!: i ¸
The Message -- for Catholics of Southwestern Indiana
-- Taking the time to make a difference --
Take a stand for children
At the heart of the Christian
Family Movement is the call to
"observe, judge and act." It often eas-
ier -- much, much easier -- to
observe and judge, than it is to act.
Take these statistics, for exam-
ple, from the Children's Defense
Fund.
• Ten million children in the
United States have not basic health
coverage. Nine in ten of them live in
working families.
• Every two minutes, a child is
born at low birth-weight. That is,
one in 14 children born in the United
States.
By PAUL
R. LEINGANG
EDITOR
Who can possibly feed the four
million children under 12 who go
hungry for at least part'of the
year? Who can comfort so many
millions of children afflicted by
drugs, violence and neglect?
We can.
We can if we -- each one of us
and all of us -- observe the world
immediately around us and ask: Is
what we see in accord with what
Jesus wants for the world? If not,
then the call to the committed
Christian is to act to do the work of
Jesus today.
• Every three minutes a child is born to a On June 1, the Children's Defense Fund is
mother who received only late pre-natal care, or no sponsoring the second annual "Stand for Children"
pre-natal care at all. That is one in 21 children in Day. Events are being organized at locations
the United States.
• Every four minutes a child is arrested for
drug abuse.
• Every five minutes a child is arrested for a
violent crime.
• Every 92 minutes a child is killed by
-throughout the United States to focus attention on
children's health needs.
Take the time today to examine the health
needs of children in your home town or City, or at
your parish or school.
firearms. One of every 610 children will be killed by
a gun before the age of 20.
As expressed by the Christian Family Move-
ment, the Gospel challenge is to observe the world
around you, judge what you see by the light of
Christ's teaching, and then act to make the world
better.
Ask other families in Your neighborhood to
make the same examination. Then determine what
you can do to make life better for a child.
$ , $
The Children's Defense Fund suggests some
possible ways to act:
• Clean out your pantry and your children's
closets. Donate non-perishable
clothes your children no longer wear
ter.
• Shop for extra school supplieswhen]
the store; give them to a shelter. .....
• Spend extra time
dren. Take them to a library, museum
• Donate "gently-used" chil
books to hospitals or clinics in your
• Collect
family; give them to a local charity.
• Volunteer to tutor or mentor
evening a week.
• Clip coupons from your
donate them to a women's shelter
organization that serves children.
• Write a letter to the editor of a lo
per about the needs to provide health
the 10 million uninsured children in this!
• Work with your parish or
establish a safe haven for children after
weekends or during summer.
• Clean up the playgrounds in
hood. Clean up a vacant lot.
• Organize an immuniz
make sure children get all the
need.
Take the time to stand for children.
Comments about this column are
prleing@cfm.org or the Christian Ft
P.O. Box 272;Ames, Iowa 50010.
------Washington Letter
Fixing the welfare fix: States, Congress and immig
By PATRICIA ZAPOR
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -
Heart-wrenching tales have
echoed in state and federal hear-
ing rooms since last summer, as
more than a million legal immi-
grants face the cutoff of benefits
under last year's welfare law.
Immigrants and long-term
refugees who received food
stamps already lost them April
I and the elderly or disabled
immigrants who receive Supple-
The MESSAGE
4200 N, Kentucky Ave.
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Published weeldy except last week in
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• JlJl t. JJ
mental Security Income and the United States more than 20 budget, public pressure will lead also behind what t
Medicaid are due to be cut offin
August.
Social service agencies are
struggling to help panicked
immigrants understand what is
happening, while food pantries
and emergency programs are
gearing UP for an expected flood
of newly needy people.
But since the law passed,
advocates for immigrants and
the poor have rallied to put
human faces and stories on the
attempt by Congress to reduce
welfare costs by cutting benefits
to legal immigrants.
Adding to the pressure is the
fact that prominent Republican
politicians, like New York Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani, and many
governors are among the most
vocal critics of the immigrant
provisions of the welfare bill.
