Inside the Capitol

Imagine St. Joseph, struggling in Egypt to support his family as they awaited a time to return home. Or, think of the daily trials the Holy Family faced as they fled the dangers in their homeland. These are problems that many migrants confront on a daily basis as they try to make their way in a new land.

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This year, the Minnesota Catholic Conference has joined other organizations in supporting the Homes for All agenda currently before the Minnesota Legislature.

The Homes for All proposal invests $39 million to address a spectrum of housing needs, such as developing more affordable housing, providing services to prevent homelessness and making available rental assistance to low income families.

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In 2014, the Minnesota Catholic Conference worked to successfully stop problematic legislation that would have legitimized commercial surrogacy contracts, which are currently not recognized under Minnesota law. This session, MCC is advocating for legislation that would establish a commission to study the issues and concerns associated with surrogacy arrangements, including how to ensure that we protect vulnerable women and children from potential exploitation and commodification.

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There is an increase today in the demand for convenience, a growing disdain for anything that causes us any sort of burden or pain. Where once our culture valued and even celebrated someone facing obstacles and admired someone who endured suffering, we now find every means imaginable to avoid these at all costs, even by choosing death that masquerades as “compassion” or “love.”

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Recently, I have been fielding a lot of questions about President Barack Obama’s executive action that “defers action” for, potentially, millions of undocumented persons living in the United States. Many illegal immigrants may have, if they qualify, at least a temporary reprieve from deportation.

Most people with whom I spoke, and who were initially opposed to the president’s action, supported it when they heard what it did and did not do. As Catholics, we support keeping families together.

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In the last edition of this column, I shared about why education policy is a deeply personal issue for me, and why it was an important justice issue to promote authentic school choice for all kids.

This column addresses why the Minnesota Catholic Conference will join with other Minnesota educational choice advocates in the 2015 legislative session to encourage legislators to establish educational savings accounts and opportunity scholarship tax credits for Minnesota families.

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Of all the important and interesting policy areas I work on, none is more personal than education.

Education issues have always held a particular interest for me. This interest has been greatly influenced by my own experience growing up, and now by experiences my wife and I have had with our three children’s education.

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This past summer, Time Magazine had a cover story called “The Next Civil Rights Revolution,” chronicling the movement to create legal mandates for the accommodation of persons who either identify as transgender or who refuse to identify as male or female altogether.

A stream of stories has also appeared locally, describing the lives of transgender-identifying individuals and their fight to end “gender identity discrimination,” most recently concerning the Minnesota State High School League’s proposed Transgender Student Policy. Although the policy was tabled until December, the discussion is far from over and questions about the policy and transgenderism from concerned Catholics abound.

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