Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
February 14, 2001
President's office for Faith-Based
Initiatives deserves consideration
By Most. Rev. Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
Since returning from Washington earlier this month, I've thought a great deal about President Bush's "Office for Faith-Based Initiatives." His meeting with Catholic leaders — including Cardinal-designate Edward Egan of New York, Archbishop John Favalora of Miami, Bishop Paul Loverde of Arlington, Virginia, and myself, together with many others directly involved in Catholic social services — was a good first discussion of issues which concern both Church and state.
The President's sincerity was clear. So was his grasp of the issues.
It's a positive beginning.
Jesus told His disciples to be leaven. That's the continuing vocation of His Church: to be leaven in the world. As this leaven, Catholic social services are built on two principles: the sanctity of the human person from conception to natural death; and commitment to the common good. These two principles are never really in conflict, even if at first glance they may sometimes seem to be.
Catholics understand that human beings are connected. We're linked to each other by a shared dignity as children of God, exactly as any family is connected.
Therefore, the Church always desires to be active in serving people, whether they're Christian or not. Service is part of our identity. Likewise, since government is the main political expression of our shared community life, it too needs to be actively involved in and responsible for solving our common problems.
In a nation as big and complicated as the United States, social problems can easily become, or at least seem, intractable. The President deserves our respect for seeking new and creative ways to solve them. He has also framed these issues with a new vocabulary of trust and cooperation. He sees, as other political leaders may not, that people's religious beliefs are not just private idiosyncrasies. In fact, religious beliefs have big social consequences every day. Those consequences benefit us all. And working in better concert, there's a chance that government and faith-based efforts can achieve even more than is now being accomplished.
Catholics have natural concerns about how this new government initiative will work in daily life. The Church needs to be who she is; Catholics (and other faith-based and community groups) need to be free from government interference in pursuing our religious mission. Moreover, faith-based organizations can't — and shouldn't —take the place of government in addressing social problems. We don't have the resources, and the mandates of Church and state are not the same.
Here's another concern: Building a social service infrastructure to provide new services could be very expensive. It would also mean hiring additional staff, which may lead to hiring persons who may be very good people but who do not share the Catholic vision or understand the larger mission of the Church. This could, unfortunately, lead to a watering down of Catholic identity in some Catholic social outreach groups.
Finally, a concern raised by Catholic Charities is this: Catholic Charities already receives grants, purchase-of-service contracts and technical support from the government. With a constitutional challenge to this new initiative almost certain, leaders of some Catholic social service agencies fear that the courts will eventually strip them of the limited assistance they already enjoy, and cut them off from funding in the same way already inflicted on Catholic schools.
All these concerns are serious, and they need to be explored. But the President, to his credit, has had the courage to raise these issues in a new and hopeful way. In the months ahead, we need to remember that God does His work through people, through us. Out of this new conversation and from the creativity of the dedicated people involved, good things will come.
That's a good reason for confidence . . . and also gratitude. We should give the President's creative programs a hearing and hope for their success.
