"Brake the Cycle of Poverty"
Paul Lipetzky
Sunday, October 26th, 2003

Good morning, once again, my name is Paul Lipetzky. Thank you for the kind introduction George. I was invited to present the homily this morning because today we are being asked to support the annual appeal for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CHD).

This past summer, 24 other cyclists and I completed the Brake the Cycle Tour, a two month, 3800 mile pilgrimage from San Francisco to Washington D.C. I think Julie Madden and George figured that if I was crazy enough to ride a bicycle across America I would be game for the CHD homily.

Seriously, the Tour was sponsored by CHD and its purpose was to raise awareness of poverty in America and what the Campaign for Human Development is doing about it. Presenting this homily is a continuation of my journey begun in San Francisco.

Our bicycle tour got its name from one of the guiding themes of the CHD – to break the cycle of poverty. We just changed the spelling of “Break” to “Brake” and it fit the cycle.

The tour was organized by Mary Wright the director of education at the national CHD office in Washington DC. Mary is an avid cyclist and happens to be a personal friend of mine. I met her a little over a year ago at a mutual friend’s wedding in Arizona. When she learned that I am a cyclist and a supporter of CHD she simply told me I had to do this Tour. It was not a hard sell, as I have wanted to do a Transamerica bike trip for some time.

For me the bicycle is a metaphor for life. Riding a bike requires balance. Any adult who has experienced the conflicting challenges of life knows the importance of maintaining balance. Bicycle travel is ecologically friendly – it is sustainable! It allows one to experience nature in a more intimate way. On a bicycle you hear the birds sing and call, you hear and smell the cattle, and you feel the warm air and cold rain. Finally, and most importantly, riding a bike is joyful! It takes me back to my youth and the freedom I experienced riding my bike as a child.

However, the Brake the Cycle Tour was designed to be much more than a supported bike tour! Our purpose was to raise awareness of poverty in America and generate positive publicity for CHD. The ride was not geared to the touristic interests of the riders. It was not designed to visit as many National Parks or historic monuments as possible. It was not planned with the comfort of the riders in mind.

For food and shelter we relied on the charity of the people we visited. Each of the 25 riders was responsible for their own expenses including equipment, of which the principal cost for most was their bicycle, transportation to and from the start and end points of the ride. Several riders took unpaid leaves of absence from their jobs. In addition to the out of pocket costs we all gave up two months of our time and related income to complete the tour.

The ride began in San Francisco on June 1st. Bishop Laveda, the Arch of San Francisco, sent us off from the Marina Green with a prayer service and a blessing.

On a typical day we woke before dawn, ate a light breakfast of bagels, cold cereal and fruit then hit the road at sun rise. Our support crew would have a rest stop with refreshments set up every fifteen to twenty miles along our route. We usually had lunch about 10 A.M. and were done riding for the day by early afternoon. On average, we rode more than 60 miles a day.

Most nights we stayed at Catholic Parishes. On arrival we would unload our luggage from the rental truck and set up our sleeping areas, usually on the floor of the parish hall and offices. We were hosted in the homes of parishioners six nights. One night, in Pennsylvania, the Knights of Columbus paid for us to stay in a motel because there was a schedule conflict with their bingo game. A Utah mission parish, without a church or social hall, arranged for us to spend the night in the local National Guard Armory. Quite a few nights were spent tenting or sleeping under the stars in parks or on church grounds.

The members of the host parish usually started showing up about 4 P.M. with food for our supper. We had a tremendous sampling of American home cooking at pot luck suppers from California to Maryland. We were served frijoles, stuffed chilies, tamales, chorizos, peroges, kilbasa, bratwurst, sauerkraut, untold varieties of pasta, as well as the usual hams, fried chicken and baked beans of your typical church pot luck. We even had red, white and blue Jell-O!

One of the real joys of the ride was the out pouring of generous hospitality we received from Christians all across the country and, for me, the freedom to eat as much as I wanted knowing I was burning more calories than I could possibly consume.

Some evenings the church hall would be full of interested people. Other nights only a handful showed up.

After supper we presented a program. We discovered early on that people were curious about us as individuals. So, the program began with each of us giving a short personal introduction and a brief statement about why we were doing the ride or something we had learned while on the ride.

After the introductions, one of our group would give a brief talk about poverty in America and the Campaign for Human Development. If available, a representative of a local CHD funded group would tell their story. Next we would have a small group discussion where in we would ask the parishioners about poverty in their lives and community.

