Social Service directors take message to Congress
Washington, DC - Though sharply polarized by election year politics, Capitol Hill swallowed a healthy draft of non-partisan Catholic social teaching Feb. 28.
Nearly 300 peace and justice, Catholic Charities and social service directors from the nation's Catholic dioceses visited their Senators and Congresspersons as part of a three-day annual Social Ministry Gathering of the U.S. Bishops' Department of Social Development and World Peace. CTA staff attended. The "Catholic Message for Congress" -- a two-sided "blue sheet" delivered to each legislator -- headlined the Church's election year priorities for Congress in a few words: "Put the needs of vulnerable children and poor families first in your decisions both at home and abroad."
Department Director John Carr opened the meeting of the U.S. Church's social justice professionals with an analysis of the political climate as presidential primary races heated up and Congress returned from its February recess. How wide is the spectrum of presidential candidates, he asked? "About the only thing Pat Buchanan and Bill Clinton have in common," quipped Carr, "is that they were both educated by the Jesuits." Carr said that partisan gamesmanship in both the Clinton White House and the Dole-Gingrich Congress since the 1994 elections had made for "more bumper-stickers and sound-bites than real dialogue." But he praised his fellow Catholic activists for the consistency of their social message, regardless of which party is in power. "What we are trying to do right now, both with the administration and the Congress, is limit the damage in the short run, but increase our credibility to affect the debate in the long run."
Limiting the damage in 1995 meant successfully urging Clinton to veto the welfare reform package, explained Nancy Wisdo, Carr's chief of domestic policy issues. "But tell your legislators we are not apologists for the status quo," she said. "We do want welfare reform, but not abandonment. Simply ending entitlements, reducing resources and reallocating responsibilities is not real reform."
With the 1996 federal budget still up for grabs half way into FY 96, the "blue sheet" focussed on two budget goals: protecting Medicaid as an entitlement for the poor, and shoring up the Earned Income Tax Credit, an essential help to working families. Both are in jeopardy in budget-cut negotiations.
What to tell lawmakers
Catholic Charities USA chief lobbyist Sharon Daly reminded her diocesan counterparts that they have unique credibility on such issues when they visit Congress. "You are the Catholic Church -- the largest nongovernmental human service system in the country," she said. "You deal with poor families every day in your Congressperson's home district." She urged them to spell out how federal budget cuts would impact their soup kitchens, shelters and social programs.
Not all encounters with legislators were in Capitol offices. Three U.S. Senators came to address the USCC meeting because they share a concern that public policy take care of "the least among us."
Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan (D.- NY) gave an empassioned plea that AFDC grants not lop off defenseless children without support services. In the 1960s we closed mental health institutions and sent their residents into the community, but we never built enough community mental health centers. By the 1970s we woke up startled to find homeless schizophrenics living in doorways. "If the proposed five-year cutoffs of AFDC get passed, in the year 2001 we will wake up to the tragedy of over three million more kids homeless on our streets. Please God we won't let that happen." Sen. Daniel Coats (R.-IN) told the group about his proposal for dollar-for-dollar income tax credits for charitable donations to non-profits that serve the poor. A conservative Protestant, Coats is distancing himself from segments of the Religious Right who supported him early on.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D.-VT) appeared to celebrate recent passage of his bill for a moratorium on land mines. Each year worldwide 26,000 people are killed or maimed by land mines, most of them made and sold by the U.S. Leahy said the moratorium was considered a sure failure last summer. Its passage in the fall was mainly due to extraordinary lobbying by the bishops and the Catholic community.
AFL-CIO's Sweeney hails religion-labor partnership
Another speaker with a lifetime commitment to Catholic social thought was John Sweeney, the newly elected president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. A veteran of USCC domestic policy committees, the four-term president of the Service Employees International Union recalled growing up as son of a Bronx, NY bus driver, and learning that family, the Church and the union had worked together to help immigrants improve their lives. "But since 1979," said Sweeney, "U.S. companies' productivity has risen 24 percent, but workers' earnings, in real dollars, have declined 12 percent." The new wealth has gone to corporate profits, executive salaries, and making the rich richer, he said, fueling a dangerous climate of economic conflict. Then came the 104th Congress to shred the safety net.
Sweeney called unions to continuous self-reform, and predicted a new springtime for union organizing around the slogan, "America needs a raise." He urged a return to "the traditional compact among labor, business and government." He also pleaded for the Church to take up its historic role of supporting labor unions in their ability to strike.
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