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American Catholicism, Catholic Charities U.S.A., and Welfare Reform

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2009

John A. Coleman  and
S.J.
John A. Coleman
Affiliation:
Loyola Marymount University
S.J.
Affiliation:
Loyola Marymount University
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Extract

In this article I want to give at least a thumbnail sense of the background assumptions, policy contours, and vehicles for American Catholicism in engaging in public policy discussions. To do so, I will eventually concentrate on one major recent public policy discussion in the United States: the debates on welfare reform that led up to, and continue vigorously even after, the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. I do so because American Catholic institutions, including the United States Catholic Conference and Catholic Charities U.S.A., played a crucial and continuous role in these debates about welfare reform. Indeed, New York's Senator Daniel P. Moynihan, a vigorous opponent of the proposed welfare reform bill, in excoriating his fellow liberals for signing on to the bill, could lift up the example of the Catholic bishops' lobbying and exclaim: “The bishops admittedly have an easier time with matters of this sort. When principles are at stake, they simply look them up. Too many liberals, alas, make them up!” This particular debate (which is not, by any means, over) also helps to show some of the unique assumptions behind proposals found in Catholic interventions in the policy sector. In what follows, I will develop, briefly, four sections or subthemes to the paper:

1. Catholilc Social Thought: Five Background Assumptions for Policy: Human Dignity; The Common Good; Solidarity; Subsidiarity; Justice

2. The Move from Background Assumptions to Policy

3. Catholic Policy Proposals: Their Style and Instrumentalities

4. Catholicism and Welfare Policy

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Policy History , Volume 13 , Issue 1: Special Issue: Religion, Politics, Policy , January 2001 , pp. 73 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. 2001

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References

Notes

1. Massaro, Thomas, Catholic Social Teaching and United States Welfare Reform (Collegeville, Minn., 1998)Google Scholar.

2. Cited in Apple, R. W., “His Battle Now Lost: Moynihan Still Cries Out,” New York Times, 2 08 1996, A16.Google Scholar

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10. Pacem in Terris, in O'Brien and Shannon, Catholic Social Thought, 137–157.

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29. Boswell, “Catholic Social Thinking: Is It Underdeveloped?” 8.

30. Hollenbach, Claims in Conflict, 187.

31. McDonough and Figueira-McDonough, “The Evolution of Catholic Family Policy,” 7.

32. For the preferential option for the poor, see Donal Dorr, Option for the Poor, 1–7, 193–95, 376–77. On Catholic concepts of work as a vocation, see William May, “The Theology of Work,” in Dwyer, The Dictionary of Catholic Thought, 991–1002, and John Paul II's encyclical on Human Work, in O'Brien and Shannon, Catholic Social Thought, 352–92.

33. The American bishops' letters on nuclear weapons and economic justice are in O'Brien and Shannon, Catholic Social Thought, 492–571, 572–680. Novak, Michael, Moral Clarity in the Nuclear Age (Nashville, 1983)Google Scholar; idem, Freedom with Justice: Catholic Social Thought and Liberal Institutions (San Francisco, 1984).

34. I treat some of this range in my “Neither Liberal nor Socialist,” in Coleman, John, S.J., , ed., One Hundred Years of Catholic Social Thought (Maryknoll, N.Y., 1991), 25–42.Google Scholar

35. “Economic Justice for All,” #20 in O'Brien and Shannon, Catholic Social Thought, 576.

36. “Economic Justice for All,” #131 in O'Brien and Shannon, Catholic Social Thought, 609.

37. Bryan Hehir, “The Right and Competence of the Church in the American Case,” in Coleman, One Hundred Years of Catholic Social Thought, 55–71.

38. Gaudium et Spes #3, in O'Brien and Shannon, Catholic Social Thought, 167.

39. Dignitatis Humanae, in O'Brien, David and Shannon, Thomas, eds., Renewing the Earth (Garden City, N.Y., 1977), 295.Google Scholar

40. O'Brien and Shannon, eds., Renewing the Earth, 391.

41. I treat this evolution in my “Neither Liberal nor Socialist.”

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44. In O'Brien and Shannon, Renewing the Earth, 297.

45. Hollenbach, Claims in Conflict, 189.

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47. For a treatment of USCC and policy, see Reese, A Flock of Shepherds, 187–224.

48. For a complaint about theologically untutored policy workers driving some Protestant denominational policy in the United Methodist Church, see Bellah, Robert et al. , The Good Society (New York, 1991), 196.Google Scholar

49. Reese, A Flock of Shepherds, 210.

50. A rejection of trying to make Catholics into a voting block is found in Bernard Cardinal Law, “Christian Coalition's Catholic Alliance,” in Origins 25 (15 February 1996): 574–77.

51. Johnson, Stephen and Tamney, Joseph, eds., The Political Role of Religion in the United States (Boulder, 1986), 223.Google Scholar

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53. Kammer, Fred, Salted with Fire (New York, 1995).Google Scholar

54. diPietro, Melanie, “Organizational Overview,” in Catholic Charities U.S.A.: Who Do You Say We Are?—Perspectives on Catholic Identity in Catholic Charities (Alexandria, Va., 1998), 29.Google Scholar

55. Brown and McKeown, The Poor Belong to Us, 11.

56. Ryle, Edward, “Catholic Charities: The American Experience,” Catholic Charities U.S.A. (01–02 1987): 14Google Scholar (the whole two-part article, pp. 8–24, is a good overview of the history and organizational development of Catholic Charities U.S.A.

57. Cited in The Poor Belong to Us, 197.

58. “Economic Justice for All,” #210 in O'Brien and Shannon, Catholic Social Thought, 625.

59. “Economic Justice for All,” #211 in O'Brien and Shannon, Catholic Social Thought, 626.

60. Ibid.

61. “Transforming the Welfare State,” Catholic Charities U.S.A., 24 January 1994.

62. “Connecticut Bishops' Welfare Reform and Basic Human Needs,” Origins 24 (8 12 1994): 435.Google Scholar

63. Ricard, Bishop John, “The Factors of Genuine Welfare Reform,” Origins 24 (9 02 1995): 564.Google Scholar

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66. Kammer, Fred, “Why Some Welfare Reform Proposals Can Backfire,” Origins 24 (30 03 1995): 565–570.Google Scholar

67. Bernard Cardinal Law, “Christian Coalition's Catholic Alliance,” 574.

68. “Moral Principles and Priorities,” #6–7.

69. “Transforming the Welfare System,” 12.

70. Kammer, “Why Some Welfare Reform Proposals Can Backfire,” 567.

71. Massaro, Catholic Social Teaching and United States Welfare Reform, 159.

72. “Moral Principles and Priorities,” #5.

73. “Transforming the Welfare System,” 7.

74. For the history of American welfare policy and its earlier recognition of need as a moral claim, see Skocpol, Theda, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States (Cambridge, Mass., 1992).Google Scholar

75. Bane, Mary Jo and Ellwood, David, Welfare Realities: From Rhetoric to Reform (Cambridge, Mass., 1994)Google Scholar. Bane, Mary Jo, “Poverty, Welfare, and the Role of the Churches,” America (4 12 1999): 8–11.Google Scholar

76. “Moral Principles and Policy Priorities,” #4.

77. See “Responding to Welfare Reform: A Report from Catholic Charities USA,” Catholic Charities U.S.A., Alexandria, Va., 09 1998.Google Scholar

78. For these principles, see Massaro, Catholic Social Teaching and United States' Welfare Reform, 181–88.