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313 Chapter 13 Fighting Poverty Besides trying to save the family farm, the NCRLC made efforts to aid the least fortunate of those living on the land. The United States had pockets of rural poverty in areas such as Appalachia as well as poor farmers who did not own land—the migrant farm workers. Rural minorities such as African Americans and Native Americans were also suffering. The Conference began to focus on these problems in the 1960s under Father O’Rourke. It continued its concern for alleviating poverty through the end of the century , following the American bishops who in the economic pastoral Economic Justice for All (1986) spoke of a “fundamental option for the poor.”1 When O’Rourke became executive director in 1960, the United States and the Catholic Church were entering into a decade of change and reform . As he reminisced more than two decades later, “Those were very interesting days. See, you have a combination of ideas, which are powerful, and circumstances. This was the decade of hope: We had Pope John XXIII talking on hope and the Church, we had John Kennedy talking about hope and the civil society, and we believed it—we totally believed it right away.” O’Rourke led the NCRLC into full participation in the reform movements of the 1960s. Early in his administration, he proposed that the Conference promote “a vigorous program for Christian social action in rural affairs.”2 Joining the War on Poverty The aspect of O’Rourke’s program most in tune with the spirit of the 1960s was its participation in rural antipoverty programs. When President Lyndon Johnson declared an “unconditional war on poverty” in his 1964 State of the Union address, the NCRLC pledged its “vigorous cooperation.” It 1. National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Economic Justice for All, section 87. 2. Transcript of tape, “Bishop Edward W. O’Rourke, Interviewed by David S. Bovee,” 9; “Report of the Executive Director—Edward W. O’Rourke,” in “Executive Committee Meeting, Milwaukee , Wis., Jan. 16–17, 1961,” NCRLC 8-18, Exhibit C. 314 The Church and the Land supported such War on Poverty programs as rural areas development, vocational training for rural youth, stabilizing migrant farm workers, fostering cooperatives, and promoting the civil rights of minority groups. It gave especially strong support to basic War on Poverty programs like food stamps and welfare. In urging support for food stamps, Monsignor Ligutti wrote in 1959: “Hunger and dietary inadequacies among so many U.S. citizens are a scandal on a nation blessed with abundance such as ours.” And in the 1970s, the Conference supported welfare programs that guaranteed a minimum income and improved health conditions.3 But NCRLC officials—especially O’Rourke—were skeptical about poverty programs imposed from above. For example, in 1965, O’Rourke emphasized the need for individual solutions to the unique local circumstances of poverty. And five years later, he criticized current welfare programs for encouraging dependence on government and the breakup of families. He urged support for President Nixon’s welfare reform package, which would provide incentives for poor families to work rather than receive welfare and encourage families to stay together.4 The Conference always favored antipoverty programs in which aid was provided by private groups or individuals suited to the local circumstances of the poor or in which the poor were helped to help themselves. It supported the formation of the VISTA program of volunteers to serve the poor in the United States—Father Vizzard thought it would provide needed aid on Indian reservations and to migrant workers as well as in city slums. It urged its members to join antipoverty programs in their own rural communities.5 The NCRLC cooperated with various other groups in promoting antipoverty programs. In 1964, it joined about five hundred other organizations in the Crusade Against Poverty, which proposed to work with the government in the War on Poverty and civil rights arenas. At the same time Vizzard worked within the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) to prepare the STEP program—Solutions to Employment Problems . Vizzard was chairman of NAM’s Clerical Advisory Council, which, 3. Executive Committee Resolution, “War on Poverty” (1964), in “Poverty—The War Against,” NCRLC 8A-1; “Telegram to Congress,” Catholic Rural Life 8 (September 1959): 23; Stephen E. Bossi, “Washington Farm Front,” ibid. 20 (May 1971): 10. 4. Edward W. O’Rourke, “Causes and Cures of Poverty,” Catholic Rural Life 14 (April 1965): 2; O’Rourke, “Washington Farm Front,” ibid. 19...

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