A year ago they came to oppose the shredding of the welfare safety net under America's poor. This year the net is in tatters, and they came to repair it.

Nearly 300 peace and justice, Catholic Charities and social service directors from the nation's Catholic dioceses visited their Senators and Congresspersons Feb. 25 as part of a three-day annual Social Ministry Gathering of the U.S. Catholic Conference, attended as usual by CTA staff. Their message to Congress about the new welfare law was clear: we opposed its passage because it won't really move most recipients from welfare to work, but now that it is law, we need to control the damage, both at the federal and at the state level.

A dominant Catholic voice in all this is Catholic Charities USA. Representing the Catholic Charities agencies in nearly every diocese that provide social services to millions of the nation's poor, CC/USA lobbies strenuously in Washington on behalf of the poor. A year ago, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D.-N.Y.) complimented CC/USA and the Catholic Church for being the principal voice preventing the Congress from dismantling welfare . Last month conservative Catholic Sen. Rick Santorum delivered the same compliment, backhanded, in a blistering attack on Catholic Charities for being "the most effective opponent" of the welfare bill he sponsored.

Chief Washington lobbyist for CC/USA is Sharon Daly. She addressed the USCC gathering about the current welfare picture, and later discussed it with CTA News.

At the federal level, the aim is to restore in the next budget some of the devastating cuts that hurt the poor. CC/USA and Catholic social ministries support Clinton's budget, for example, where it would restore $17 billion of the $56 billion cut from the Food Stamp Program, and would return supplemental security income (SSI) and food stamps to 500,000 legal immigrants who are elderly and disabled and cannot work. Daly said, "One of our greatest fears is a rash of suicides among the very old and disabled immigrants who are left without any source of income or medical care."

But Daly paid tribute to the thousands of Catholics, including CTAers: "Your efforts last summer helped keep a tragic welfare law from being even worse. Thanks to all of you, many of the worst scenarios are left as options for state governments, not federal requirements."

At the state level, state governments have until July 1 to file their new welfare plans, so the picture is still uncertain. But there are some early signs, Daly said, that state governments are choosing options that are more sensitive to the poor. For example, only 19 states have opted for a "family cap" that denies cash assistance for a child born to a mother already on welfare. No state so far has elected to exclude children born to teenage mothers. Only two plan to impose drug testing on aid recipients. Giving cash assistance to legal immigrants is a state option: 36 states say they will do so. On jobs creation, 27 states say they will subsidize development of real jobs, not just workfare.

But the prospects for poor children and families are still terribly bleak. More lobbying is urgently needed, both in Washington and in state capitals.

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