Question

"Every form of externally imposed poverty has at its root a lack of respect for the transcendent dignity of the human person"

What does the quote by Pope Benedict above have to do with the slums of India?

Answer 1

To me, the relation of this quote to the slums of India is that the poverty stricken people of these slums did not get there through any fault of their own, but had poverty "externally imposed" by the social system and their poor treatment in society comes from lack of respect and categorizing them as a lower class of being by the beholder rather than as a living, breathing human being like the rest of us, who have their own hopes and aspirations.