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

Overview: The CCUSA Social Policy team continued its visits to new members of Congress and staff this week, sharing with them CCUSA’s legislative priorities for the 118th Congress and the work of Catholic Charities agencies across the country. 

Economy: In the week ending February 11, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial [unemployment] claims was 194,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 1,000 from 196,000 to 195,000. The 4-week moving average was 189,500, an increase of 500 from the previous week's revised average.

Many older Americans enjoy volunteering their time by mentoring others who need help. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

Youth Mentoring: The Mentoring to Succeed Act (H.R. 252/S. 65) has been re-introduced by Rep. Schakowsky (D-Ill) and Sen. Durbin (D-Ill) to create a federal grant program that would provide support for school-based mentoring programs for middle and high school youth. Nearly 100 Catholic Charities agencies reported that they provided development services to over 200,000 youth nationwide in 2021. CCUSA endorsed this bill because it would provide additional support to agencies running mentoring programs and serving young people. 

Proposed Federal Rule on Partnerships with Faith-Based and Neighborhood Organizations: On January 13, 2023 nine federal agencies proposed a wide-ranging rule that would roll back changes implemented under the Trump administration related to faith-based partnerships and providers of services with federal funds.  The United States Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Agriculture (USDA), Education (ED), Homeland Security (DHS), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Justice (DOJ), Labor (DOL), Veterans Affairs (VA) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), collectively referred to as “the Agencies”, jointly issued the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM). The NPRM is responsive to Executive Order 14015 signed by President Biden on February 14, 2021 reestablishing the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Our social policy team has been reviewing and evaluating the proposed rule and considering filing comments by the deadline of March 14, 2023.  Please see the link to the proposed rule here.

EQUAL Act: CCUSA joined in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of the EQUAL Act, which makes federal sentencing guidelines consistent for crack and powder cocaine. Sentences for use of crack cocaine have been more severe and applied more commonly to people of color, whereas sentences for use of powder cocaine have been less severe and applied more commonly to white people, despite the nearly identical negative effects of both kinds of cocaine. The bill failed to pass in the 117th Congress. CCUSA, alongside other faith-based groups, is advocating for its re-introduction and passage in the 118th Congress.

Top

When the evangelist Matthew recounts Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, he writes in Greek. Sunday's gospel reading for Mass, translated into English, offers ten lines from Jesus' famous sermon (Mt 5:38-48). The last line is widely known and widely misunderstood.

"So be perfect (teleioi), just as your heavenly Father is perfect (teleios)."

The English word "perfect" translates the original Greek words: "teleioi" and "teleios," both of which come from "telos," which connotes being brought to completion and ordered to one’s end. Ask your average English speaker in the U.S. what “perfect” means, and you are unlikely to get a similar answer. You will probably hear something like “being without flaw.” There’s a sense of this meaning in the Sermon on the Mount, for Jesus certainly wants us to avoid sin and evil. However, the greater sense is being ordered toward union with God in heaven because that is our destiny.

A church window depicts Jesus giving his Sermon on the Mount, which begins with the beatitudes. The beatitudes are perhaps the most beautiful and compelling part of the Gospel. (CNS photo/Crosiers)

The Sermon on the Mount shows us how to be ordered to our end. Just as God desires that every human person be with him in heaven and manifests this desire by making “his sun rise on the bad and the good,” Jesus’ disciples work to love everyone and help them gain heaven. The precepts of the Sermon, whether giving someone a coat or loving one’s enemy, manifest God’s love. If this love is received well, the person is set on the path to heaven and begins to share God’s love too.

Catholic Social Teaching uses language different from the Sermon on the Mount, but it has the same meaning. “To love someone is to desire that person’s good and to take effective steps to secure it.” The good encompasses everything needed for a life commensurate with human dignity: the basic necessities as well as the freedom to develop one’s relationship with God, who, again, is the human person’s “end” and greatest good. Yet, it’s not enough to secure the good of an individual, for the disciple of Jesus also works for the common good, “the good of ‘all of us,’ made up of individuals, families and intermediate groups who together constitute society.” This concept of the good, like the precepts of the Sermon, call for shaping the “earthly city in unity and peace” while at the same time prefiguring “the undivided city of God.” (Caritas in veritate, No. 7)

Whatever language one uses to state it, the perfection of the human being ends in being one with God – and with all the saints – in heaven, and it begins by loving each other here and now.

Top

Q. In light of Presidents’ Day next Monday, can you name which U.S. presidents have received the Nobel Peace Prize?

Please send your answers to [email protected]. 

Last week's question and answer:

Q. What character, in which Shakespeare play, mentions Valentine’s Day?

A. Many thanks to Carolyn Snelling, from St. Joseph in Edina, Mo., for being first with the right answer: Ophelia in Hamlet, Act 4, scene 5, lines 53 and 56.

Top

Please share the weekly with your friends, family and networks so that we can build a movement of solidarity for those most in need!

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: @EndPoverty.   

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

Top