May 2020 Texas Catholic Voice

While COVID-19 has turned the world upside down and presented many needs and issues to which we are monitoring and responding, the day-to-day issues facing Texans have not gone away.

In March, just as the shutdown was beginning, the Texas bishops approved the advocacy agenda for the 87^th Legislature. Our staff is updating our policy research to ensure we are prepared for the upcoming legislative session. The agenda spans the full spectrum of social and moral issues we support to protect the life and dignity of the human person from conception to natural death.

Here’s a sample of the issues covered:

• Human life is intrinsically valuable and should be protected by law from conception, which happens at fertilization, to natural death. Moreover, the family is the sanctuary of life in which parents teach children how they ought to live. The TCCB opposes direct threats to innocent human life, from conception to natural death, and seeks to promote strong, stable, and healthy families.
• Immigration reform should be merciful, charitable, and compassionate to those here simply working for a better life, while also recognizing the legitimate responsibility of the government to maintain control of our nation’s borders.
• Restorative justice calls us to seek criminal justice reform that provides for compassionate treatment of prisoners, responds to the needs of victims of crime, and encourages rehabilitation and forgiveness for those re-entering society.
• Recognizing parents as the primary educators of children, the TCCB supports increasing educational opportunities, especially for the poor and children with special needs, and recognizes the fundamental right of parents to direct their children’s education.
• We believe that healthcare is an essential component of protecting the sanctity of life and promoting human dignity.
• As Christians, we are obliged to care for our neighbors who experience poverty in its various forms. The Church provides for the poor and the vulnerable in our charitable ministries. Justice demands that we also prioritize the poor and vulnerable when addressing social and economic needs through public policy, including by adequately funding essential public services.
• It is imperative for the social and educational missions of the church that we maintain and protect religious liberty.
• The Church promotes an integral ecology that calls us to receive creation as a gift, recognize the interrelatedness between the good of the human person and of the environment, and to be prudent stewards of our common home, so that generations to come may also enjoy its bounty.

In addition to these important issues, we will also be closely monitoring the state budget as state leaders are calling for a five percent overall reduction in budget because of the economic impact of the coronavirus and falling oil prices. COVID-19 brings a host of new issues to the legislature which we will be analyzing through the lenses of Catholic moral and social teaching and asking all of you to join us in being a voice for the unborn, the poor, and the vulnerable.