Advocacy: Faith, experience-based tools

		Eye on the  Capitol  John Huebscher

Advocacy organizations employ a variety of tools to persuade in the public policy arena. And while no two issues are identical in terms of content or context, advocacy on different issues has common elements.

In faith-based advocacy, the Wisconsin Catholic Conference essentially employs three tools of influence:

• Principles: the Church's social teaching tradition.

• Practice: the practical experience gained by Catholics through service to the community.

• People: the collective voice of those who have been formed by the Church and others who share our views.

These elements were present when the Wisconsin Catholic Conference (WCC) engaged three issues in the closing weeks of the 2006 legislative session. During the debates on a proposal to roll back regulations on the "rent-to-own" industry and the "Taxpayer's Protection Amendment," (where our advocacy succeeded), and an effort to schedule a statewide advisory referendum on the death penalty in Wisconsin, (where we were temporarily defeated) the WCC's advocacy blended a reliance on Catholic social thought and doctrine with the real life experience of Catholics themselves.

Rent-to-own

On the proposal to loosen regulations and consumer safeguards on the rent-to-own industry, the WCC testimony addressed the Catholic principles of the common good and the option for the poor. The Conference argued that an industry that by design targets economically vulnerable persons should not enjoy exemptions from our Consumer Protection Act.

Critical to our effort was the experience of men and women in the St. Vincent de Paul Society who testified from their experience in visiting with the needy families they have helped. Their arguments, that predatory lending practices increase the economic vulnerability of such families, made our case more persuasive. So too were the insights of Catholic Charities staff that offer family financial counseling services around Wisconsin.

Taxpayer protection

As for the Taxpayer Protection Amendment, the WCC was concerned that the idea of placing limits on government revenues in the constitution would inhibit the ability of public institutions to respond to community needs, which would undermine the common good. The Amendment's restrictive impact on local government also suggested it was not consistent with the principle of subsidiarity, which holds that local decisions are best made at the local level.

Here too, experience was critical to forming and expressing the Conference's position. In this case it was the experience and insights of Catholics in Colorado. The Colorado Catholic Conference and diocesan staff in that state expressed clear and definite concerns over how similar limits had affected the common good and the poor of that state.

Death penalty

As for the joint resolution to schedule an advisory referendum on the death penalty, the Conference grounded its opposition in the consistent life ethic that human life is sacred from conception until natural death. Life is not ours to take, whether that life is too small to see or whether its dignity is shrouded by an evil act of murder.

Once again, the witness of lay Catholics buttressed our efforts. A radio editorial written by the brother of a murder victim and the views of the former director of the Kentucky Catholic Conference who lost her nephew in the World Trade Center both contributed to making the case.

In each case, the WCC collaborated with other individuals and organizations. Our faith-based advocacy made its own contribution to a larger community discussion.

In the public policy arena, no victory or defeat is final. But the combination of principles, practice, and people serve as constant tools of advocacy that transcend any given issue or any given time. At the end of the day, there is always another day and so we take our principles, practice, and people and persevere.

John Huebscher is executive director of the Wisconsin Catholic Conference in Madison.

Babies as burdens:
Procreation and contraception are seen at odds

		A Culture of Life  Professor  Janet E. Smith

Our age is quick to express appreciation for the unitive meaning of the sexual act but has little understanding of the goodness of the procreative meaning of the sexual act. The modern age tends to treat babies as burdens and not as gifts.

We often speak of the "fear of pregnancy" - a very curious phrase. A fear of poverty or nuclear holocaust or tyranny is understandable but why a fear of pregnancy? We speak about "accidental pregnancies" as if getting pregnant were like getting hit by a car - some terrible accident has happened to us. But the truth is that if a pregnancy results from an act of sexual intercourse, this means that something has gone right with an act of sexual intercourse, not that something has gone wrong.

Commitment

In our society we have lost sight of the fundamental truth that if you are not ready for babies, you are not ready for sexual intercourse. We have lost sight of the fact that sexual intercourse, making love, and making babies are inherently connected and for good reason. In our times, sexual relations are treated casually; no great commitment is implied in having sexual intercourse with another; babies are treated as an unwelcome intrusion on the sexual act.

