Summary of March 29 Meeting, Public Policy Committee
The meeting started about 7 PM in the Knights’ room. Attendees: Mike Benigno, Dave Bonk, Tom Colopy, Lou Gigliotti, Jim Haag, John Stanson, Joe Rothengast and Terry Whalen.
Jim H. started the meeting summarizing and evaluating our initiatives since last fall. Some progress was made, in spite of obstacles, on CVNC, Health Forum, Culture of Life resolution, Marches for Life, but some impediments were noted: lack of State Deputy support for public policy and apparent reticence on the part of our NC bishops to seriously engage the Knights (e.g., our public policy effort) in support of Catholic PP issue discussion and promulgation. Perhaps the bishops don’t fully recognize the potential value, usefulness and effectiveness of K of C public policy engagement. With respect to our agenda, we specifically deliberated on the following:
1) Blog: We revised Public Policy blog mission and rules wording to add flexibility with respect to mentioning names of individuals and party affiliation. Participation is initially limited to Council members, but we intend to expand it to other councils in the future. A first blog topic to be presented, “Subsidiarity,” will define and explain this Catholic teaching. Its focus is to help Council members to understand the basics of Catholic teaching on Subsidiarity. The blog is a means for Brothers to comment and share views, etc. Mike B. and Joe R. will explain and demo the blog’s operation and invite member participation at our April 7 meeting. Mike will do a brief power point of “Subsidiarity” before the May Council meeting. Meanwhile, the blog is open to all Brothers to make statements, ask questions or make proposals. All you have to do is to get a wordpress.com. ID – free on the site: http://koc12455.wordpress.com.
2) CVNC: The March Tar Heel Knight did not, as expected at last month’s meeting, present the Bishops’ letter thanking NC Knights for their pro life stance and support and requesting that all Brothers fully support of CVNC. Perhaps this invitation will appear in the April THK.
We concurred in a continued interest in promoting CVNC both in our parish and to other councils. We will use the upcoming April 11 Communion Breakfast as a forum for this appeal and Mike B. will ask Fr. Joe to stress the need to sign up with CNVC at all masses on that same weekend. Terry will talk to DD Bill Wolf about a possible district meeting of GKs to discuss CVNC and other public policy initiatives. Joe R. will print or obtain CVNC information cards. Jim H. has about 60 left from the fall CVNC campaign. We will make these information cards available to fellow parishioners. Jim H. will ask Michelle if “faithful citizenship” is a topic in an upcoming TLC and also will touch bases with Msgr. Clay on the CVNC promotion efforts underway, etc. It was agreed that Jim and Terry should meet with John Gouldie and John Nussbaum about promoting CVNC and extending the public policy team approach to other councils.
4) We discussed the Choose Life license plate initiative as proactive way to encourage pro life and fight against the evil of abortion. Jim H. will inquire about status from Bill Dougherty and perhaps request a meeting with Msgr. Clay to learn about legislative efforts anticipated in the short session to push this bill. Also Tom C. will work with Bill Dougherty on this issue.
5) Dave B. suggested that we consider surveying candidates to do a voter guide for the May 4th primary. However, the short time and required resource commitment seemed to work against this. We also need to know whether other groups are more suitable for this type of project. The consensus was to not do this project at this time.
Meeting concluded about 8:30 PM.
