Happy New Year from Catholic Conscience
Happy and Blessed New Year!
To all who have accompanied us on this year’s journey, we write today in heartfelt thanks for an overwhelming 2019. Really, the input you provided and the success it enabled were beyond reasonable expectation. Thanks to you, we are ready to launch Catholic Conscience as a year-round effort throughout the election cycle: we are ready to inspire, engage, form, and send Catholics into the world for gentle civic participation on a continuous basis.
Thanks to you,
- The Archdiocese of Toronto hosted a remarkably successful all-parties meeting for October’s federal election.
- The Diocese of Saskatoon worked with us to improve our platform summaries, and to share them with dozens of parishes in Saskatchewan.
- More than 1,000 variations of our Conscience Card platform summaries were downloaded before the election.
- Through our Catholic Action pilot program for getting out the vote, we collected hundreds of pledge signatures, and distributed more than 2,000 pledge and prayer cards for the election.
- We provided items to both the Catholic Register and the B.C. Catholic for publication.
- We were introduced to dozens of candidates, contacts, and organizations interested in bringing the full range of Catholic social teaching to the center of social discourse.
With your prayers, in 2020 we plan to:
- Initiate new processes for engaging Catholics, and others of good will, in cooperation with more than a dozen partner organizations.
- Continue forming and sending Catholics, and others of good will, for civic participation by:
- offering new and updated seminars and on-line materials examining the relationships between civic processes and Catholic social teaching,
- hosting workshops and round-table discussions of issues of concern for the common good,
- reaching out to support Catholic candidates for public office, and
- sharing news and information concerning opportunities, developments, and new initiatives through a regular newsletter,
- etc., etc.
Want to help? Write to us, and pray with us, please:
Most Gentle Shepherd, we pray for your guidance as we attempt to gently gather your scattered sheep, and to bring them together for the good of all. Help us as we attempt to answer your call, so that we might learn to respect all life and all creation, and to assist one another in finding our ways home to you.
We ask this through your most powerful and gentle name.
Want to stay informed? Watch your e-mail and social media boxes, and reach out to us, anytime!
With prayers of gratitude and hope for the future,
Matthew & Brendan