Keeping the faith in political life
Maryland Catholic Conference invites candidates to campaign
training sessions
Catholic Review
The Maryland Catholic Conference ( MCC) is looking for
committed Catholics who want to run for public office.
Richard J. Dowling, MCC executive director, said his public
policy advocacy group will offer a first-ever series of candidate-training workshops this fall.
Catholics considering a run for
public office will learn how to get their message out, how to
raise money, how to organize a campaign team, how to
communicate with the media and how to recruit volunteers, Mr.
Dowling said.
“We’re looking for women and men who might consider
elective office as a kind of ministry, an opportunity to merge an
interest in politics with Gospel-driven, faith-illuminated
values,” said Mr. Dowling, who represents the state’s Catholic
bishops in Annapolis.
Mr. Dowling is also looking for Catholics who would like to
work for candidates who exhibit Catholic values. The training
initiative will be “strictly nonpartisan,” Mr. Dowling said. Should
they run for public office, participants will be required to pledge
that they will not advertise their conference workshop
involvement in their campaign materials. “We’re looking for
Catholics who abide church teaching and see the connection
between that teaching and the issues being considered in the
public debate,” he said.
“We don’t care whether they’re Democrats or Republicans.
What we do care about is that they are people who believe as
we do that faith motivations and moral values are not as
welcome as they should be in the public square, and who want
to do something to change that.”
Mr. Dowling said people with campaign experience in the two
major parties have offered to help train participants.
The training sessions are targeted at individuals who are
motivated by their Catholic faith, he added.
“We have no interest in helping elect people who aren’t
going to hold up the banner of church teaching,” he said.
“We’re not saying that Maryland Catholic officeholders fail to
reflect Catholic values and the shared values of the people who
elect them,” Mr. Dowling added.
“There are a good many such people. What we are saying is that there aren’t enough of them.
There’s no question but that we have the right to try to change
that. It seems to me that we also have a responsibility to do
so.”
The workshops will be held at sites throughout Maryland.
For more information,
contact Gina Maclean at 410-269-1155 or 301-261-1979.
‘We have no interest in helping elect people who aren’t going
to hold up the banner of church teaching.’