Archbishop Basil M. Schott

The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference (PCC) is saddened by the news that Metropolitan Basil M. Schott, Archbishop of the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh, died on Thursday, June 10, 2010.  He will be laid to rest next week.

As the leader of one of the 10 Catholic dioceses that comprise the PCC, Archbishop Schott was a member of the Board of Governors.  After many years of service to Byzantine Rite Catholics and to the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, he will be sorely missed.

More information about Archbishop Schott and the Archeparchy of Pittsburgh is available at www.archeparchy.org.

How well is your community doing in the 2010 Census? With the Census Bureau’s interactive ‘Take 10 Map,’ you can track how well your community is participating in the Census by seeing what percentage of households have mailed back their forms. The map is updated every day as questionnaires are returned, and allows you to compare your community’s performance this decade to how well it did in 2000.  View the Take 10 Map online.

You can also see how Pennsylvania is doing.  View Pennsylvania’s daily participation rate online at the PA Census 2010 site; the Data Center has also been creating a weekly county-by-county map of census participation rates (just click on ‘Participation Rates’). You can view the map, download a PDF copy, or download the data for states, counties, municipalities or census tracts. This map will be updated every Wednesday while the Census is ongoing.

This project oriented internship involves research, writing and outreach about public policy issues of concern to the Catholic Church. Responsibilities will include, but not be limited to, writing newsletter articles, writing and designing informative bulletin inserts, research or other communications and advocacy activities.

Hours are flexible. A schedule will be developed to accommodate the intern’s class schedule and credit earning needs. The internship is not a paid position, but students will be compensated for travel expenses.

Please send a current resume to abhill@pacatholic.org along with a brief cover letter outlining:

1. Your availability for an internship in the upcoming terms (from when to when)
2. Your short-term (five-year) job goals upon graduation
3. Your goals for doing/learning during this potential internship
4. Your need for academic credit (or not) for the internship

Interviews will include a review of the student’s writing samples, portfolio materials and a discussion of credit requirements.

The statistics, from the end of 2008, were presented along with the new Vatican yearbook Feb. 20.

The Vatican said the number of Catholics reached 1.166 billion, an increase of 19 million, or 1.7 percent, from the end of 2007. During the same period, Catholics as a percentage of the global population grew from 17.33 percent to 17.4 percent, it said.

The number of priests stood at 409,166, an increase of 1,142 from the end of 2007. Since the year 2000, the Vatican said, the number of priests has increased by nearly 4,000, or about 1 percent.

Looking at the way priests are distributed around the world, it said: 47.1 percent were in Europe, 30 percent in the Americas, 13.2 percent in Asia, 8.7 percent in Africa and 1.2 percent in Oceania.

The number of seminarians around the world rose from 115,919 at the end of 2007 to 117,024 at the end of 2008, an increase of more than 1 percent, it said.

Read the rest of the story at www.catholicnews.com.

Learn more about Catholic statistics in Pennsylvania at www.pacatholic.org/resources/pa-catholic-statistics/.

It is more difficult to describe the public significance of marriage.  What do we really know about the role of marriage in society and why should we care?  Isn’t marriage just a private relationship between two people who love each other and therefore, none of our business?

The Bishops of Pennsylvania developed a series of parish bulletin inserts and other materials to shed light on the role of marriage in our civil society from the perspective of Catholic teaching.

For example, you might wonder, why can marriage exist only between a man and a woman?  See Marriage and Society for the answer: “Only the union of a male and female can express the full sexual complementarity willed by God for marriage.  In knowing what God has created, we know His will. Man and woman are to give to each other their entire being in their masculinity and femininity. They are equal as human beings but different as man and woman, fulfilling each other through this difference. This makes possible the conjugal bond, which is the core of marriage.”

Marriage and Children discusses how important marriage is to the well-being of our families, “Without children, cultures die, nations die, the human species dies. Nothing is more fundamental to the common good than children. And nothing matters more for the well-being of children than the health of marriage and family life. Social justice requires above all that we safeguard and strengthen marriage and family life.”

To understand marriage more completely, there must be a discussion about sexuality.  Respecting Sexuality answers the question, how does the Church view homosexual inclination?  “While the Church teaches that homosexual acts are immoral, just as all sexual acts outside of marriage are immoral, she does distinguish between engaging in homosexual acts and having a homosexual inclination. While the former is always objectively sinful, the latter is not. To the extent that a homosexual tendency or inclination is not subject to one’s free will, one is not morally culpable for that tendency. Although one would be morally culpable if one were voluntarily to entertain homosexual temptations or to choose to act on them, simply having the tendency is not a sin. Consequently, the Church does not teach that the experience of homosexual attraction is in itself sinful.”

Marriage holds a special and unique role in our community as a whole.  Protecting and safeguarding marriage is about the common good.  As concerned citizens, we should learn all we can about the public significance of this important institution and work to preserve and encourage the ideal whenever possible.

To read more about marriage and Church teaching on sexuality, log on to www.pacatholic.org/current_issues/marriage.

PCC Column October 2009 by A.B. Hill, Communications Director of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference - the public affairs arm of Pennsylvania’s Catholic bishops and the Catholic dioceses of Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania State Council of the Knights of Columbus and the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference (PCC) hosted the breakfast to bring the bishops of the Commonwealth’s eight Roman Catholic and two Byzantine Catholic Dioceses and state legislators and other elected officials together.

“Gathering for breakfast gave elected officials and their local bishops a terrific opportunity to have a candid dialogue about their shared concern – the common good of their communities,” said Dr. Robert J. O’Hara, Jr., Executive Director of the PCC.  “We are grateful for the generosity of the Knights of Columbus in their sponsorship of this special event.”

