A lot of things come down to the priorities we place on them, not to the availability of resources to achieve a goal. One example is poverty. Most people — as well as nations — believe that reducing poverty is a worthwhile goal. But the priority we give to working toward this goal is another question.

This was demonstrated recently on two fronts.

At the Vatican, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace said it supports new British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s effort to rally leaders of government, business and faith-based organizations to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of development assistance.

“Some progress has been made in some areas,” the pontifical council said in an Aug. 1 statement, but “governments must continue striving for more. ... The time for simple promises has passed.”

The council noted that when most nations signed the Millennium Development Goals in 2000, they pledged to dedicate the equivalent of 0.7 percent of their gross national product to development assistance.

Now is the time to fulfill this promise, the council said. And the council welcomed the British prime minister’s call for an international summit in 2008 to pressure governments to meet their commitments for reducing poverty and promoting development.

“A new starting point, built upon renewed political will, the mobilization of efforts and resources and the shaping of a true, recognizable and viable global partnership for development, should be welcomed and fostered by everyone,” the pontifical council said.

In other words, a priority should be placed on carrying out the Millennium Development Goals. They include eradicating hunger and poverty, achieving universal primary education, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, and combating AIDS and malaria.

On another front the same day, Aug. 1, Bishop Michael P. Driscoll of Boise, Idaho, called on Catholics and “all people of good will” to eliminate poverty in Idaho. He and others in the state who spoke were responding to a recent report that said 14 percent of Idaho’s population lives in poverty and that 36 percent of the state’s single-parent households with children live in poverty.

“I am here to remind you that in the Catholic tradition, and in the hearts of all people of good will, there is a desire to make sure everyone who needs food has enough to eat, that everyone who needs a place to stay has shelter, and that those who need health care and jobs that allow them to support their families receive those benefits,” said Bishop Driscoll.

To put this in perspective, Idaho is no different from other states in the United States, including Kentucky, with unacceptable poverty rates. This was underscored in a 2007 report by Catholic Charities USA that called for cutting U.S. poverty in half by 2020. The Catholic Charities report said 37 million people — about 12.6 percent of the population — lived below the federal poverty level in the United States in 2006.

Calling poverty a “moral and social wound in the soul of our country,” the Catholic Charities report said we have the resources, experience and knowledge “to virtually eliminate poverty.” But, the report added, “we do not yet have the political will.”

In other words, reducing poverty is not a top priority.

The Catholic Church’s social teaching asks us to make serving the poor a priority. Option for the poor — one of the principles of Catholic social teaching — “recognizes that those with the greatest needs require the greatest response,” says the Kentucky bishops’ pastoral letter on economic justice.

Last Sunday’s Gospel reading from St. Luke, chapter 12, asks us to put our priorities in the right order. St. Luke writes: “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.”

This speaks to both the individual and societal obligation to respond to our brothers and sisters in need — in our state, country and world. The resources to address the needs of the poor are available and plentiful. It’s the priority in using them that is wanting.