In her address, she argued that modern social and governmental structures promote "sexual expressionism," which markets a message of "fear and despair" to the poor, women and minorities.
"The situation is growing increasingly difficult for our least educated Americans, and for our poorest and new immigrant groups," Alvare noted.
When these policies are promoted throughout society, she said, "the rich will do fine, but the poor will go under."
"The poorest citizens don't really seem to be at the top of anybody's political agenda these days," she observed, explaining that the poor are suffering on both an economic and human level from the values that modern society promotes.
Instead of seeking long-term solutions, policy makers try to fix social welfare issues "on the cheap" by promoting contraception, abortion and a message of sexual libertinism to the poor, who "thereafter suffer the highest rates of non-marital births, abortions, sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies."
In contrast, Alvare said, Christian teaching is able to offer a vision of sexuality and social welfare that promotes the flourishing of all persons.
She noted that today, Catholics have a wide variety of tools, such as Blessed Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body and decades of experience and social science research "that show what really promotes the flourishing of women, men and children."