Jesus said, “The poor you will always have with you” (Matthew 26:11); but who are the poor? According to the U.S. Census, approximately 13 percent of Pennsylvanians live under the poverty line. This is a threshold determined by the Census Bureau to be the minimum income necessary for

The Pennsylvania General Assembly passed its 2018-2019 spending plan a full five days before the constitutional June 30 deadline. Part of this year’s $32.7 billion budget includes $12.5 billion for human services that help the poor – Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance P

There is an oft-repeated parable that goes something like this: One day a group of villagers was working in the fields by a river.  Suddenly someone noticed a baby floating downstream. A woman rushed out and rescued the baby, brought it to shore and cared for it. During the next sever

Every human being enjoys a basic right to be respected, not because of any title, position, prestige, or accomplishment but first of all because we are created in the image and likeness of God. From an ethical and moral perspective we embrace the exhortation of St. Paul “to anti

Americans families were having a difficult time making ends meet before the recession. With continuing unemployment and increasing costs of living, more and more families have to choose between necessities like health care, child care, and even food.

Pennsylvania’s “day of reckoning has come,” announced Governor Tom Corbett with calls for fiscal discipline and no new taxes. On Tuesday, March 8, 2011, the governor unveiled his $27.3 billion spending plan for the Commonwealth’s 2011-2012 fiscal year. The budget proposal represents a

When Pope Benedict XVI said we must be “personally outraged by the injustices in the world” to end the marginalization of the world’s poor, he was issuing a challenge to Catholics everywhere: Let’s put global poverty on the map.

How is the troubled economy affecting our Catholic Charities? Listen to PCC Communications Director Amy Hill interview Mark Totaro, Executive Director of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Harrisburg about how the demand for services are up while donations and government and other

"Feed people dying of hunger, because if you do not feed them you are killing them." Strong words from our early Church fathers. They teach that we are bound to come to the aid of the poor and to do so not merely out of our superfluous goods.

Dipping winter temperatures and rising energy costs have left many in the cold this year. Catholic Charities agencies and the pastors of local parishes are hearing from hundreds of families all across the Commonwealth about the hardships they are experiencing. Agencies are expecting u