St. Charles Group Tackles Legislative Advocacy

By Greg Horton
For the Sooner Catholic

OKLAHOMA CITY — Since January of 2003, a group of parishioners has been meeting at St. Charles Borromeo Church to advocate on behalf of the poor and disenfranchised by working to influence government policies. The Legislative Advocacy Coalition came about as a result of groups members’ involvement in the Just Faith program offered at St. Charles Borromeo in 2002.

Margaret Phipps, Pastoral Associate at St. Charles Borromeo, said participants in the Just Faith program wanted to do some concrete things with the training they had received.

“I got terrified because I didn’t know what to do with them,” Phipps said. “I had all these educated, informed, serious people who wanted to be advocates and I didn’t know how to train them to be advocates.”

Phipps contacted NETWORK, a national Catholic social justice lobby, for help. According to their website, NETWORK “...has been influencing Congress in favor of peace and justice for more than 30 years. Through lobbying and legislative advocacy, we strive to close the gap between rich and poor and to dismantle policies rooted in racism, greed and violence.”

NETWORK created a pilot program for St. Charles Borromeo as well as one other parish and two large organizations. The pilot program became the Legislative Advocacy Coalition (LAC). Phipps trained 65 letter writers, protestors, and volunteer lobbyists to advocate for social justice issues.

The LAC meets on an irregular basis at the parish. Much of the work is done through action alerts sent to the members of the coalition. The action alerts include information about legislation and suggested steps to advocate, such as letter writing, phone calls, or lobbying.

Suzanne Smart, a clinical social worker and member of the LAC, said the focus has changed in the past year.

 “We’re working on educating parishioners about the issues and about how to be involved in advocacy,” she said. “We still have the mandate to stay involved in legislative advocacy, but not much is happening this session.”

Phipps said the change is also due to a “disappointing year” last year. “We didn’t get much of a response from state or federal legislators,” Phipps said. “Their ideas are different about what constitutes justice.”

Smart said the legislators have not been unfriendly though.

“There is such a conservative mandate now, in the state and at the federal level,” she said. “Government spending for the poor is not considered a priority in a Republican administration.”

The LAC focuses on one issue a year now. Last year they worked to  block decreases in Medicaid. This year the focus was the Making Hunger History project. The LAC is currently meeting to plan their agenda for next year.

Lorrie Corbin, an attorney and new member of the group, said she learned about the LAC through the bulletin at St. Charles Borromeo.

“I talked to Nancy Largent from Catholic Charities at this fair we had between Masses one day,” she said. “Each ministry had a booth, and I’d seen the information in the bulletin, so I went over to the LAC booth. Nancy encouraged me to get involved.”

Corbin is currently researching poverty in Oklahoma for the LAC. “I am embarrassed to admit I had no idea how pervasive it (poverty) was and where this state ranks,” Corbin said.

Volunteers like Corbin are the heart of the group, but Suzanne Smart said the LAC would be lost without the input of Shirley Cox from Catholic Charities.

 “When you’re researching something as complicated as Medicaid, you can easily get lost,” Smart said. “Shirley explains things to us, gets materials for us, and makes it possible to understand the issues.”

Smart said the group would continue to meet every two weeks until the holidays. After the holidays they plan to announce their focus for next year.