By Father James Maciejewski

“I learned so much that I don’t know how I’ll ever keep it all in my head,” muttered one dazed participant as she walked away from “A Day at the Legislature” last Thursday.

The tightly-packed program was conceived by the archdiocesan Office of Urban Affairs and presented in conjunction with the Georgia Catholic Conference.

In the course of a fast-paced five hours, the 70 participants:

--attended live sessions of the Georgia State Senate and the House of Representatives.

--were cautioned by archdiocesan Pastoral Council president Jay Bowman not to be put off when a legislator says that “you can’t legislate morals.” Every law legislates morals to some degree, said Bowman.

--listened to Edwin Jackson of the University of Georgia present a detailed explanation of how the Georgia state legislature works.

--hear Father Anthony Morris explain the formation and purpose of the Georgia Catholic conference.

--met with three legislators to discuss current issues before the state House of Representatives.

The three legislators present were Rep. Matthew Mulherin of Augusta and Reps. Michael Egan and Gerald Horton of Atlanta.

Horton cautioned the participants to “avoid zealotry” in their attempts to influence legislation. Zealotry, he explained, was single-minded and passionate advocacy which allows for no compromise.

Horton, whose family belongs to Christ the King parish, also urged the participants to have a broad and comprehensive concern for human rights.

“About five years ago the only time you ever saw a Catholic at the legislature was on abortion day,” he said.

Questioned about the destiny of a fair employment practices bill, Horton replied: “We don’t have the votes for a fair employment practices act. The House is reflective of the state of Georgia as a whole. The vestige of racism is there.”

Rep. Egan, a member of Christ the King parish, discussed the Georgia legislature’s very low rating by the Citizens Conference on State Legislatures. He said that considerable improvement has been made in the three years since the rating was made.

One aspect of legislative performance that still needs improvement, he said, is “accountability,” i.e., public awareness of legislative operations through such means as newspaper publication of voting records. In this matter of accountability, the Georgia legislature was ranked 49^th among the 50 states. Egan, a Republican, said his efforts this session to improve the accountability of the House had been frustrated by the Democratic leadership.

Earlier in the day Father Morris explained how the Georgia Catholic Conference came into existence.

“Three years ago Archbishop Donnellan became very concerned that we were found in the halls of government only when the issue of abortion was being debated. It seemed we might be unconcerned about anything else.”

Thus the Georgia Catholic Conference was formed, according to Father Morris, “to give sophisticated witness to the gospel before legislative bodies and to express concern for mundane Catholic issues like education and taxation.”

The Conference comprises the bishops, the vicars general and the pastoral council presidents of both the Atlanta and Savannah Dioceses.

Asked about specific issues, Father Morris explained that the Conference tries to draw a line between "political issues,” which it avoids, and “governmental issues,” which it takes on.

On the Equal Rights Amendment, Father Morris said that “we first decided we were not opposed to it. We are now quietly in favor of it and I spent Tuesday afternoon trying to show legislators that it is a good amendment for human rights.”