in fact getting not-poor (think of China and India), but the poorest of the poor (think large swaths of Africa) are sliding down a slippery slope to whatever lies beyond destitution. The question, as ever, is: why? The poor who are getting not-poor have, in the main, been incorporated into global systems of production and exchange: sometimes roughly, to be sure, and often unevenly, but where economic growth lifts large numbers of people out of poverty, that growth comes from being part of a global market, not from any other source. By contrast, the poorest of the poor, the outliers of the "bottom billion," are disconnected: disconnected from the global economy and disconnected from the skills and habits necessary to participate in what has become a world market. And why is that? Collier, who studied the varying impacts of development assistance at the World Bank before teaching economics at Oxford, lists four "traps" that hold the "bottom billion" down. There is the "natural resource trap," in which oil, minerals, or other marketable resources make a few oligarchs and politicians rich but deflect a country's attention from pursuing the human and material infrastructure of genuine economic development. There is the "conflict trap," in which countries are destroyed, economically, by civil wars and/or genocides. There is the "bad governance trap," in which corruption and misgovernance waste development aid and make it impossible for investment to flourish (given what amounts to endemic lawlessness). And there is the curse of geography, by which landlocked countries in a bad neighborhood find their commerce and communications strangled. All of which suggests that John Paul II was right when he proposed that the poorest of the poor suffered most from marginalization: from being trapped outside the networks where human economic creativity flourishes, wealth is created, and the poor become not-poor. Providing effective assistance to the "bottom billion" is neither simple nor easy, but it is morally imperative. If getting countries not-poor were just a matter of money, the vast sums that have been spent on development assistance since the era of de-colonization would have done the job. But the job has manifestly not been done. That is no reason to abandon development aid. The challenge is to deploy development aid, and other instruments of foreign policy, more intelligently and strategically, providing immediate assistance to the desperate while helping build public cultures that can sustain productivity, exchange, and prosperity. calling the monks to prayer. C. Maurice LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Inspiring story I really enjoyed your cover story on Brittany Cameron ("Life lesson: God's in charge," Dec. 18 Denver Catholic Register). I recently took a class through my parish, Risen Christ (Denver), where the theme was "trusting God," and to read about a young woman who is living that faith through some trying times was affirming and inspiring. Keep up the good work! Jay L. Clark Centennial PHOTO BY ROBERT X. FOGARTY/DEAR WORLD BRITTANY CAMERON Letters should be no more than 250 words and should include the writer's name, address and telephone number. We rely on our readers to recognize that the opinions expressed in letters to the editor are those of the author and are not necessarily those of the Archdiocese of Denver. Letters containing plainly misstated facts, misinformation or libelous statements will not be printed. Unsigned letters will not be printed. Letters may be edited. Send letters to: Editor, Denver Catholic Register, 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210 or fax to 303-715-2045. E-mail us at: editor@archden.org. OFFICIAL APPOINTMENTS Deacon Cecil Gingerich, from the diocese of Reno, Nev., appointed deacon at St. Peter Parish in Greeley effective Jan. 1, 2014. Deacon Timothy Kenny appointed deacon at St. Thomas More Parish in Centennial effective Jan. 1, 2014. Deacon David Peverley relieved of duties at St. Peter Parish in Greeley and appointed deacon at Blessed John XXIII Parish in Fort Collins effective Jan. 1, 2014. DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER CIRCULATION CUSTOMER SERVICE: 303-722-4687 OR CIRCULATION@ARCHDEN.ORG Published by the Archdiocese of Denver, 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210 General Manager Karna Swanson Denver Catholic Register (USPS 557-020) is published weekly except the last week of December and the first week of January, and in June, July and August when it goes bi-weekly. The Register is printed by Signature Offset in Denver. Periodical postage paid in Denver, CO. Editor Roxanne King Subscriptions: $35 a year in Colorado; $42 per year out of state. 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