The result so far has been bits
of progress in the new federal
budget agreement and decisions
by nearly every state to at least
temporarily provide for some of
their most needy immigrants.
As of May 16, both the House
and Senate seemed ready to
spend $240 million to extend the
SSI cutoffdate fromAugust to the
end of the fiscal year in October,
time that would be spent working
on a longer-term solution.
Stories like those of Mendel
Tsadovich and Martha Que
Pham are why a Congress that
was so quick to cut off immi-
grants from their benefits last
August is backpedaling so soon.
Tsadovich, a Holocaust sur-
vivor from Latvia who has out-
lived his relatives, is too severe-
ly retarded to pass the test to
become a U.S. citizen.
AS a noncitizen who has been S
here longer than five years, the
welfare law says that beginning
in August he no longer will
receive the SSI that currently
supports him.
Martha Que Pham, a Viet-
namese refugee who has lived in
years, has become a citizen. But
her middle-aged son, who has
Down's Syndrome and receives
SSI, has been turned down for
naturalization twice.
Although Pham is over 65 and
retired, she said at an April press
conference sponsored by the
National Immigration Forum
that without SSI and Medicaid
for her son, she will have to go
back to work -- if she can get
hired to support him.
Advocates for immigrants and
refugees hoped the Tsadovich
and Pham situations would be
addressed in the budget agree-
ment announced May 2.
The original budget proposed
by President Clinton exempted
children and disabled immi-
grants from SSI and Medicaid
cuts and extended the cutoff date
for food stamp recipients. It
appeared some of those measures
were in the congressional-admin-
istration budget agreement.
But Abby Price, who monitors
legislation for the U.S. Catholic
Conference's Migration and
Refugee Services, said May 15
that as the budget details were
worked out, many "fixes" dwin-
dled away. Medicaid coverage for
immigrant children isn't includ-
ed at all and provisions restor-
ing some immigrants' SSI don't
apply to some of the neediest
people, Price said.
For instance, Tsadovich was
classified as being disabled when
he arrived in the United States. If
he had become disabled after his
arrival, he would be eligible for
SSI under the budget agreement.
Because he is unable to com-
plete the requirements for citi-
zenship, he will he disqualified
from SSI, along with many elder-
ly immigrants who have been
here longer than the new seven-
year window of eligibility.
Price said she's hopeful that
as congressional committees
draft the bills to implement the
to the restoration of SSI benefits
for people like Tsadovich.
In the meantime, 45 states
and the District of Columbia
have agreed to make sure at
least some of the affected immi-
grants don't wind up living on
the streets.
So far, only Alabama has
approved a welfare program with
no safety net for immigrants cut
off under the federal changes,
said Ann Morse, program man-
ager for the Immigration Policy
Project of the National Council of
State Legislators.
Most states that have general
assistance -- welfare fi)r people
without children -- will ()pen the
program to the immigrants, she
said. Morse estimated that in
those states, about half of the
immigrants who are losing their
federal benefits will fall into
some kirld of state safety net.
The personal stories that are
convincing members of Congress
to rethink the welfare cuts are
doing.
An
ma
cuts
chusetts
With
resentative
and
Catholic Char
diocese
"It
vincing,"
after House
Finneran s
did az
matic speech
encouraging
gram to
In a
that covers e
SSI
food b
all catego!
grants
See
5 ! : i ¸ : i
: :: : / i ! !i !i i ¸ :
Graduation, Washington Catholic
urday, May 24, 7:30 p.m.
Confirmation, Sts. Peter and ,
day, May 25, 10 a.m.
Graduation, Menorial
Vanderburgh Auditorium, Sunday,
Graduation, Mater Dei High
Vanderburgh Auditorium S
Catholic Charities
Building, Evansville,
Personnel Board Meeting,
day, May 28, 12:30 p.m.
Finance Council, Catholic center,
28, 3:30 p.m.
Council of Priests Meeting, (
May 30, 1:30 p.m.
Graduation, Rivet High School, ::
p.m., St. John Church, Vincennes.
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