COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

September 21, 2005

 Faith-Based Institutions: Assisting their Neighbors during Katrina – and Beyond

Support their Right to Do More; Vote YES on the Boustany Amendment

Dear Colleague:

Now more than ever – in the weeks following Hurricane Katrina – we are seeing that faith-based organizations are a priceless national resource, providing help and hope to communities across the Gulf Coast and throughout the nation.  Improving lives and providing relief is all in a day’s work for faith-based organizations.  That’s why the President has called on Congress to level the playing field when these compassionate service providers are seeking to play a role in federal initiatives to serve those in need.

Faith-based organizations already help to provide a host of federal social services.  In fact, President Clinton signed four separate laws to remove barriers so faith-based organizations willing to serve their communities are not forced to give up their federally protected right to maintain their religious nature and character through those they hire.  The 1964 Civil Rights Act makes that right perfectly clear.  And a unanimous 1987 United States Supreme Court decision (Corporation of the Presiding Bishop v. Amos) reaffirms it. 

When you look beyond the misleading rhetoric employed by opponents of the Boustany amendment to the School Readiness Act (H.R. 2123), which would allow faith-based organizations to serve children through the early childhood education program Head Start, you readily understand that faith-based groups don’t exist to “discriminate.”  They exist to serve.

The following article from the September 12, 2005 Baton Rouge daily newspaper, The Advocate, highlights just a handful of ways that faith-based organizations have stepped-up in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. 

These organizations won’t stop helping after the relief effort is done.  They have been and will continue to be willing to do even more.  And Congress shouldn’t stand in their way.  We urge you to support the Boustany amendment to the School Readiness Act and allow these compassionate, professional organizations to extend a helping hand to our nation’s Head Start students. 

Sincerely,

The Advocate

(Baton Rouge, Louisiana)

September 12, 2005

Religious leaders groups step in to help;
Organizations mobilize quickly in face of crisis

By William Taylor

The usual role for Catholic Charities USA comes 30 days after a disaster.

The Alexandria, Va.-based organization traditionally lets the American Red Cross, Salvation Army and others make the initial response before stepping in to help people rebuild their lives.

Hurricane Katrina hasn’t allowed the ordinary approaches.

“Like every other relief agency, we’ve never encountered a disaster like this with a whole city being evacuated or so many evacuees,” said the Rev. Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA.

Catholic Charities and other church-based agencies have mobilized to feed, house and clothe Katrina evacuees.

Leaders of various religious organizations concede they don’t have the financial resources of government, but they said they do have experienced volunteers, generous supporters and the flexibility to make quick decisions.

Catholics, Protestants, Jews and others are sending money, supplies, volunteers and, in many cases, national and international leadership.

Southern Baptist Convention President Bobby Welch met with Baptist relief teams and area pastors last week at Florida Boulevard Baptist Church.

Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington D.C., led a community service Friday night at Beth Shalom Synagogue.

Televangelist Benny Hinn taped “This is Your Day” Saturday at Bethany World Center’s Shelter of Hope to bring attention to Louisiana families displaced by Katrina.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., returned to his home in Baton Rouge to meet with area pastors about the relief effort just days after the hurricane.

Archbishop Demetrios, leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in America and chairman of the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in America, toured the area Friday.

And Pope Benedict XVI sent an envoy, Archbishop Paul Josef Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum.

Cor Unum, meaning unified heart, is a Vatican office that aids those in need with funds received each year from designated donations worldwide.

Cordes led a Mass on Sunday, visited area shelters and was scheduled today to tour the area, meet with political leaders and offer a gift from the Vatican.

Snyder expects a gift in the range of $250,000.

In addition, Catholic Charities, the church’s charity for tackling poverty and disasters within the United States, is collecting donations to help the Gulf Coast.

Snyder said he expects those to total near $20 million - similar to what was raised after Sept. 11, 2001.

Those funds primarily will go toward long-term recovery, especially in addressing the needs of the poor who were displaced by the storm, Snyder said.

“These are the folks whose resources were already stretched, which is why they couldn’t evacuate,” he said. “Now those resources are gone.”

For now, Catholic Charities is focusing on immediate relief and support to those operating shelters for evacuees.

Carol Spruell, communications coordinator for Catholic Community Services in Baton Rouge, said the next stage will focus on needs like housing and unemployment.

Despite the organization’s name, its ministry isn’t limited to Catholics, she said. “We do this work not because they are Catholic, but because we are Catholic and that’s what we were called to do.”

Toward that end, the organization served as host for a meeting last week that drew representatives from 120 volunteer organizations to the Catholic Life Center campus. Many of the organizations were not Catholic, including some from Baptist and other evangelical, predominantly black churches, Snyder said.

“We are all helping each other,” Snyder said.

That help sometimes involves local, state and national government, and that too requires attention to communication, he said.

For example, Catholic Charities had access to warehouses of U.S. Department of Agriculture commodities and faced a decision about whether to divert them to hurricane relief, instead of senior adults as designated by the federal government.

Catholic Charities managed to get permission from the federal government to use the commodities, Snyder said.

Even if he occasionally has to push the government to change protocols, he wouldn’t join in the criticism of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“What you have to remember is the first days of the response here were chaotic, because nobody was prepared for the immensity of the destruction or the immensity of the evacuations,” he said.