There was in the Saints of Christ never any perceived opposition between the Deposit of Faith and Charity and Mercy, and there never can be.  The Deposit of Faith was always understood to be premised on God’s revelation and to be binding on all Catholics “on the authority of God revealing”. But all of the Church’s dogmas must begin and end in Love —because God is love and wills all good.

Likewise in the revelation of God in Christ there cannot be any overpopulation of human persons, for God’s plan and decrees seek the bread and salvation of all.

CCC+

Love For the Poor

2443 God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them: “Give to him who begs from you, do not refuse him who would borrow from you”; “you received without pay, give without pay.”²³¹ It is by what they have done for the poor that Jesus Christ will recognize his chosen ones.²³² When “the poor have the good news preached to them,” it is the sign of Christ’s presence.²³³

2444 “The Church’s love for the poor . . . is a part of her constant tradition.” This love is inspired by the Gospel of the Beatitudes, of the poverty of Jesus, and of his concern for the poor.²³⁴ Love for the poor is even one of the motives for the duty of working so as to “be able to give to those in need.”²³⁵ It extends not only to material poverty but also to the many forms of cultural and religious poverty.²³⁶

2445 Love for the poor is incompatible with immoderate love of riches or their selfish use:

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have killed the righteous man; he does not resist you.²³⁷

2446 St. John Chrysostom vigorously recalls this:

“Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. the goods we possess are not ours, but theirs.”²³⁸ “The demands of justice must be satisfied first of all; that which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity”:²³⁹

When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice.²⁴⁰

+ Catechism of the Catholic Church