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The annual "Catholics at the Capitol" lobby day in Albany, which has for 30 years offered Catholics from across New York State the opportunity to lobby state lawmakers on issues of concern to them, will not be held this year - or, most likely, in future years.

Instead, the bishops of New York State will come to Albany March 9 for meetings with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other elected officials and a legislative reception, announced the New York State Catholic Conference, which represents the state's bishops on public policy issues.

The main focus of the bishops' meetings will be the Education Tax Credit, which would encourage charitable donations to generate private-school scholarships, as well as additional resources for public schools. It would also help teachers provide necessary materials for every classroom in New York State (see page 5).

The bishops' meetings are part of a new, "more segmented, targeted approach to advocacy" that will bring specific groups to the Capitol to lobby for specific issues during the year - something Richard Barnes, executive director of the Catholic Conference, called having "the right people in Albany advocating for the right issues at the right time."

"It's not that we don't want people to come to Albany," explained Dennis Poust, the Catholic Conference's director of communications. "In fact, people can participate [in lobbying] on issues that are of interest to them," instead of being trained to advocate at one general lobby day on a slate of six or seven issues.

Mr. Barnes used the example of a February gathering of both the New York State Council of Catholic Charities Directors and the Catholic School superintendents for advocacy events at the Capitol and regionally. They will lobby on human services and education funding issues as the state budget is being negotiated.

"In recent years, in this era of on-time state budgets, the March Catholics at the Capitol event would often occur after a budget framework had already been agreed upon," Mr. Barnes explained.

Since life and family issues typically come to a head at the end of the legislative session in June, the Catholic Conference will arrange advocacy days on an ad hoc basis in order to maximize their impact - as was done successfully in 2013, when Gov. Cuomo proposed his abortion expansion bill. A candlelight vigil then drew hundreds of people.

"A few hundred people goes a long way when you're able to line the walls of the Capitol," noted Mr. Poust.

The new approach will also include advocacy initiatives in New York's eight dioceses. Mr. Poust told The Evangelist that legislative brunches when lawmakers are at home in their districts can be more effective than trying to schedule meetings when the State Legislature is in session.

The change in approach will build the Catholic Conference's already-robust Catholic Action Network and social media presence, as well. CAN currently has 63,000 members who receive email alerts to contact lawmakers when specific issues of concern to Catholics are being debated. The Catholic Conference also has 5,000 followers of its Facebook page and 2,600 Twitter followers, and plans to target more of its resources toward social media.

"The Catholic Conference has been holding the Catholics at the Capitol day (formerly known as the Public Policy Forum) since the mid-1980s, with a largely unchanged format and focus," said Mr. Barnes. "The bishops strongly believe that the Church must recognize the changing times, and continue to evolve so best to meet the needs of poor and vulnerable New Yorkers through advocacy in the public square."[[In-content Ad]]

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