Florida Catholic | Advocacy Network A Voice For Justice

Advocacy Network a voice for justice

The Florida Catholic Conference’s Advocacy Network helps Catholics speak truth to power, right when the words will count the most. The network represents grassroots action in the electronic age, issuing calls to action through e-mail.

JACQUELYN HORKAN | FLORIDA CATHOLIC STAFF

Published: 03.11.08

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MIAMI | It’s a familiar sight any time lawmakers come to town. Lobbyists prowl the corridors of the Capitol and jam the rotunda outside the House and Senate chambers.

But theirs aren’t the only voices politicians hear.

“Legislators and people from executive branch tell us that if they get letters from constituents and if there’s a really strong voice for or against something, it does make a difference,” said Mike McCarron, executive director of the Florida Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s bishops on public policy matters. The Florida Legislature is in its 2008 regular session through May 2.

The conference’s Advocacy Network helps Catholics speak truth to power, right when the words will count the most. The network represents grassroots action in the electronic age, issuing calls to action through e-mail. A typical e-mail will alert subscribers to an upcoming vote on state or federal legislation, including background on the issue and an explanation of the church’s position. From the e-mail, subscribers can select a prewritten message to e-mail to the applicable lawmaker from their districts, or write their own.

Michele Taylor, the conference’s associate for communications, administers the network. She said some have requested U.S. Post Office delivery of Advocacy Network mailings, which she said defeats the purpose of the network’s instant response.

“When we send out a call to action, the vote on that bill might be taking place within hours,” said Taylor. “With everybody hooked up to computers, it’s easy to facilitate and get messages back to legislators as quickly as possible.

McCarron said politicians now prefer e-mail over “snail mail.”

“They have programs that can instantly verify that an e-mail is coming from a constituent,” he said. “A letter takes longer to verify.

Taylor said the Advocacy Network is an outgrowth of an earlier grassroots effort.

“We had a small network for a number of years and we realized the importance of the grassroots and putting our voices together for a stronger voice,” she said.

Since Taylor took over the administration of the Advocacy Network in January 2007, membership has grown from just more than 800 people to just fewer than 2,000. In addition to calls to action, the conference distributes weekly legislative reports through the network, explaining the issues and reporting on bill activity. The conference recently launched a quarterly newsletter, “The Common Good,” distributed through the network.

Prior to the January presidential primary, the conference used the Advocacy Network to disseminate a three-part series on how voters should form their consciences. Since the church does not endorse candidates, the series was designed to give the faithful some guidance on how to decide whom they should support. Taylor said the Advocacy Network will send out a similar series for the November general election.

According to Catholic teaching, advocacy on issues related to human life and dignity is more than a civic duty.

The U.S. bishops, in their statement “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” explain, “Responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation. This obligation is rooted in our baptismal commitment to follow Jesus Christ and to bear Christian witness in all we do.”

The conference’s vision statement commits the organization to “provid(ing) opportunities for Catholics in Florida to carry out their responsibility to participate in political life.”

McCarron traced the legacy of the vision statement from the U.S. bishops’ faithful citizenship statement to the catechism and the Vatican II document “Gaudium et Spes.” Each of these works of man receives its authority from Matthew 25:40, when Christ tells us, “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”

“It’s very clear that each and every one of us in each of our roles — as parent, business owner, worker — we are called to be involved,” McCarron said.

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