Jesuit Father Fred Kammer’s message is about justice, about Christians putting themselves on the line for the poor.

The president of Catholic Charities USA delivered this message to more 200 people who attended a March 4 conference at St. James Parish in Davis. The theme of the event, sponsored by the Diocese of Sacramento as part of its celebration of Jubilee 2000, was “Standing with the Poor: From Charity to Justice.”

Referencing texts from the Old and New Testaments, Father Kammer presented a kind of litmus test for membership in the church community in the jubilee year.

“We can’t preach the Gospel in the early 21st century without doing justice,” he contended.

He said a blueprint of who God wants people to be as individuals and as community in relationship to God is detailed in the biblical stories of creation.

“God reveals to us that we are good, that we ought to be stewards of the earth and that we are community with one another,” he said.

Jesuit Father Fred Kammer, president of Catholic Charities USA, challenged more than 200 people to take a stand for the poor at a Jubilee 2000 event in Davis. Nancy Westlund/Herald photo

How does this play out in everyday life? A native of New Orleans, Father Kammer treated his audience to a “down-home understanding” of ways Christians might activate social justice principles. They have to reach out to all the people struggling in poverty, waiting to “get their community back.”

“If the poor are as good as we are, why do their kids arrive at pre-school already two years behind their classmates, with bad health care and malnourished?” Father Kammer asked. “And if we’re really stewards of the earth, why do some have no house to live in and a place outside community because of the color of their skin?”

Standing for the poor, he stressed, tests the fundamentals of the Catholic faith tradition and calls on Catholics to love as God does. It requires nothing less than living out the “parable of the good shepherd.”

“When Jesus says the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep, he means it,” Father Kammer said. “When we think about the Christian responsibility for justice, it’s the personal outreach to people in need, putting ourselves on the line for the poor.”

Priscilla High, coordinator of the St. James Parish’s social justice committee, said the conference inspired members of the Davis parish community to action.

“We’re going to be doing what Father Kammer urged, to make personal contact with the poor so they become real people, to put a face on the poor by mixing our lives with theirs through service,” she said.

For David and Jan Travins, members of St. Thomas More Parish in Paradise, the social justice event was an opportunity to enrich their faith lives.

“We came away with a sense that God is present in the midst of the poor and to know God, we have to know the poor,” Jan Travins said.

This was Father Kammer’s second visit to the Sacramento Diocese in two years. In February 1998, Father Kammer was present for a series of meetings with Catholic social service agencies in Sacramento, Redding and Vallejo to discuss challenges posed by welfare restructuring and Catholic Charities’ plans to fund social service programs in the 21st century.

[Catholic Herald - This Issue]