The need to address poverty has been emphasized by Pope Benedict XVI in recent weeks.

Just last week he remarked, “The disparity between rich and poor is becoming more evident and disturbing, even within economically advanced nations.” He said this “worrying situation calls on the conscience of humanity because the condition in which a great number of people live offends the dignity of the human person.”

As to what is needed, Pope Benedict, in a talk in late September, pointed to St. John Chrysostom as a model for Christian action. St. John Chrysostom was a fourth-century doctor of the church and one of the forefathers of the church’s social teachings.

“Chrysostom realized that it is not enough to give alms, to help the poor sporadically,” the pope said, “but it is necessary to create a new structure, a new model of society; a model based on the outlook of the New Testament.”

Pope Benedict’s emphasis on reducing poverty by overhauling social structures resonates in the new pastoral letter on work and justice published recently by the Catholic bishops of Kentucky. The pastoral — signed by Louisville Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz and the other three bishops of the state — calls for addressing “structural injustices” that affect the lives of many Kentuckians.

The pastoral honors the value of work by Kentuckians, but it also calls attention to four areas of “structural injustices” in the state. They are poverty, health care, immigration reform and the need for state revenue to address human needs.

Poverty is identified as one of the state’s “most compelling problems.” The pastoral notes that Kentucky’s poverty rate was higher than the national rate between 2004 and 2006, and in some counties in Appalachia 20 or more percent of the residents live in poverty.

Poverty is highest in Kentucky among children and female heads of households with children, the pastoral says. According to the recent U.S. Census Bureau report, 22 percent of Kentucky’s children live in poverty. That’s more than one of every five children in the state.

The state’s bishops also echoed what Pope Benedict said about the “disturbing” disparity between the rich and poor. “The economic uncertainty and the ever-widening income inequality and volatility of so many of our neighbors rise to the top of the list of concerns,” the bishops write.

The growth in inequality and the fact that income growth in Kentucky is concentrated in the top 5 percent of the overall income distribution is “profoundly disturbing,” says the pastoral. “This gap suggests that the economic growth experienced over the past five years is not widely distributed among the population.”

What can be done to address this?

Labor economists cite the need to improve the skills of Kentucky children and displaced adults and for “adequate income supports,” the pastoral says. These income supports include improvements in early childhood care and education, unemployment insurance, food stamp assistance, workers’ compensation, disability insurance, job training and wages.

Also, the bishops recommend adoption of a refundable state income tax credit to “assist our poorest workers” and expansion of individual development accounts to “encourage persons with low incomes to build wealth through savings.”

And to address the fact that many Kentucky children and working adults do not have health-care insurance, the pastoral says the time is “now” to focus on “achieving universal care.”

A key component in tackling such an expansive agenda is the need for additional state revenue to fund human needs, the pastoral says. This calls for “adjustments to the methods” that state revenue is raised, the bishops write, and “ ‘a system of taxation based on justice and equity’ ” in which “ ‘the burdens be proportionate to the capacity of the people contributing.’ ”

In citing the challenges facing the state, the bishops appeal to Kentuckians to join with them in this “important work of justice.” They note that the Catholic Church’s social justice teaching “expresses our abiding responsibility to others, ... in being neighbor to those in need and in building a more just social order.”

This also was underscored by Pope Benedict when he said that people have a responsibility to others and a duty to act in solidarity in helping those in need.