Catholics take stands at Capitol

In another, New York State Catholic Conference staff answered last-minute questions on the targeted issues: partial-birth abortion, education investment tax credits, expansion of supports for working families and those moving from welfare to work, preservation of Catholic health care and elimination of threats to it, physician-assisted suicide, preservation of essential services for the poor and ill, and casino gambling.

Priests from across New York State vested for Mass in a third room, chatting as they prepared to concelebrate a liturgy with Cardinal John O'Connor of the Archdiocese of New York. At the liturgy, Bishop Vincent DePaul Breen of the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey, would be presented with the New York State Catholic Conference public policy award.

And in a fourth meeting room, Catholic officials gathered for a press conference: Cardinal O'Connor; Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of the Albany Diocese; Sister Jane Herb, IHM, Albany diocesan superintendent of schools; Laura Casell, CEO of Catholic Charities for the Rockville Centre Diocese; and moderator John Kerry, director of the State Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the state's bishops.

That bustling activity was typical of the March 9 Public Policy Forum, which annually draws more than 1,000 Catholics from throughout New York to the Capitol to talk with lawmakers. Bishop Hubbard called the forum "not just a one-day shot for the Catholic Church, but an ongoing process of advocacy."

At the press conference, Cardinal O'Connor stressed that the annual forum helps to fulfill the Church's "strong responsibility to contribute to the formation of policy so it will be in the best interest of all people."

He noted that the bishops of all of New York's dioceses would be meeting with Gov. George Pataki later in the day to make their own points about the Catholic Conference's targeted issues and others, including a recent report on human experimentation issued to the State Health Commissioner by an advisory group (see The Evangelist's Feb. 18 issue).

Health care

Catholic healthcare agencies are under particular attack because of their positions on the sanctity of life, he added.

"We take care of approximately 20 percent of patients in the State of New York, [so] we have a very serious vested interest," he said. "Other healthcare agencies do not have the pressures put on them that Catholic agencies have. We believe that every person is made in the image and likeness of God. There are those who demand that either we reject our principles, or we will be driven out of business. Well, we're not going to give up. We believe that our moral and ethical approach is very respectful of all the people of New York."

Bishop Hubbard said that attacks on Catholic health care are being organized by Planned Parenthood and other organizations that are "rabid in their concern for reproductive freedom." He noted that while not every hospital provides such services as dentistry, abortion is being used as a "litmus test" for whether a healthcare agency is adequately providing for the needs of its patients.

Abortion and suicide

While 15 people in Oregon have taken their lives since the practice was instituted, the Bishop said, "there continue to be 350,000 residents of Oregon without basic health care."

Welfare

After a 36-percent drop in state welfare cases since 1996, she said, Catholic Charities and other Church agencies have seen record numbers of requests for aid. To combat this, Catholics at the forum would ask for expansion of the earned income tax credit; funding for transportation, health care and child care (and an increase in the number of available child-care slots); and the creation of public-private sector job partnerships.

Ms. Casell also called for a statewide tracking study of welfare recipients to find out what happens to them after they go off welfare.

Education

She called for the Legislature to establish an education investment tax credit for corporations and individuals that donate to public and nonpublic schools, an idea sparked by the State Education Committee in 1993 -- an idea, said Sister Jane, "whose time has come. It would go a long way to support valuable programs. It would lighten the burden on New York State's taxpayers."

Drug laws

The laws "have not been successful. They have targeted, in many instances, low-level people in the drug trade," the Bishop stated. "Many of these are not violent offenders [and] would profit more from treatment than incarceration. [The laws] have to be revisited and restructured."

The Bishop said he would particularly like to see judges and prosecutors have more discretion in sentencing offenders than is currently allowed.

(03-11-99) [[In-content Ad]]