The Church opposes this attitude and insists that sexual intercourse and having children are intimately connected; that sexual intercourse implies a great commitment, that children are an inherent part of that commitment, and that both commitment and children are wonderful gifts.

Fertility not a disease

It is good to keep in mind that fertility is a great good: to be fertile is a state of health for an adult person. Women now take a "pill" to thwart their fertility, as if fertility were a disease against which we need a cure.

Contraception treats the woman's body as if there were something wrong with it. The use of contraception suggests that God made a mistake in the way that He designed the body and that we must correct His error.

In an age where we have become very wary of dumping pollutants into the environment it is ironic that we are so willing to dump pollutants into our bodies. The health risks of contraception to women are considerable. Why do women expose themselves to such risks when natural methods of family planning are both safe and effective?

Let us not fail to mention that many forms of contraception are abortifacients; they work by causing an early term abortion. Rather than inhibiting ovulation, they work by preventing the fertilized egg, the tiny new human being, from implanting in the wall of the uterus. The IUD works in this fashion, as do most forms of the pill (on occasion), Norplant, Depo-Provera, and the "patch."

Love, not war

Just think of the words for contraception. Contraception means "against the beginning" - here against the beginning of a new life. So a contracepting couple is participating in an act that is designed to bring about new life and they are acting against that new life. Or they put their barrier methods in place - for "protection" as if they were making war, not love. Or they use a spermicide - to kill the sperm. This is an act of love?

Lovemaking should be a most wonderful act of affirmation, a tremendous "yes" to another person, a way of conveying to another that he or she is wonderful, and completely accepted; this is conveyed by making a total gift of one's self to another. The contracepting lover says "I want to give myself to you but not to the extent of sharing my fertility with you."

Professor Janet E. Smith is the Fr. Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Mich. These columns, syndicated by www.OneMoreSoul.com, are excerpts of a longer work by Smith.

Rosary rewards for today:
Area authors share insights

		Grand Mom  Audrey  Mettel Fixmer

Would you be surprised if your grown children told you they wanted to learn more about the rosary? I certainly was.

One daughter told me that she was sending a rosary book to each of her sisters because they wanted to pray the rosary, but didn't know how. They had all been educated in Catholic grade schools 35 to 40 years ago, and they didn't know how to say the rosary? How did that happen?

Then one day my daughter Kris came home from her travels with a book she had purchased called The Rosary, Prayer by Prayer, How and Why We Pray the Christ-Centered Rosary of the Blessed Mother by Mary K. Doyle. She was excited to share it with me, but when I saw how basic it was, I wondered about it.

New discoveries

I discovered that it included meditations for all of the mysteries, including the newest ones, the Luminous Mysteries.

I found many other delights in this book, especially the beautiful art work by Joseph Canella, who is the author's son. I learned this when I phoned Ms. Doyle, who lives in Geneva, Ill. It turns out she experienced the same thing I did when her adult children admitted they didn't know how to say the rosary.

"I did an informal survey," she told me, "and I discovered that less than one percent of practicing Catholics knew how to say the rosary, but were ashamed to admit it and ask for help."

The book was published in 2006 by 3E Press of Geneva, Ill. and is available from Amazon.com and also direct from her Web site: www.3epress.com with a credit card for $26.95 hard cover or $19.95 soft cover.

History, reflection

In our parish we have been running a study group using another book on the rosary, Mystery Stories, A Journey Through The Rosary by James Carney, a Madison author. This is a hefty, 404-page book that offers a You-Are-There kind of story for each mystery. Unfortunately for the author, it was published in 2000, thus missing the new Luminous Mysteries.

Each mystery gets its own chapter, and this is followed by a list of 10 "Questions for Reflection." This makes for an excellent study guide for individuals or groups.

An added interest to me was a thorough rendering of the history of the rosary, dating back to the years before Christ when religions tied knots in ropes to keep count of their required prayers.

