ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) — Father Larry Snyder admits it’s a daunting challenge: starting work on cutting the U.S. poverty rate in half by 2020 at a time when thousands of Americans are drowning in debt and organizations that serve the poor are straining to meet their clients’ needs. Not only is Catholic Charities USA, which Father Snyder heads, committed to the goal, but he and the organization are convinced that it’s vital for the country.

On April 20 Catholic Charities hosted the first of 10 summits to be held at sites across the nation in 2009 and 2010 to give social service providers, health care providers, educational leaders and others an opportunity to discuss the needs of the poor in their communities. Catholic Charities plans to use the information to craft anti-poverty legislation that it will propose to Congress next year.

“Our plan is simple,” Father Snyder told more than 100 people gathered at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul. “Earlier in our history,” he said, “Msgr. (John) O’Grady joined with the Roosevelt administration in crafting the New Deal and the largest anti-poverty program in our nation’s history: Social Security. It is time for the New Deal of our time.”