Skip to Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life Full Site Menu Skip to main content
President Barack Obama speaks at a National Leadership Convening on poverty in May 2015.

Poverty

Overcoming poverty in the richest nation on earth is a moral imperative and urgent national priority. Poverty has economic, political, cultural, and spiritual dimensions. These dialogues explore the human and moral costs of poverty and how people with differing political, ideological, and religious perspectives can work together to lift people out of poverty in the United States and internationally.

Events

Workers installing a green roof with vegetation.
Nov
12
2025

Building an Economy for the Common Good:

Catholic social teaching emphasizes that the economy is meant to serve people, not the other way around. Early in his pontificate, Pope Francis warned that an “idolatry of money” threatens to “devour everything which stands in the way of increased profits,” with the environment and vulnerable…

Videos

Human Costs of Abandoning U.S. Help Around the World (Video)

March 13, 2025

Duration: 1 hour 4 minutes

Promoting a Consistent Ethic of Life (Video)

January 16, 2024

Duration: 1 hour 5 minutes

Whatever Happened to Matthew 25? (Video)

May 31, 2023

Duration: 1 hour 14 minutes