Also, Carney tackles some of the debatable issues such as: Joseph's relationship with Mary, the question of Jesus' brothers and sisters, the star of Bethlehem, etc., in his "Commentaries," always presenting the church's arguments in a scholarly fashion.

Carney's Mystery Stories was published by Crown of Mary Publishing Company in 2000. It is available through Amazon.com for $24.95 or directly from the author for $9.95 by writing to James Carney, 5 Essex Ct., Madison, WI 53713.

"Grandmom" likes hearing from other senior citizens who enjoy aging at P.O. Box 216, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538.

The China syndrome:
Relations remain chilly

		The Catholic  Difference  George Weigel

The recent decision by China's government-sponsored Patriotic Catholic Association (PCA) to ordain and install bishops whose nominations had not been approved by the Pope has, according to press reports, put the possibility of diplomatic relations between the Vatican and Beijing into the deep freeze.

Why, though, did anyone think a real thaw was underway in the first place?

Perhaps this misperception was due in part to some wishful thinking (and subsequent leaking) on the part of senior Vatican officials, who regard full diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC) as, primo, a good thing in itself and, secondo, the key to seizing the opportunities for evangelization that will be available when China opens itself fully to the world.

Both propositions are questionable. Under current circumstances, establishing full diplomatic relations with the PRC means transferring the Holy See embassy to Beijing from Taiwan - which just happens to be home to the first Chinese democracy in five millennia. What would such a move do to the Catholic Church's hard-earned (and well-deserved) reputation as the premier moral force behind the contemporary human rights revolution? And what would such a potential dent in the Church's image (whether fair or unfair) do to the Church's prospects in a future Chinese free market of religions, into which evangelical Protestants, Mormons, and others who won't bear the burden of entanglement with the communist regime, will eventually flood?

Church's autonomy

Is Pope Benedict XVI taking a harder line on China than his predecessor? That's another media misperception, and it's rooted, I expect, in historical myopia. In 1870, Holland, Belgium, Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, and certain missionary territories were the only places in the world where the Church could appoint bishops without interference from (or, as the euphemism had it, the "cooperation" of) the state.

For the past 125 years, recovering the libertas ecclesiae, the Church's freedom to order its internal life without state interference, has been a prime concern of Vatican diplomacy. Different accommodations have had to be made at different times, but the Church has never conceded to the state a right-of-appointment of bishops that is independent of the papacy.

Perhaps an accommodation of a sort could be offered to the present regime in Beijing - but its acceptance seems unlikely, given the regime's manifest determination to keep what it regards as the genie of religious freedom firmly corked in a state-sealed bottle. That determination, not any "hardening" on the part of Benedict XVI, is the heart of the matter today, as it was during the pontificate of John Paul II. And until that changes, nothing dramatic is possible.

PCA, underground

Some light was cast on the complexity of all this during a recent conversation I had with one of China's most prominent Catholic laymen (who, for reasons of prudence, must remain anonymous). He confirmed that there had been a significant grassroots rapprochement between members of the PCA and members of the underground Church, as he confirmed that many PCA bishops had made submissions to Rome and now prayed publicly for, and in communion with, the Pope.

This reconciliation, which was part of John Paul II's China strategy, is detested by the Chinese regime; the recent episcopal ordinations and installations, which took place under duress, were in part an effort to reinsert wedges between PCA Catholics and underground Catholics.

'Thinks in centuries'

My interlocutor made two other important points. First, in his view (which he believes Pope Benedict shares), no deal with the Beijing regime is better than a bad deal - and a bad deal, in these circumstances, means a deal in which the government's role in the appointment of bishops is unacceptably intrusive.

Second, and despite the regime's ritual rants about Christianity-and-colonialism, Catholicism is immensely attractive in China because the Chinese people associate Christianity with modernization, with a more decent society, and with a better way of life.

All of which prompts the thought that a Vatican that "thinks in centuries" can well afford to bide its time in dealing with a regime that is only 57 years old - a regime that, on my friend's analysis, may unravel in the next decade or two.

George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.