USCCB - Global Poverty | Issues

Peace, Conflict and our Catholic Response

What is the issue?
Poverty creates the conditions for violence, and violence creates poverty. 73 percent of the poorest billion people in the world have lived through a violent conflict, or are embroiled in conflict now. Research has shown that the higher the poverty rate and the longer economic stagnation persists in a country the more prone it is to conflict. Poverty breeds hopelessness and frustration among people and makes them, especially the young and unemployed, more vulnerable to calls for violence. Significant inequalities, especially between ethnic, religious or regionally-identified groups, greatly increase the risk of violence.

Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding
Poverty creates the conditions for violence, while conflict increases poverty. In this video, Steve Colecchi, Director of International Justice and Peace at USCCB, shares how the Church is working both to help end current conflicts and aid their victims and to create the conditions of justice needed for a more peaceful world.

How does conflict affect real people?

Photo by CRS Staff

Raneen Qumsieh (left) and Mariam Syriani (right) live in Bethlehem in the West Bank.

Many children in the Holy Land have acutely felt the impact of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Having lost friends and family members due to the violence, and growing up in a constant state of insecurity and tension, these children often experience hopelessness and frustration.

Fortunately for them, Raneen and Mariam are part of a CRS program that engages students and their parents in coming up with their own solutions to issues affecting their communities.

Efforts such as these are an important step toward establishing a viable Palestinian state and ultimately securing long-term peace and stability through a two-state solution.

But many children in conflict situations have no access to such opportunities. Instead, they often live in squalid, overflowing refugee camps, witness or are the victims of abuse, receive little education, and learn anger and hatred that persists for years after a conflict ends.

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