Catholic Conference sets '97 agenda

Looking back on a year in which the number of meals served at Catholic food pantries shot up by 8,000 in a single month, the New York State Catholic Conference is focusing its legislative agenda for 1997 on the neediest among us.

The Catholic Conference, which represents the state's bishops in matters of public policy, will become actively involved with approximately 300 issues in the State Legislature in the coming year.

The conference's recently released agenda emphasizes eight general categories: protecting human lives; meeting basic human needs; protecting and enhancing stable and peaceful families; fostering quality education for all New Yorkers; ensuring universal access to necessary, equitable and ethical health care; providing services for the frail and special needs population; enacting humane criminal justice policies; and promoting ethical and equitable fiscal policies.

Banning abortion

More specifically, the Conference plans to work toward the prohibition of partial-birth abortion, an issue that was stalled in the Assembly last month when members voted not to consider legislation to ban the procedure.

During a partial-birth abortion, the child is delivered feet-first; when only the head remains in the birth canal, the brain is suctioned out and the skull crushed before delivery.

Before the Assembly vote, the state Catholic Conference, Right to Life Committee, Christian Coalition and New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms held a joint press conference to urge assembly members to prohibit what Bishop Howard J. Hubbard called a "barbaric act."

"What can be more heart-rending than the planned and painful death of a helpless infant?" the Bishop questioned, urging the Assembly to "stand up for the sacredness of every human life."

Priority items

Six other specific issues are listed as receiving "highest priority attention" from the Catholic Conference in 1997, including:

* school-choice funding,

* economic and anti-poverty measures to provide employment and fair wages for families and safety nets for those unable to work,

* ensuring the continuance of Catholic health and human services,

* opposition to physician-assisted suicide,

* preservation of statewide eligibility standards and essential services for the poor and ill, and

* opposition to casino gambling.

Suicide

The argument against physician-assisted suicide gained increased nationwide attention in November, when within days of his death from cancer, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago wrote an impassioned letter to the U.S. Supreme Court asking that it halt the practice.

New York State also numbered among the 20 U.S. states that filed a friend-of-the-court brief in November urging the Court to reject the claim that terminally ill persons have a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide.

Aid for poor

In the wake of federal and state welfare reform legislation that could cut aid to the poor, immigrants and those unable to work, the New York bishops stated that the Catholic Conference is "committed to bringing about public policies and programs which will meet the human needs of the people of New York State."

In a recent letter on the upsurge in emergency needs of poor families in the Albany Diocese, Bishop Hubbard noted that the 69 percent increase in emergency assistance provided by diocesan Catholic Charities agencies mirrors national statistics.

"Our challenge is to do what is necessary to assure that those who can't provide for themselves receive the basic necessities," the Bishop stated.

Other issues

Among the scores of other items on the Catholic Conference's agenda are parental notification for minors' abortions; opposition to proposals that limit free speech and peaceful demonstrations at abortion facilities; services for adolescent mothers on Welfare, victims of domestic violence and those with AIDS and HIV; affordable and available child care; funding for school learning technology, textbooks and transportation services; opposition to state Medicaid reductions; protection of farmworkers' rights; and funding for mental health and substance abuse treatment and alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders.

The Conference urged Catholics in New York to join them in their fight for just laws in the state, adding that "in doing so, we can continue the noble service of early Catholic pioneers by making our state a more humane and compassionate place for future generations."

(01-02-97) [[In-content Ad]]