The Campaign for Human Development (CHD), launched by the Catholic Church in 1969, has had a significant impact on North American social theology. Originating as an experiment, CHD targeted the poverty-stricken of all ethnic groups and dedicated funds to help them develop social, political and economic opportunities within their communities.

[Editor's note: The author argues that the Campaign for Human Development, founded in 1969, is U.S. Catholicism's most significant and longest social experiment in the 20th century. A postconciliar response to an America in crisis, the campaign is a unique theological resource in the development of an indigenous North American theology. Central ...