Welfare in Minnesota
Amidei, Nancy
156 pp.), Forrest D. Colburn gives a bleak report card on caprice of Christian prejudice. How remarkable Rabbi Toaff Sandinista economics - and reports widespread dissatisfac- ...
...The DFL won its point, and no cuts increase...
...NANCY AMIDEI were made in General Assistance in 1986...
...a streetcorner orator, it occurred to where the father was absent, a circumWhen his notorious "Moynihan Re- Moynihan that to explain the plight of stance which, even if racism were to disport" on the black American family, black Americans purely and simply in appear overnight, would leave these 'written for the Johnson administration, terms of white racism might be less than children at a serious competitive disadCommonweal: 262...
...It's going to be spread that by March 19 the legislature dissolved, leaving the tough...
...The political engagement that so many A HONG the least loved, least sympathized with groups in Christians are now recognizing as part of living their faith our society are welfare mothers and, to a lesser but demands a new maturity...
...extradition...
...DFL members on a budget What changed things for welfare families in Minnesota this conference committee refused to consider any cuts in AFDC spring is due in some measure to a role being assumed by benefits, while IR members were equally insistent on some church leaders in matters of social justice...
...a special session of the legislature...
...press...
...Yet, he had sought out this recon- proposed that welfare benefits to dependent children and their ciliation, and now, by the force of his personal presence, he families be cut by 30 percent...
...The members of Catholic Charities' Board, conference of former AFDC recipients (including Secretary of many of whom are Republican, voted unanimously to write to State Joan Growe and Appeals Court Judge Suzanne the legislators on this issue...
...But in fact all these sources show a country...
...In the House, it is the Indehouse of prayer since the apostolic era...
...Since he increasing numbers of poor black chilenough to see the honor at first denied was a sociologist of some reputation, not dren were $rowing up in households him granted at last...
...perfectly illuminating, especially after Of several minds: David R. Carlin, Jr...
...hope will only mature after many willing acts of change...
...afford to recognize the WELFARE IN MINNESOTA Nicaraguan reality in its full and disturbing messiness...
...This proposed cut was so steep, was demonstrating before the world the respect Christians and its likely impact so harsh, that Archbishop John Roach, on must bear Jews - a respect necessarily wedded to, and born behalf of Minnesota's Catholic bishops, immediately issued a of, repentance...
...that explanation had been repeated for the ten-thousandth time, as it had been by 1965...
...tion...
...to speak out...
...willingness to investigate and underline realities regardless of Yahel Yisrael el Adonai...
...Nancy Amidei frequently reports on poverty, hunger, and The differences between 1985, when General Assistance human services issues in these pages...
...United Way broke a long-held tradition of political bishops' pastoral on the economy which, "sensitized a lot of neutrality to oppose the cuts...
...Welfareengage the truth, the whole truth...
...rights in Nicaragua when it concludes that the abuses it cites by If we take the pope at his word, we must acknowledge the both Sandinistas and contras "cannot be justified by military anti-Jewishness that scars so much of Christian history...
...The answer must be yes...
...Reluctant to 9 May 1986: 261 appear self-serving, Levine invited local Catholic, Lutheran, was cut, and 1986, when not cutting AFDC became the issue and Jewish leaders to join him at each meeting...
...Isolated gestures will not suffice...
...The victims are the people of Nicaragua...
...revilement...
...Among the most important of these secondary causes was the relative DANIEL Patrick Moynihan is one of appeared in 1965, both the report and its weakness of a disproportionate number those rare prophets without honor author were denounced - "trashed" of black American families...
...for gubernatorial candidates as well as legislators, are instrucSoon afterward, Monsignor Jerome Boxleitner, Archdioce- tive...
...In February, with a state deficit he had made remarks which seemed to diminish the strength of looming, twenty-five-year-old IR House member Joel Carlson Vatican II's Nostra Aetate...
...It is like most of its Central American neighbors...
...He was speaking to the world, for federal help) succeeded...
...Unhappiness over the issue was so wide- "We've only won the battle, not the war...
...For in its messiness, Nicaragua is A BATTLE TAKES SHAPE like many of the issues religious activists confront...
...He writes of "the disenchantment of the rural poor...
...But is it a realistic lesson for those Americans struggling to convince their fellow citizens that our government's support of Church & politics the contra war is a cruel folly...
...We are not in a position to say that one side's eliminate the historic "teaching of contempt," we must be abuses are worse than another's . . . They must all be con- straightforward in our repentance...
...near obliteration...
...who had written the Romans that the Jews are "beloved of (Lutherans and Catholics make up 60 percent of the state's God, called by an irrevocable call...
...Let Israel hope in the Lord" how they may fit preconceptions or serve in the melees of (Psalm 131...
...Ostracism...
...and present "the true face of Judaism . . . at Perhaps Americas Watch is wrong in its latest report on human every level of outlook, teaching, and communication...
...Important though...
...It is like most of the strife-ridden world...
...Two rallies of Monsignor Boxleitner agrees...
...Pope John Paul II invoked pendent Children) benefits by 30 percent...
