Parishes, schools seen as key to building faithful citizenship

Published: 2004-02-26

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Paraphrasing a slogan from Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, a speaker offered diocesan social ministers a strategy for building a network of Catholics active in both their faith and the political process: "It's the parish, stupid." The slogan, proposed by Joan Rosenhauer, coordinator of the faithful citizenship program for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is only part of the strategy, she said. "It's also the school, stupid, and the university, stupid," she said. Rosenhauer led a forum, "Promises and Pitfalls: Implementing Faithful Citizenship in Tough Times," on the last day of the Feb. 22-25 Catholic Social Ministry Gathering in Washington. The U.S. bishops' Administrative Committee approved "Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility," in September. "In the Catholic tradition," the bishops said in the document, "responsible citizenship is a virtue, participation in the political process is a moral obligation." Even so, Rosenhauer said, many churchgoing Catholics don't make political activity a priority.

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