So You Say You Love the Poor... Name Them
By Nicolo Orozco (COL'19)
As we pulled our van off the interstate onto a bumpy Camden, New Jersey road I first noticed the crumbling homes. In some neighborhoods, the properties in the best condition were the abandoned, boarded-up ones, which stood in stark contrast to the crumbling piles of brick and corrugated metal that were all that remained of some structures. A tally by the city numbers the abandoned homes well above 800.
So you say you love the poor. . . Name them.
Camden has been labeled one of the most dangerous cities in America and has frequently been ranked among the poorest. Through my class, The Latin Church Doing Justice, I was given the opportunity to participate in a justice immersion trip in Camden under the leadership of Fr. Charlie Gonzalez. After months of learning in the classroom about the way the church serves some of the most vulnerable in society and the challenges it faces while doing so, we had set off from Georgetown to Camden to take part in the work and witness these challenges firsthand. As we walked into the Romero Center, we were greeted by a message painted on the wall in the main room, “So you say you love the poor. . . name them.” This message shaped the theme and mission of the weekend, which was to get to know the poor which we so hastily discussed in Healy Hall hundreds of miles away.
Throughout our weekend, we were privileged with the opportunity to meet community advocates and volunteers who committed their lives to loving and serving Camden. One community advocate discussed how she did not realize that Camden was a community that faced such adversity when she first moved there. Instead of labeling Camden a struggling city, she saw it as a strategizing city. She worked to improve Camden through community advocacy for stronger social service programs and community improvement projects. Similarly, a Jesuit Volunteer Corps team in Camden discussed their involvement in and love for Camden. They happily live in Camden and do their best to be involved in the community outside of their assigned service, living out the call to love and know the poor.
La opción preferencial por el pobre es evangelio puro.
Romero Center Ministries works in Camden to live out Catholic social teaching’s preferential option for the poor and vulnerable. Described in Catholic Social Thought, by serving the poor we are, in fact, serving our Lord Jesus, which is made clear in the Gospel of Matthew when Jesus says, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40). A quote from the martyred Blessed Archbishop Oscar Romero hangs beneath his portrait in the Romero Center, “La opción preferencial por el pobre es evangelio puro.” This was a guiding principle of Romero’s work in El Salvador as he sought to advocate for the poor, which ultimately led to his martyrdom at the hands of those in power. Archbishop Romero’s work some 40 years ago is not all that different from the work of community advocates and volunteers in Camden today.
When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.
In El Salvador, there were people who benefitted from the poor being poor, and in Camden, as well, there are people who benefit from the poor being poor. A Camden community advocate said, “Poverty benefits someone. Someone in jail benefits someone. Ignorance benefits someone. . . Every evil benefits someone, and we need to ask ourselves who that person benefiting is.” As Catholics, we must question who benefits institutionally from the poor being poor and combat these institutions that perpetuate poverty. The University of Notre Dame’s University Center for Social Concerns notes, “As followers of Christ, we are challenged to make a preferential option for the poor, namely, to create conditions for marginalized voices to be heard, to defend the defenseless, and to assess lifestyles, policies and social institutions in terms of their impact on the poor.” Just as we historically question the oppression of the masses in El Salvador 40 years ago, let us be cognizant of the actions of Blessed Archbishop Oscar Romero and not be afraid to advocate for the poor in Camden, New Jersey and all the world today.
Nicolo Orozco is a junior in the College (C'19) studying psychology and education.