The talk about poverty in America focused on the statistics which since my return have been reported to have gotten worse. According to federal government statistics there are now more than 34.5 million Americans living below the poverty line. That is more than the population of any single state except California. One in six American children lives in poverty. Every 53 minutes an American child dies from causes directly related to poverty.

We talked about our Church’s response to poverty having two steps: charity and justice. We emphasized the need for charity. The soup kitchens, food shelves and homeless shelters of Catholic Charities are saving peoples lives and must be kept going.

However, our mission was to tell people about the Campaign for Human Development, the justice step of our response to poverty. In justice we give people the means to help themselves, to change the structures which create poverty. We acknowledged the sexual abuse scandal and how it has hurt us all. Then we pointed to CHD as something we could be proud of as Catholics. The bishops have been supporting grass roots justice work for over 30 years. CHD gives people the tools to help themselves out of poverty for a life time.

We used the analogy of a place at the table or an empty chair to challenge people to think about who is being excluded from our society. We wanted to link the call to social action with the celebration of the Eucharist. We asked Catholics to think about who is missing form their liturgies, their dinners and their meetings.

From CHD funded groups we heard hundreds of awesome stories of people who are working with great success to break the cycle of poverty. We heard from youth, women, minorities, the homeless, and ex-convicts who are working to get themselves out of poverty.

Several groups, like our own Isaiah, are working for political change by lobbying state and local government. Other groups are working at the grass roots level to improve neighborhoods by cleaning up derelict housing and fighting drug abuse and related street crime. A bunch of welfare moms from Jefferson City Missouri chartered a bus to Crawford Texas where they confronted George W. about welfare reform.

I can share several examples which impressed me.

In California CHD is funding an initiative of Black Churches to reach out to prisoners to help them earn their GED. The program has been so successful in reducing recidivism that State parole officials now require progress toward a GED or equivalent literacy standard as a condition of parole.

The head of the CHD supported Missouri Farmers Union told us of the struggle to form a farmer’s credit union for poor African American farmers in the Boot Heel of Missouri. He has been personally threatened by the KKK for his efforts.

In Canfield, Ohio, a suburb of Youngstown, a young African American exconvict made a presentation to an all white suburban Catholic congregation about his life in prison and how having his writing published in a CHD funded news letter changed his life.

The personal stories of living with poverty which we heard in the small group discussions were inspiring and in some cases frightening. We heard of homeless women and children living in cars and children being placed in foster care because mom had been sent to jail for drunkenness. In Gary Indiana I spoke with the widow of a steel worker. After deducting the cost of medical insurance her monthly union pension was only $8.00.

There were also disappointing stories and responses to our message. Most notable were the rich people who told us there is no poverty in their community or in America. People believe that others are poor because they are lazy or choose poverty as a life style.

A young associate pastor in a Baltimore suburb joined our ride from Baltimore to D.C. Twice he had published a notice in his parish bulletin asking people to join him on the ride. No one called.

One thing I learned on my journey is that there is tremendous spiritual poverty in America. Surveys conducted by CHD have shown that, when asked to list problems facing our society, respondents never bring up poverty. Our media driven, consumer society does not want to know or hear about poverty. It is too troublesome. If we acknowledge it we may have to do something about it; to become involved, to get out of our comfort zone.

I also realized that the cure for my spiritual poverty is working with those who are experiencing physical poverty. I have found meaning and real joy in my life by working with those less fortunate.

The funding for CHD programs comes from us, Catholic parishioners, through the annual appeal. Twenty-five percent of the money we raise here in our diocese remains here and is used to fund local projects. The remaining 75 % goes to the National campaign to be used for grants to community groups across the country. Last year we collected $167,000 in our diocese and local and nationally funded groups in the diocese received $169,000.

St. Joan has always been a generous supporter of CHD. My challenge to each of you today is to increase that support. The needs are growing daily and the resources are dwindling. The director of Catholic Charities in Sacramento CA told us the decline in government spending and the economic downturn have combined to create the perfect storm for the poor in our country.

I can not tell you how much to give but I will ask some suggestions...

• Every 53 minutes a child dies from causes directly related to poverty in America. Could you give $53.00.
• I was away from my wife and family for ten weeks, 70 days. Could you give a dollar a day for each day I gave up the comforts of home, $70.00.
• Could you give a dollar, or some fraction thereof, for each mile that I rode. I rode 3,824 miles on the tour.

I will conclude with a quote from the gospel of Mark which we have been reading these past few Sundays. Jesus said:

“It is easier for a camel to pass thru the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” His disciples were astonished and asked, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.”

Thank You