2012 Life & Family Initiatives

on 27 January 2012.

The California Bishops are supporting both the parental notification initiative and the measure to end the use of the death penalty. Many Catholics are involved in signature gathering for these propositions. Each arch/dioceses has its own sets of guidelines and procedures. Please check with your arch/diocese to determine local activity.

Click here for a list of arch/diocesan websites

Bishop Statements

Links for other arch/dioceses will be added as they become available:

Communities of Salt and Light

on 28 November 2011.

Social ministry programs offer parishes a way to live out the concluding words of Mass: "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord." This is a call rooted in Scripture that goes beyond the charity works that many parishes offer, to realize that the charity and justice must be integrated into parish life. Depending on the size and demographics of a parish, the social ministry can reflect issues of concern in the local community or the parish’s resolve to stand in solidarity on more complex issues of moral and human dimensions.

Guidelines for Advocacy, Lobbying and Political Action

on 28 November 2011.

Download an English or Spanish flyer.

The California Catholic Conference of Bishops has prepared the following instruction on political advocacy for use by Catholic clergy and parishioners. (January 2010)

In his 2006 Encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict XVI wrote:

Building a just social and civil order, wherein each person receives what is his or her due, is an essential task which every generation must take up anew. As a political task, this cannot be the Church's immediate responsibility. Yet...the Church is duty-bound to offer, through the purification of reason and through ethical formation, her own specific contribution towards understanding the requirements of justice and achieving them politically.

- Deus Caritas Est, No. 28,Pope Benedict XVI, 2006

Amplifying this thought, in 2007 the U. S. Catholic Bishops wrote in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship saying:

Some question whether it is appropriate for the Church to play a role in political life. However, the obligation to teach about moral values that should shape our lives, including our public lives, is central to the mission given to the Church by Jesus Christ...The Catholic community brings important assets to the political dialogue about our nation's future.

- No's 9-12, U. S. Catholic Bishops, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship

Legislative Priorities