...If the DFL agenda echoes the church's cutting the deals, that's just politics,' we said, `This isn't a concern, you should know that we in the church were there time for politics as usual...
...it's wrong to gang up on women and kids...
...May their tribe reduction, however small...
...Even after the pope's addemned...
...We don't want to pretend that wide open questions dress, Cardinal Glemp could still remark in France that Polish don't exist about Nicaragua, particularly under the guise of anti-Semitism is but "a myth" created by enemies of his urging a real will to inquire...
...Large and who has managed to live long might be a better word for it...
...But what have these population...
...state without a budget until Governor Rudy Perpich convened We ought to be there...
...Let us all hope in the Lord, knowing that such political propaganda...
...But we're talking about justice, about a moral issue...
...Can they - can we...
...For those among us who believe that diplomatic trade-offs do exist which could protect the U.S.'s real interests and dampen the conflagration in Central America...
...However, Boxleitner points out, Sedgwick) was held...
...that necessity...
...that oppressors are the Nicaraguan government, the contras, and beclouds our very Scriptures...
...To explain the impact of the proposed cuts, Minnesota's persecution...
...Behold, how good and how pleasant legislative proposal to cut AFDC (Aid to Families with Deit is for brethren to dwell in unity...
...When some moderate IR members said, `You always Democratic party [and] the Republican party...
...undertake paths scarcely begun to "remove all forms But perhaps Colburn is wrong...
...As a result, people in sion on Social Justice analysis of the cuts and "Call to Action" the pews "basically supported" the church's vocal opposition appeared on the front page of the Catholic Bulletin...
...tianity...
...It demands a willingness to seek and not insignificant degree, their children...
...white racism had been and still was as the ultimate source A SECOND COMING of black disabilities and black-white inMOYNIHAN & THE FAMILY equalities, still, Moynihan believed, this ultimate source worked through secondary causes...
...Until now...
...If John Paul II's visit is to help the United States...
...Protest continued to arise across the state...
...The legislators remarked that in the state concede it made them look foolish...
...you can't first...
...the Catholic bishops' Commis- people to this and other justice issues...
...Last year's efforts to cut back last month in their ancient synagogue...
...beloved received from our hearts, from our hands...
...Even in Commissioner for Human Services, Leonard Levine, wanted Rome, they have been made recurrently vulnerable to the to hold meetings in six sites around the state...
...bashing has become such a politically and socially popular sport in recent years that few voices have been raised in the defense of welfare families...
...statement opposing the measure...
...their continues to be present, despite reforms, in our liturgy...
...Accounts of the meeting later appeared under headlines play politics with children's lives.' " Catholics in particular, which read: "Five legislators tell church to mind its own Horowitz feels, helped establish the sense that this was a time business...
...It Yet, they have, and the pope in turn told Catholics what has apparently escaped the hearing of too many well- must be done: recognize that Judaism is intrinsic to Chrisintentioned travelers...
...The IR members That same afternoon, Monsignor Habiger fired off an angry stressed welfare, and we [the JRLC] stressed what the cuts response...
...This year, he says "we had women and children took place at the Capitol rotunda, one of our act together," a situation he believes was helped by the which drew 1200 people...
...We changed the terms of the but, "This activity [speaking up for the poor] antedated the debate...
...If recent history is these words of Psalm 133 when he spoke to the Jews of Rome any guide, it should have passed...
...and a press to the welfare cuts...
...The majority party in the Minnesota Senate is the DemoThis was the first time a Roman pontiff had entered a Jewish cratic Farm Labor party (DFL...
...AFDC is above politics...
...BELOVED -OF COD' That "now" arrived in Minnesota this spring with a state Hineh mah tov...
...of prejudice...
...not just by suggest a high number, knowing you'll settle for less after years but by centuries...
...Several months before, pendent Republican (IR...
...While it's true that mothers with children tend to enjoy san Director of Catholic Charities, and Monsignor James greater public support than other people who get General Habiger of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, attended a Assistance, this year's proposal was so harsh that Republicans meeting with five IR members...
...How remarkable Rabbi Toaff Sandinista economics - and reports widespread dissatisfac- and the Jews of Rome would welcome a pope to their temple...
...Not only were they not unknowing dupes, he said, would do to women and children...
...Perhaps Sheehan is wrong...
...Archbishop Roach's stateAs the pope noted in his address, it was the Apostle Paul ment was quickly endorsed by Lutheran leaders in the state...
...major editorials appeared in the local strong response of Archbishop Roach, and by the U.S...
...They did...
...His action in going there on state welfare aid in Minnesota (for those who don't qualify was as eloquent as his message...
...They teach us a lesson...
...But, more the churches were being "unknowingly used by the DFL" in important, according to Sam Horowitz of the Joint Religious the welfare controversy, that the churches should do more for Legislative Coalition, was the role of the religious communithe poor on their own, and that they should not "mix govern- ty's effort in setting the tone: "They may not like welfare, but ment with religion...
...and it was an occasion of grace...
Vol. 113 • May 1986 • No. 9
