A Vision, A Voice, A Presence: A History of the First Forty Years of the Michigan Catholic Conference (review)

The Reverend John J. Burke, General Secretary of the National Catholic Welfare Conference (the predecessor of our current United States Conference of Catholic Bishops), wrote a doctoral student who described the NCWC as a "pressure group" in national politics. Burke objected to this appellation and instead noted that the NCWC acted according to Catholic principles to promote the integrity of government and in that sense was not a lobby group (Archives of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, Administration Files 42, Burke to Henry, Washington, D.C., January 28, 1930). Sister Kollasch articulates the same concern as she recounts the 1978 efforts of the Michigan Catholic Conference to exempt religious groups from a pending state lobbying bill: "Unless exempted, MCC and other religious groups working on behalf of the common good were subject to the law just as lobbyists representing special interests were" (p. 41). Whether it is the national organization of Catholic bishops or the various state organizations of Catholic bishops, the self-understanding is the same: their purpose is the common good, a truly Catholic obligation, an essential role for the Church in the public forum.

Marie T. Hilliard ("State Catholic Conferences: A Canonical Analysis of Two Constitutions and Bylaws," Licentiate in Canon Law Thesis, The Catholic University of America, 2003) concludes that the current thirty-four State Conferences in the United States "provide a mechanism for [the diocesan bishops in a state] to exercise a collegial teaching function in matters of public policy" (p. 49). David Yamane (The Catholic Church in State Politics: Negotiating Prophetic Demands and Political Realities [Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2005]) indeed focuses his study on "the political advocacy of state Catholic conferences" (p. 7), though this emphasis should not be narrowly understood as mere lobbying. Indeed, the earliest scholar of these structures, now Archbishop Michael Sheehan ("The State Catholic Conference: A New Development in Interecclesial Cooperation in the United States of America," Doctoral Dissertation in Canon Law, Pontifical University of the Lateran, 1971 [see "State Catholic Conferences," The Jurist 35 (1975):431-454, for summary]) sees them as manifestations of "interecclesial communion" (p. 42) flowing from the Vatican II principles of communio, lay involvement in the mission of the Church, church care for the community, and ecumenical co-operation, as well as the practical need to communicate with political entities.

All of these scholars note that the Michigan Catholic Conference (MCC) is unique among its institutional colleagues, which focus solely on collaboration with state officials, because of the MCC's large pension and health insurance programs for the dioceses of the State of Michigan. Started as the Catholic Charities of Michigan in 1958, it was transformed in 1963 into the MCC and reorganized in 1968, and considered by some as a model for the United States Catholic Conference established in 1968 (see John F. Neill, The Michigan Catholic Conference: Development of a New Church Decision-Making Structure [Chicago: University of Chicago, 1970]). Archbishop John Dearden of Detroit headed both the state and national organizations.

The beautiful anniversary book under review highlights this more varied activity of a state conference and thus serves as an example and perhaps a challenge to those state conferences which may be more limited to engaging the political arena. This is a celebratory volume including quotations from various figures involved in the MCC's past and present, as well as a section describing their new building in Lansing, Michigan. In addition, there is a brief history of the activities of the conference, including the many forays into the political arena, instruction in the Church's social teachings, the insurance and retirement programs instituted for employees of the Church in Michigan, and the investing board for parish and diocesan funds. The text does situate this history into the context of the American social and political scene...