Faithful citizens visit the state Capitol

The flurry of committee hearings and bill debates and legislators shaking hands and conversing with their peers and constituents at the 2023 Louisiana Legislature may cause Catholics to wonder what actually happens in the halls and chambers of the state Capitol.

It can seem so complex they may ask how does this impact the laws that will be passed? And how does one know bills being introduced are aligned with Catholic teachings?

The Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops invited people to see for themselves on Faithful Citizens Day on May 3.

Enrollment was doubled from 2022 in this year’s Faithful Citizen’s Day, according to Tom Costanza, executive director of LCCB. Participants included religious, ministry leaders and lay people who wanted to know more about the law-making process.

“This witness of the Catholic faithful helps us, as the legislators see Catholics involved and applying the principles of Catholic Social Teaching,” Costanza said.

He noted one improvement this year is that attendees met directly with legislators and were able to discuss the LCCB’s legislative priorities for the current session.

“We also developed a sense of community with each other as we went to the Capitol, advocated, attended Mass and prayed, thus enjoying what it means to be a faithful citizen,” said Costanza.

Participants gathered at St. Joseph Cathedral for a “briefing” on LCCB principals and priorities for this session. They are human life and dignity of the human person; call to family, community and participation; preferential option for the poor and vulnerable; solidarity in restorative justice (restore victim, offender and community); the dignity of work and rights of workers; and care for God’s creation.

They then walked the street to the Capitol to see legislators in action.

Costanza said, “I think that the day centered on the Eucharist is most important. This sacrament gives us the Spirit of fervor to work in the public square. I think what was most educational and formative was that we continued to look at the principles of Catholic social teaching to evaluate legislation. This gives Catholics a sound framework based on Scripture, tradition and over 100 years of teaching from the magisterium.”

Attendees expressed their appreciation of the LCCB’s efforts on informing legislators and Catholic voters on issues that are important to the church.

“I think the objective of what they set out to do was successful, and that is to try to heighten the awareness of people concerning criminal justice, and the legislative process plays such an integral part in it,” said Jay Jackson, retired chaplain at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

Jackson said the process of informing the minds of the legislators must start sooner.

“We need to be a bit more proactive,” said Jackson. “We need to know who our representatives and senators are. We need to contact them, send a letter.”

People need to get others active as well to effectively stress to legislators they take the issues seriously, according to Jackson.

“Speaking out is not only important in the church community but in the legislative process as well,” said Jackson.

Nyler Farlough of Laplace was drawn to the event because she wanted to learn about social justice issues being discussed by legislators.

“Particularly where I live, the issue is minimum wage,” said Farlough. “I think it’s time something is done about that for workers.

“It’s been a number of years since that has been changed. And the cost of living is going up. And I think it’s time for that to be addressed.”

She added, “I want to see more Catholics get involved,” and stressed there are many social justice issues to be addressed, such as human trafficking.

Several Jesuit novices also attended the event.

Scott McKlip, a native of Davenport, Iowa, who is in formation at St. Charles College in Grand Coteau, said, “Listening and hearing committees discuss and hear testimony, I was surprised at just how kind of free flowing that testimony is.”

He found the people at the Capitol were friendly and interacting with one another. The event demonstrated to him that becoming involved in the legislative process is less intimidating and more accessible than people might think.

Reflecting on the day, McKlip said, “Knowing my faith goes outside of four walls is really important. And that’s the reason why I wanted to become a Jesuit. And part of the reason I want to continue in my Catholic faith is to help others see that (our faith) is about Sunday, but it’s also about Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and all the days between. What happened on Monday also impacts Sunday.”

For more information about the current legislative session, visit laccb.org and click Take Action to sign up for LCCB Weekly Legislative Summaries and Action Alerts.