Our Issues
Social & Economic Justice
Our work is built upon the themes of Catholic Social Teaching.
Our work focuses on fair access to health care, shelter, food, work and basic necessities; and policies that protect religious freedom, keep communities safe from violence and injustice, treat people with compassion and respect and protect the environment
We advocate for public policy that:
- Respects the life and dignity of each person
- Puts the needs of the poor and vulnerable first
- Affords all people the means to have their basic human needs met and recognizes society’s responsibility for securing those means
- Respects the dignity of work and the rights of workers
- Pursues justice and peace for all people
- Protects all of God’s creation.
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Dignity of Work
The Maryland Catholic Conference advocates for policies in support of the rights of workers to productive labor, a safe and decent work environment, fair and livable wages, to organize and join unions, and to the free exercise of economic initiative.
The Conference also supports legislation that removes barriers to ex-offenders securing adequate work and returning as productive members of their communities.
Among the policies for which we have successfully advocated are paid family leave, paid sick leave, and expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
Environment
We are called to be responsible stewards of the earth, our common home.
In his encyclical, Laudato Si, Pope Francis reminds us of our moral and spiritual responsibilities for taking care of the environment, which is God’s creation. The environmental struggles of today are closely interwoven with the needs for social and economic justice in society. Progress must be carefully weighed against the potential negative impact on vulnerable people and on the earth.
The Maryland Catholic Conference advocates for environmental stewardship, including support for legislation to establish a constitutional amendment for environmental rights and to promote energy efficiency and sustainability for our most vulnerable Marylanders.
Healthcare
The Maryland Catholic Conference supports public policies that help Marylanders, especially those living in or near poverty, access comprehensive health care and pursues public policy that protects religious freedom regarding the health care decisions of Catholic patients, Catholic health care professionals, and the Catholic hospitals in Maryland.
In our most recent legislative session, we supported polices to expand Medicaid dental coverage for adults and policies to expand behavioral health services within the state.
Immigration
The Maryland Catholic Conference embraces newcomers out of our respect for the dignity of each person. We promote public policies that aid and provide care to immigrants, migrants, and refugees. Among our initiatives, we work to promote trust between the immigrant community and law enforcement, protect victims and witnesses to crimes, and regulate labor contractors to address labor trafficking.
Among initiatives we have supported are policies that would establish access to counsel in immigration proceedings and provide fair housing, regardless of certain citizenship or immigration status.
Poverty
Nearly 10% of Marylanders live in poverty. At the heart of our advocacy efforts are addressing the systemic causes of poverty and working toward policies that meet the basic human needs of low-income Marylanders to better enable them to rise out of and remain out of poverty.
Public Safety
The Catholic Church has a strong interest in public safety and keeping communities safe. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops states that “[w]e must confront this growing culture of violence with a commitment to life, a vision of hope and a call to action.”
The Maryland Catholic Conference views public safety as a critical issue for our communities. Among the policies we support are policies to regulate firearms, including the ban of ghost guns, and grant funding for violence prevention and community service programs.
Racial Justice
The Catholic faith, and the policy positions that flow from our faith, is founded upon the belief that every person has inherent dignity:
“United, we seek healing, harmony and solutions that recognize that every person has been created in the image of God and that every person possesses human dignity. …[T]he Catholic Bishops of Maryland have stood firmly in our support of laws that sought to bring about justice and an end to unequal treatment based on race.
“This includes access to health and maternal care, meaningful educational opportunities, prison reforms, restorative justice initiatives, housing anti-discrimination efforts, juvenile justice reforms, and ending the grossly disparate practice of capital punishment.” – Catholic Bishops of Maryland, 2020
Pope Francis, writes, “This way of discarding others can take a variety of forms … a readiness to discard others finds expression in vicious attitudes that we thought long past, such as racism, which retreats underground only to keep reemerging. Instances of racism continue to shame us, for they show that our supposed social progress is not as real or definitive as we think.” (Fratelli Tutti, 20)