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

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.¹ 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!"² 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. Catholic 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

To be sure, Catholics have significantly engaged in any number of diverse policy discussions for many years. The scope covers issues of foreign policy (ranging from concern in the 1930s about the Spanish Civil War to later support for a policy of anticommunism; to disputes with the Reagan and Bush administrations about El Salvador and Nicaragua); interpretations of the First Amendment; abortion, euthanasia, and policies concerning sexual orientation and marriage; immigration policy; health-care issues; vouchers or government funding for programs in parochial schools; American nuclear policy; and family policy issues. ³ But perhaps nowhere else can one better see certain Catholic strengths and weaknesses in the policy arena than by taking a fresh look at the Catholic role in the welfare-reform debate. Moreover, at least since the latter part of the nineteenth century, American Catholics have been rather continuously involved in the salient shifts in American welfare policy. ⁴ No other policy issue has such a long history of Catholic engagement.

Catholic forays into public policy remain a puzzle to many, both inside and outside the church. On some issues (e.g., abortion), Catholics seem closely aligned with segments from the conservative evangelical community. On others (e.g., opposition to capital punishment), they are more likely to build coalitions with the American Civic Liberties Union. On still others, they are in close contact with welfare professionals. The so-called Catholic "Consistent Ethic of Life" does not fit neatly into any of the more secular or religious ideological divisions. ⁵ On nuclear and military policy, Catholic policy stands with the doves. With abortion, it stands with the pro-life lobby. On welfare, it takes its position on the left side of the spectrum.

Moreover, different units and levels of the national Catholic Church (the Bishops' Conference; the thirty state conferences that serve a statewide group of bishops; diocesan bishops and their peace and justice or public policy committees; separately incorporated groups such as Catholic Charities U.S.A.; Network, a lobbying group concerned with poverty founded by Roman Catholic sisters; the National Catholic Educational Association or the Catholic Health Association) engage in public policy discussions and proposals and lobbying. They do not all always sing from the same songbook.

Peter and Josephina Figueira-McDonough, focusing their research mainly on Catholic family policy, comment on some anomalies in Catholic public policy behavior:

Catholic...