February 18, 2022

Inside this issue

• CCUSA Presents the Washington Weekly
• Faith and the Common Good
• Trivia
• Connections

  CCUSA Presents the Washington Weekly  
 
Overview: In a 65-27 vote, the Senate sent President Biden legislation to avert a government shutdown and fund the government through March 11. (The Associated Press) As lawmakers debate and consider a final agreement on government funding, both Democrats and Republicans are resisting the Biden administration's ask for billions of new money to continue its COVID-19 response. (Politico)

Economy: In the week ending February 12, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial [unemployment insurance weekly] claims was 248,000, an increase of 23,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 2,000 from 223,000 to 225,000.  

Funding the government: President Biden is expected to sign the new Continuing Resolution sent to him by Congress. The government will be funded through March 11 until a final agreement can be achieved. 

Immigration: The Biden administration plans to change what defines a person to be a  "public charge," the regulation that stipulated immigrants seeking legal status in the U.S. could not be dependent on government assistance for more than half their income. In 2019, the Trump administration included the receiving of health benefits, housing assistance, food assistance, and other provisions that would make it more difficult for persons to obtain legal status. The Biden administration's forthcoming proposed rule would seek changes that would "return to the historical understanding of the term 'public charge'..." In previously filed comments, Catholic Charities USA, joined by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, expressed concern and opposition to the Trump administration's proposed changes to the definition of 'public charge.' In August of 2019, CCUSA issued a statement opposing the final public charge rule asking the Department of Homeland Security to rescind the rule. 

Responding to criticism about Catholic Charities' work with migrants on the southern border, Sister Donna Markham, OP, PhD, president and CEO of CCUSA, reiterated Catholic Charities' commitment to humanitarian service in an article from American magazine. 
 
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  Faith and the Common Good  
 
February 2022 is Black History Month in the United States, a time when the nation reflects on the contributions of Black men and women to the common good. The annual celebration was the idea of historian Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950), who started the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915 for "promoting achievements by Black Americans and other peoples of African descent." Since 1976, every U.S. president has dedicated February as Black History Month.

One contribution that the Black community has made to society at large, and to individual institutions like the Catholic Church, is unmasking the sins of systemic racism and white supremacy. The effort involved, and still does, the overturning of discriminatory laws and practices. However, a deeper motive is the realization of God's will: that every human being, made in God's image and likeness, should live as one family of God, loving each other as fellow members of Christ's body and advancing toward full communion in heaven.

A group of Catholics in the U.S. dedicated to both ending racism and promoting communion, though their contributions are not widely known, are Black nuns. The first monastery for women was founded in the first century by a group of Black women living in present-day Ethiopia. St. Iphigenia, one of two Black nuns canonized by the Church (St. Josephine Bakhita is the other), was the leader. Two thousand years later, Black women founded orders in the U.S. as well, including the Oblate Sisters of Providence (1828, Baltimore, Md.), the Sisters of the Holy Family (New Orleans, La. 1842), and the Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary (Savannah, Ga. 1916).

In the early years, the sisters helped their brothers and sisters who had been enslaved to read and write, and they also passed on the culture of Black Catholics. The sisters endured racism in and out of the Church. Yet they persevered knowing that they had to obey the law of God, especially when the laws of man were unjust. Many of the sisters were active in the civil rights movement, and they challenged the discrimination within white religious orders and the Church in general.

Sister Thea Bowman's address to the U.S. bishops in 1989 remains a powerful symbol of the contribution of Black nuns helping the Catholic Church realize more fully its call to be universal. She called the Church her home, and she urged the bishops to actively embrace the Black community through evangelizing those not yet members and promoting the full participation of those already members. Sister Bowman, and so many other nuns like her who are less well known, benefited from and continued the courageous witness of the sisters who paved their way in the U.S.
 
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  Trivia  
 
Q. Which pope had the shortest reign?

Please send your answers to [email protected]. 

Last week's question and answer:

Q. A small town in southwestern France, in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains, would become known worldwide because of what event there on Feb. 11, 1858?

A. Thanks to Attracta Kelly, director of the Immigration Assistance Office of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, for being first to give the right answer: "On this day in 1858 in Lourdes, France, 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous, a miller's daughter, first had visions of the Virgin Mary that were authenticated by Pope Pius IX in 1862, initiating the cult of Our Lady of Lourdes."
 
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  Connections  
 
Please share the weekly with your friends, family and networks so that we can build a movement of solidarity for those most in need!

Be sure to text CCUSA to 50457 to receive our action alerts! 

You can also access advocacy opportunities through our advocacy and policy page.

Stay connected with our work to end poverty: Follow us on Twitter at @CCharitiesUSA.   

If you would like to help further Catholic Charities' commitment to alleviating, reducing, and preventing poverty, you can contribute here.
 
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