WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post
By Catherine Ho September 22
In August, when President Obama took the podium in the East Room to announce his plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions, standing behind him was Sister Joan Marie Steadman, head of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the nation’s largest group of Catholic nun leaders.
Steadman didn’t speak, but got a shout-out from the president, who thanked her for helping “rally Catholic women across America to take on climate.”
He added: “And she’s got a pretty important guy on her side. As Pope Francis made clear in his encyclical this summer, taking a stand against climate change is a moral obligation. And Sister Steadman is living up to that obligation every single day.”
The show of solidarity for Obama’s aggressive climate change plan offers a window into the powerful role that Catholic groups, many of which have existed for hundreds of years, play in today’s Washington. Many Catholic advocacy leaders balk at the term “Catholic lobby,” preferring to identify as social justice advocates. But their influence is significant.
As Pope Francis arrives in the nation’s capital, Catholic lobbyists see themselves as pushing for more humane treatment of migrants and rallying against sex trafficking, for example, rather than as traditional Washington power players. But they also weigh in on the nation’s hottest political debates from the environment, to immigration, to health care and abortion rights. Catholics meet regularly with lawmakers and the administration, and their support is coveted — even as polls show Americans are becoming more secular.
“I wouldn’t exactly call it a lobby — none of us are making the big bucks bringing the word of Catholic social teachings to Congress,” said Shaina Aber, policy director for the Jesuit Conference, the largest Catholic male religious order. “But we do coordinate around various issues that are part of our faith tradition.”
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