Monday was another long day.  Many awards were given as we started the day with the Bishop Joseph M. Sullivan Award.  Sister Maureen Joyce received the award even though she had passed away in the last year.  She was a great advocate of adoption, particularly for those who came to adoption through foster care.  I have so much respect for Bishop Sullivan.  He has a great love and passion for children, families and for adoption.  He funds the award every year and has a painting commissioned to commemorate the honor.  This year it was a portrait of Sister Maureen.

Three programs were honored with the Annie E. Casey Family Strengthening Award.  There is really wonderful work taking place to help families improve their life situations.  Check our CCUSA for details of their programs.

Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes addressed the conference.  He is president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum at the Vatican.  It is quite an honor to have someone from the Vatican address the members of Catholic Charities USA.  He reminded us of our responsibility to “be like Jesus” and to be true to Catholic Social Teaching.  I really enjoyed Cardinal Cordes’ sense of humor even though he expressed his discomfort in reading his address since English is not his “mother language”.

We had the privilege of hearing from Dr. Regina Benjamin, the Surgeon General of the United States.  It was very inspiring to hear her experience of providing health care to those who live in poverty.  It was very clear that the intersection between poverty and health care is very strong.  She received a Centennial Metal from Catholic Charities USA.  It was really touching to see how honored she was.  She actually had a difficult time gathering her thoughts to begin her talk because she was so surprised.

We moved into the Professional Interest Learning Labs.  I attended a workshop presented by the Development and Communications Section.  The workshop on entitled The New Nonprofit Sector: Making Your Organization a Leader.  They spoke a lot about the role of social media; have a plan and working it well.  I am coming home with some ideas about what we need to do.  If you have not followed us on Facebook, you need to.  If you have not joined Facebook, you really need to.

During lunch we hear from Patrick Corvington, Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service.  He directs the VISTA and AmeriCorps programs.  I have heard him talk before at a Vista/AmeriCorps training.  Today he talked from his Catholic faith.  It was powerful to listen to him talk about how his personal faith drives him to participate in service to his country.

After lunch we attended Focus Areas Breakout and I attended the session Immigration: An America for All.  There was really no new information, but a glimmer of hope that there may be some legislation for compressive immigration reform.  This is something that Bishop Gilmore has supported for a number of years.  I had the same feeling that I have had every time I have listened to similar discussions.  What do we need to do to prepare for passage of legislation?  There are not enough immigration workers to deal with the demand in southwest Kansas, but many families in need of assistance.

In the evening we went to the Library of Congress to unveil the books that were written in recognition of the Catholic Charities USA centennial.  There were some rumors that President Obama might attend, but that did not happen.  What did happen was that every Catholic social of social work received the Centennial Metal.  That was pretty impressive and I was very proud to see Kansas Newman receive the recognition.

Tomorrow morning we go to Capitol Hill to meet with the Kansas Congressional delegation to share our Kansas Catholic Charities information and to encourage co-sponsorship of the transformative poverty legislation developed by Catholic Charities USA.  There will be more than 1000 people visiting with their legislative delegation asking for support to reduce poverty in America.