The second day of the Catholic Charities USA Centennial Gathering was long but without many momentous events.  We were put to work.  We met with the Social Policy Committee to update us on the issues that are of concern to the local agencies.  The current economic situation and immigration received most of the attention.

Fr. Larry Snyder, President and CEO of Catholic Charities USA welcomed us and outlined rest of the conference making sure that we realized the important role the local Catholic Charities play in carrying out the gospel message of the Catholic Church. He told us that this is the “Time to Think and Act Anew”.

Several past directors and employees of Catholic Charities USA were awarded the Centennial Medal of Catholic Charities of USA.  All of those awarded were leading Catholic Charities USA during the time that I have been a part of Catholic Social Service in the Diocese of Dodge City.  I enjoyed reflecting on what each of these leaders brought to the Catholic Charities movement.

We spent the afternoon preparing for our visits to “the Hill” and our meetings with our Kansas congressional delegation.  We have scheduled appointments with Senators Roberts and Brownback and with the staff of Rep. Morin.  The Catholic Charities agencies of Kansas will be sharing a state wide impact statement and asking them to co-sponsor the transformative legislation to address poverty.  It is anticipated that The National Opportunity and Community Renewal Act will be assigned a bill number by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.  We will be asking our delegation to co-sponsor the bill.  This is a new way of addressing poverty.  I am looking forward to sharing the details with you.

We finished the day with the celebration of the Sunday liturgy and a dinner with Archbishop Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York.  He is a tremendous advocate of Catholic Charities and shared history of the mission of the movement in a way that I had not heard before.  It was very inspiring and motivating.

Tomorrow we will be participating in special interest workshops.  There are too many to choose from and I am still deciding which to attend.