Catholics ready annual lobbying at Legislature

The yearly meeting of state lawmakers and Catholics on issues of concern is sponsored by the New York State Catholic Conference, which advocates for the state's bishops on public policy matters.

This year, about 800 Catholic advocates, from teenagers to senior citizens, plan to discuss seven key issues with the legislators:

* boosting reimbursement for Academic Intervention Services (AIS) requirements, so that religious, private and independent schools can provide the full range of services they are mandated to offer by state law;

* recruiting and keeping staff in the healthcare, human services and education fields;

* supporting low-income working families through increased funding for child and health care, housing, transportation and the Earned Income Tax Credit;

* meeting the particular needs of New Yorkers in rural areas, including migrant workers;

* enacting the "Unborn Victims of Violence" Act, criminalizing intentional assault or homicide of an unborn child (outside the context of abortion);

* modifying the Rockefeller drug laws that mandate harsh sentences for drug offenses and boosting addiction treatment programs; and

* opposing threats to Catholic health care and religious freedom, including bills that would mandate Catholic health providers to offer objectionable procedures like abortion.

Bishops will join Catholics from the state's eight dioceses in workshops on the targeted issues, meeting with legislators and a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Edward Egan of the Archdiocese of New York City.

In a statement released along with the Catholic Conference's 2001 agenda, the bishops noted that "citizen input helps shape decisions of state and national lawmakers. They can be especially enlightened decisions when they are shaped by citizens who approach public affairs from positions based on reason and inspired by moral conviction....We invite you to...participate in public life as disciples who view our civic responsibilities through the eyes of faith."

(The Public Policy Forum will be held March 13 in Albany. For information, call the Catholic Conference at 434-6195.)

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