CAMPAIGN FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: CHURCH INVOLVEMENT IN SOCIAL CHANGE.

This paper considers the issue of church involvement in social justice actions. The question addressed is whether the church can involve itself in social action without losing the support of church members. In this paper I have examined the church membership support of the Campaign for Human Development the Catholic church's education-action program which, especially through its grant-making program, concretely addresses the issue of poverty and powerlessness. This study shows that in spite of the very sensitive and sometimes controversial issues confronted by the Campaign, the church membership has not withdrawn its support of the program. On the contrary, over the past three years membership contributions to the Campaign have risen at a rate of about 22 percent nationally. The findings in this paper also suggest that the annual rate of increase in membership support is even greater in those areas where the local church-diocese, parish, or clergy-have been more visibly involved in the justice education or funding activities of the Campaign for Human Development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]