St. Patrick's Legislative
Advocacy Network is a newly-formed group of Parish Members whose purpose is to promote
local, state, and national legislation that supports Catholic Social Teaching.
Catholic Social Teaching calls us to bring about a fairer distribution of our resources,
such as our tax dollars, so that hunger, homelessness, the economy, and other pro-life
issues can be addressed and suffering reduced. Jesus calls us to be responsible
stewards of God's gifts, using them wisely and sharing them justly and
compassionately. The Catholic Church has a long and proud tradition of Christian
stewardship that we wish to build upon by exercising our right and responsibility, as
citizens of a democracy, to promote just laws.
How do we go about this? We contact our elected
representatives to support a given piece of legislation, using phone calls, letters,
e-mail, and, occasionally, a group visit to a legislator's office. We try to address
issues that are especially critical, always aware, however, that good people with strong
moral values will not always agree on the rightness of a cause. Everyone will not
support every cause. We will be following, as closely as we are able to, the
priorities of the New York State Catholic Conference, Catholic Charities, and the US
Conference of Bishops. Tom Dobbins, Outreach Coordinator for Social & Community
Development of the NY Archdiocese, has given us generous assistance and direction with
this effort.
Can you help us? A charitable work of this type doesn't take
much time and is sorely-needed. If you are a very busy person, perhaps, or a person
with limited mobility, and find it difficult to attend meetings, all the information
needed for you to contact one our legislators about a proposed law will appear in a St.
Patrick's Sunday Bulletin. For those of you who can join us at meetings, which are
held every other month, date, time and place are published in the Bulletin prior to each
meeting. To date, we have lobbied for funds for food for the desperately-poor in
sub-Saharan Africa, funds for DNA testing and competent legal representation for indigent
prisoners on Death Row who claim their innocence; and funds for Section 8 vouchers which
help the poor to pay their rent.
If
you wish to receive further information,
please
contact the rectory (962-5050)
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