| Photo by Elianna Gill on Unsplash
Perhaps our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, can begin discussing, after today, Easter Sunday of 2026, the socioeconomic resurrection of the poorest Catholic parish congregations. It can start in the Third World.
The invasion of Iran by Israel and the United States makes it more imperative that leaders of the world’s major religions, beginning with the Vatican, start back-to-basics moves for their poor and marginalized congregations. Such as food production, especially in impoverished rural areas, so that they can also do other steps in replacing, for instance, petroleum-based fertilizer with organic mulch from compost-pit operations.
And other simple agriculture-based moves, as if the crude-oil-based Industrial Revolution never happened. Perhaps, Christians must remember that their Redeemer started a revolutionary religious movement with fishermen. This led to the saying that if people experiencing poverty were to be taught how to fish, they would never go hungry again.
On October 31, 2021, this columnist discussed the topic, “God’s Chosen People Must Perhaps Reinvent Their Church,” which readers may browse at this link.
The article stressed the message: Visualize a church that does not build a (new) cathedral for worship. But it constructs a “Cathedral of Learning” and/or “Cathedral of Baseball and Other Sports” and/or a “Cathedral of Medicine” (that houses schools of medicine, nursing, and other science courses, a research-and-development center, and a general hospital with specialized clinics for particular diseases like cancer).
A church must minister to save its members’ souls and help them become socioeconomically empowered (in their earthly lives). Or if not interdependent with each other, because a church should work and support its members. Yes, assist church members in reaching heaven as a reward upon their death. But help them ensure that their present existence on Earth does not amount to an “economic purgatory,” a term this writer coined in 1988.
To be socioeconomically independent, which is respectfully suggested for every church member, ought to belong to a cooperative. And the co-op can engage in commerce, manufacturing, distribution, or any other business venture. It means that through a cooperative (co-op) system, health-maintenance organization (HMO), credit union, insurance, and investment institutions can provide almost all church members’ needs. It should remedy the primary defect of Capitalism, which is the lack of capital (or venture capital) among people with low incomes and even among the middle class.
What if the Iran War were to become like the 20-year-long invasion of Afghanistan? It may also be dubbed a “Forever War”. Thus, the need for “pastoral cooperatives”, which follow the tenets of Cooperative Economics. As discussed in this column last Holy Wednesday, the example of parishioners helping ailing fellow members of Mother Teresa Church’s congregation in Cary, North Carolina, could be copied globally. It can also be a template for addressing poverty and other socioeconomic needs of congregations in the Third World.
