ARTICLES

Faithful Citizenship in Virginia: Issues for the 2007 Elections

Parts 3 and 4 of a six-part series.

Economic Concerns

All members of the human family (regardless of national, racial, ethnic, economic, and ideological differences) have basic human rights, including the right to life and to those things necessary to the proper development of life.

Members of society share a common responsibility for guaranteeing the rights of all those who are defenseless and marginalized — born and unborn, young and elderly, native and immigrant, working and on welfare.

Indeed, the command to love one’s neighbor knows no boundaries and invites each person to have special concern for those who need help the most. In other words, followers of Christ are called to respond to the needs of all of their brothers and sisters, especially those with the greatest needs. (Sharing Catholic Social Teaching: Challenges and Directions, U.S. Catholic Bishops, 1998)

These principles of Catholic social teaching (i.e., respect for human life and dignity, solidarity, and preferential option for the poor and vulnerable) mean that economic choices and institutions must be judged by whether they protect life and dignity, support the family, and serve the common good. In other words, an essential moral measure of any economy is how the poor and vulnerable are faring.

Society has a moral obligation, including governmental action where necessary, to ensure opportunity, meet basic needs, and pursue justice in economic life. (A Catholic Framework for Economic Life, U.S. Catholic Bishops, 1996) Although voluntary groups help many of the poorest in our communities, governments have an obligation to provide adequately funded “safety net” services, and to implement policies and programs that break cycles of poverty and ensure fair treatment for all workers.

In Virginia, many low-income families struggle just to afford basic necessities, such as housing, utilities, transportation, and child care. Sometimes, such households are even the targets of financial practices that trap them in cycles of debt. Economic policy proposals with particular impact on low-income families that were recently considered by the Virginia General Assembly include:

• Legislation establishing a Virginia Housing Trust Fund, which would earmark a dedicated source of state revenue for affordable housing developments for low-income households.

• State funding for rental subsidies for low-income families whose wages do not enable them to afford housing.

• Legislation requiring Virginia’s payday-lending industry to operate under the same annual-percentage-rate cap on interest (36 percent) as other small-loan lenders operating in Virginia.

• Legislation establishing a “refundable” Virginia Earned Income Tax Credit program that would enable working families whose incomes are too low to pay state taxes to receive a state “refund” (i.e., an income supplement from the state) for part of the credit amount.

Education and Family Life

A particularly important contribution many families make to the common good of society is the education of children.

Parents — the first and most important educators — have a fundamental right to choose the education best suited to their children’s needs, including public, private, and religious schools. Governments should help provide the resources required for all parents to exercise this basic right without discrimination, and for all children to access the educational opportunities most suitable to their needs. Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (2003).

A primary part of parents’ responsibility as the “first teachers” of their children is providing them clear moral guidance and a positive, wholesome environment for their educational and social development.

In fulfilling this duty, one challenge parents frequently encounter is protecting their children from pornographic or otherwise harmful material on the Internet. To address this challenge, policy decisions can play an instrumental role: “Free citizens have the right and the responsibility to form a culture that supports the life and the dignity and nobility of every person. Citizens should unite to demand laws which place reasonable restrictions on the depiction of the human body and human intimacy.” Bought With a Price: Pornography and the Attack on the Living Temple of God, A Pastoral Letter by Bishop Paul S. Loverde (Fall 2006).

In Virginia, measures recently considered by the Virginia General Assembly to support parents in the important moral and educational choices they make for their children’s benefit include:

• Legislation requiring state libraries to install Internet filtering technology to receive state funding. That technology is designed to ensure that children are protected from viewing pornographic, obscene, and otherwise harmful materials on the Internet.

• Legislation establishing income-tax credits for business entities and individuals who make contributions to scholarship foundations.

• Legislation permitting local public-school districts to provide bus transportation to nonpublic-school students.

The six-part “Faithful Citizenship in Virginia” series is authorized by the Virginia Catholic Conference (VCC) for parish use. To print a letter-size version of this piece that can be copied and made available at your parish with your pastor’s permission, visit the VCC’s Website, www.vacatholic.org.

The VCC’s website also includes a sign-up feature for those who wish to receive regular e-mail alerts and updates on legislation considered by the Virginia General Assembly and the U.S. Congress. Please join!

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