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May
7, 2007
VOL.
45, NO. 9Oakland,
CA
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| Dozens of young people lead a march from the Cathedral
of the Blessed Sacrament to the Capitol to participate in a Lobby
Day rally, April 24. CATHY JOYCE/CATHOLIC HERALD PHOTO |
Eighteen East
Bay Catholics traveled to Sacramento, April 24, to join more than 600
other Catholics for the ninth annual Lobby Day, sponsored by the California
Catholic Conference, the public policy office of the state’s Catholic
bishops.
“We come as a people of hope, confident we will be heard, that our
legislators will be open to listening with ears that hear the voices of
those who speak for what is right and just….willing to be touched
by the plight of those who are poor,” said Auxiliary Bishop Gabino
Zavala of Los Angeles during a homily at the Mass in Blessed Sacrament
Cathedral that started the day. Monterey Bishop Richard J. Garcia presided
at the liturgy.
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| Orange Auxiliary Bishop Jaime Soto blesses boxes
containing 45,000 cards and petitions on federal immigration reform
legislation during a Mass at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Sacramento. CATHY JOYCE/CATHOLIC HERALD PHOTO |
The one-day
lobbyists met with legislators or their staffs to discuss four bills:
physician-assisted suicide, food stamps, compassionate release for terminally
ill inmates and college financial aid for undocumented students.
“They really do listen,” said Mary Doyle of the legislative
aides. “Sometimes they don’t know much about an issue so you
feel like you really are educating some of them.”
Doyle is social justice coordinator for the Oakland Diocese.
The East Bay delegation, which included Holy Names Sisters, graduates
of the JustFaith program and members of parish social justice committees,
divided into two teams to visit the offices of legislators who represent
Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
Doyle said that for many of the delegates, the lobbying experience is
their first effort and that the process gets “demystified. Now they
can go into the legislators’ local offices and feel comfortable.”
“It’s exciting to see how people become empowered and then
realize that they can give voice to the voiceless,” she added. “This
year that meant speaking on behalf of the ill and elderly, prisoners,
the undocumented and the poor.”
In addition to their lobbying efforts on the state level, participants
brought to the morning Mass 45,000 signed cards and petitions calling
for just, comprehensive immigration reform. More than 3500 of the cards
came from members in the Oakland Diocese.
Doyle said the cards will be delivered to Sen. Dianne Feinstein. “We
want her to understand how local communities are impacted and to ask her
to pressure Congress to enact just reform,” she said.
Auxiliary Bishop Jaime Soto of Orange blessed the cards during the liturgy.
An immigration reform bill is likely to be out of the Senate by the end
of May. The House expects its version to be ready by July.