Wayne S. Freet, Pennsylvania State Deputy of the Knights of Columbus, said, “By sponsoring the legislative breakfast, the 64,500 plus Knights in Pennsylvania were informing our legislators where we stand on the many culture of life issues facing our state and nation in the days ahead.  I was very pleased with the attendance of our Cardinal and Bishops, our brother Knights and most importantly the state legislators for giving of their time to attend.”  Freet says the Knights hope to build on this for future events.

The Bishops were in Harrisburg for their annual meeting as the Board of Governors of the PCC.  As the public affairs agency for the Church in Pennsylvania, the PCC formulates policy positions on state government programs, legislation, and policies that affect the common good and the interests of the Church.  It represents and speaks officially for the Church before all branches of state government and statewide voluntary groups and private organizations.  The PCC helps identify the needs of Pennsylvania citizens concerning morality, health, welfare, education, human rights, and seeks the orderly development of resources to meet these needs.  It works alone and in cooperation with others to meet these needs, and prevent and eliminate conditions that cause moral, social, educational, and health problems. In this effort, PCC aims to foster a public understanding of the Church’s teaching and concern about these issues.

Catholic elected officials in Pennsylvania were reminded of this responsibility as the Bishops of Pennsylvania concelebrated a special Mass in their honor on September 22, 2009.

In his homily, Cardinal Justin Rigali of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia said, “Some people in our society walk away from truth. The truth is not always easy. Some people walk away from the truth that every human being has inviolable dignity and must be protected from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. Some turn, instead, to abortion, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, embryonic stem cell research, and thus turn away from the path of life.

“Some walk away from the truth that the hungry must be fed; that the laborer has dignity; that the unemployed deserve work; that refugees and immigrants deserve safe passage, rights, and opportunities; that every person deserves adequate and affordable health care and education; that religious freedom must be respected; that the bond of marriage between one man and one woman is utterly unique; that the resources of the world are to be distributed equitably; that the entertainment industry must tune in to moral standards in programming; that violence and exploitation are affronts to human dignity and that racial prejudice has no place in our society.

“The common good is the common ground that unites us.  This common good and this common ground can never be falsehood.  It can only be the truth.  Together we are called to love the truth. We must never walk away from the truth, because the truth alone leads to freedom.”

Catholic elected officials joined the Bishops, the Administrative Board of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference (PCC), the Pennsylvania State Council of the Knights of Columbus and scores of faithful Catholic citizens at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Harrisburg.  The special Mass was scheduled in conjunction with the PCC’s regular annual meeting.

Dr. Robert J. O’Hara, Jr., PCC Executive Director said, “So many of the issues we deal with in Harrisburg have serious moral, ethical and social justice considerations.  Catholic men and women who run for public office bring an important perspective to the public policy debate.  We pray that their faith makes a difference in the outcome of legislative and regulatory issues.”

The Pennsylvania State Council of the Knights of Columbus sponsored the Mass.  Wayne S. Freet, current State Deputy, said the Knights wanted to honor elected officials, but also remind every Catholic that citizenship is a virtue. 

The Knights of Columbus is 1.7 million members strong, and growing. Since 1882, it has embodied the selflessness of man as it has helped overcome the problems of the world such as poverty, ignorance and apathy, things that imperil not only a single individual, but also the whole of humanity. Pennsylvania Catholic Conference is the public affairs arm of Pennsylvania’s Catholic bishops and the Catholic dioceses of Pennsylvania.

The Day of Dialogue on the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification is scheduled for Monday, October 26, 2009, at the Cardinal Keeler Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  Speakers include The Rev. Dr. Cheryl M. Peterson, Trinity Lutheran Seminary; The Very Rev. William H. Peterson, Bexley Hall Seminary of the Episcopal Church; and Rev. Msgr. John A. Radano, Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

A registration form is available here or call 717-657-4804 x265 for more details.

Caritas in Veritate

The encyclical says, “If we love others with charity, then first of all we are just towards them. Not only is justice not extraneous to charity, not only is it not an alternative or parallel path to charity: justice is inseparable from charity, and intrinsic to it.” (6)

Charity goes beyond justice.

It also says, “To love someone is to desire that person’s good and to take effective steps to secure it. Besides the good of the individual, there is the good that is linked to living in society: the common good. It is the good of ‘all of us,’ made up of individuals, families and intermediate groups who together constitute society. It is the good that is sought not for its own sake, but for the people who belong to the social community and who can only really and effectively pursue their good within it.” (7)

To desire the common good and strive towards it is a requirement of justice and charity.

Caritas in Veritate implores us to ask, are we practicing charity in our family or in our local community? Do our consumer choices reflect our social and moral responsibility to defend human life, treat people fairly, protect creation or otherwise reflect Catholic social teaching? Are we taking action to advance justice?

Pursuing charity, justice and the common good is at the core of the mission of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference (PCC). As the public affairs agency for the Catholic Church in the Commonwealth, PCC advocates for many issues that advance or defend these principles before our state government. We are blessed to live in a system of government where even ordinary citizens have a hand in promoting justice. Everyone can get involved.

The Pennsylvania Catholic Advocacy Network is one way Catholics can respond to the call of Caritas in Veritate. The grassroots advocacy network presents the collective voice of conscientious citizens to state lawmakers. The network along with the PCC Institute for Public Policy provides education about key issues and alerts concerned activists when action is needed.

With increasing economic distress, pressure for health care reform, threats to human life and the human family, and compromised resources for educating our children, now more than ever, Catholics need to step up their moral responsibility to work for truth in charity, justice and the common good. We can do our part to improve the global situation by taking action here in Pennsylvania.

Study guides for groups and individuals are available for download from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

PCC Column August 2009 by A.B. Hill, Communications Director of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference – the public affairs arm of Pennsylvania’s Catholic bishops and the Catholic dioceses of Pennsylvania.