Maryland’s Virtual Catholic Advocacy Day, the largest annual multi-issue advocacy outreach, will be held Wednesday, Feb. 11. This is a week earlier than usual since Lent starts the following week.
The Maryland Catholic Conference – the official public policy organization for the Maryland-serving dioceses – organizes the event, which includes action alerts on up to six topics before the Maryland General Assembly of interest to Catholics.
These alerts, on life, education, and social and economic justice topics will be posted on the Conference Action Center, mdcatholic.org/take-action, the morning of Feb. 11. Parishioners just sign and send messages to their legislators on the issues they choose.
“We try to make advocacy as easy as possible,” said Jenny Kraska, executive director of the MCC.
“We know people care about the issues, but they also are busy. Our advocacy team identifies legislation that is important to us as faithful Catholics in three areas: life, education and youth justice, and social and economic justice,” Kraska said. “We prepare action alerts so all parishioners need to do is select the alerts they care about, sign and click send to share their position with the elected officials who represent them.”
She added that the MCC staff is grateful for everyone who takes part. “Senators and delegates often tell how much they appreciate getting messages from their constituents. We also have found that constituent messages can help those who may not agree with us rethink their position.”
The MCC will send out additional action alerts during the 90-day Maryland General Assembly session, but Virtual Catholic Advocacy Day is the largest advocacy event of the session.
