ARTICLES

2008 Legislative Agenda

The Virginia Catholic Conference, established by the Commonwealth’s Catholic bishops to advance the mutual public-policy objectives of the dioceses of Arlington and Richmond, will pursue the initiatives described below during the 2008 Virginia General Assembly session, which convenes for 60 days beginning on January 9, 2008. The Conference’s agenda was formulated in consultation with its Education and Respect Life, Health, and Social Concerns advisory committees, and was approved on November 9, 2007, by its Board of Directors, headed by Richmond Bishop Francis DiLorenzo and Arlington Bishop Paul Loverde.

The Conference’s advocacy is guided by the consistent framework of Catholic moral and social teaching. Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, a statement issued in November of 2007 by the U.S. Catholic Bishops, explains this teaching and emphasizes the importance of acting on it as faithful citizens to build a culture of life, provide for the poorest and most vulnerable in our midst, and enhance family life. As the bishops note in their statement, “In the Catholic Tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation. This obligation is rooted in our baptismal commitment to follow Jesus Christ and to bear Christian witness in all we do.” This call to faithful citizenship finds its hope and its challenge in the knowledge that “[e]very human being has a right to life, the fundamental right that makes all other rights possible, and a right to access to those things required for human decency — food and shelter, education and employment, health care and housing, freedom of religion and family life.”

In calling attention to these rights and urging grassroots advocacy to promote their recognition, the Conference’s agenda and activities are designed to avoid pitfalls identified in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship. Specifically, the U.S. bishops observe:

Two temptations in public life can distort the Church’s defense of human life and dignity:

• The first is a moral equivalence that makes no ethical distinctions between different kinds of issues involving human life and dignity. The direct and intentional destruction of innocent human life from the moment of conception until natural death is always wrong and is not just one issue among many. It must always be opposed.

• The second is the misuse of these necessary moral distinctions as a way of dismissing or ignoring other serious threats to human life and dignity. Racism and other unjust discrimination, the use of the death penalty, . . . the failure to respond to those who are suffering from hunger or a lack of health care, or an unjust immigration policy are all serious moral issues that challenge our consciences and require us to act. These are not optional concerns which can be dismissed . . . . Although choices about how best to respond to these and other compelling threats to human life and dignity are matters for principled debate and decision, this does not make them optional concerns or permit Catholics to dismiss or ignore Church teaching on these important issues. Clearly not every Catholic can be actively involved on each of these concerns, but we need to support one another as our community of faith defends human life and dignity wherever it is threatened. We are not factions, but one family of faith fulfilling the mission of Jesus Christ.

Information about ways you can help, as members of this united family of faith, to bring the Church’s consistent moral framework and compelling lived experience to the halls of government appears on the Virginia Catholic Conference web site.

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