Catholics from Yreka to San Diego came to Sacramento united by a solitary mission: to give voice to the human dignity of the living, the dying, and the marginalized.

Nearly 800 joined together April 25 for Catholic Lobby Day, sponsored by the California Catholic Conference, the public policy office of the state’s Catholic bishops.

The event at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament included a Mass, a march to the state Capitol and a rally, followed by visits to legislators and their staffs.

Auxiliary Bishop Jaime Soto of Orange in a homily challenged Lobby Day participants from 12 dioceses to approach the day as believers in a “culture of life” which begins as a “covenant of love.”

“Too often we can allow ourselves and the Gospel we proclaim to be defined by what we are against,” he said. “Our message should be a hymn to a new creation of society in California that promotes the culture of life, the ways of wisdom, the habits of harmony, and the dance of dignity.”

The California Catholic Conference asked participants to focus their efforts on four bills before the Legislature, including measures to legalize assisted suicide, place a moratorium on the death penalty, increase the minimum wage, and assist in naturalization funding.

Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the Conference, said in an interview the issues chosen preserve human dignity by reflecting “a consistent ethic of respect for life,” protecting the rights of immigrants “who work hard and are on track for citizenship,” and by “valuing people for their time and work.”

One bill given priority concern is AB 651, the California Compassionate Choice Act, which would legalize physician-assisted suicide for people diagnosed with a terminal illness who have six months or less to live.

Dolejsi said that AB 651 is not about having compassion for people who are dying.

“It’s about autonomy, pure and simple,” he said. “That some people should have the right, the personal privilege of having someone assist them in killing themselves we would separate from…options like good palliative care and hospice, being surrounded by a community of people who care and love them at the end of life.”

Mary Hopp, a member of Holy Trinity Parish in El Dorado Hills, and Bill Hallerman, a member of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Carmichael, were among a delegation from the Diocese of Sacramento lobbying against AB 651 .

During a visit to the office of Assemblyman Alan Nakanishi, (R-Lodi,) the delegation met briefly with legislative aide Jeff Caligiuri.

“I’m against the death penalty, and against people making a decision (for others) to die,” said Hopp, who was pleased to learn that Nakanishi was opposed to physician-assisted suicide and for protecting life.

Participants also lobbied in favor of AB 2060, called The New Californians Act. The bill would require the Department of Community Services and Development to implement the Naturalization Services Program by allocating funds to community-based organizations to provide free naturalization services.

Currently there are 2.7 million immigrants in the state eligible for naturalization but not enough services to assist them through the naturalization process.

Among those in support of AB 2060 is Alberto Velazquez, lead organizer with North Valley Sponsoring Committee, one of a group of community organizers from St. Isidore Parish in Yuba City. Velazquez said the naturalization bill offers hope to a long line of immigrants waiting to become citizens.

“We as Catholics need to support (AB 2060), so those who want but don’t have the right to vote will feel the dignity of voting and deciding laws as citizens,” he said.

Steve Pehanich, executive director of Catholic Charities of California, said in an interview that issues of trust and affordability have made negotiating the naturalization process a complicated affair for many legal immigrants.

“As a new immigrant you’re not sure what services are available for you and may not want to ask for services because it might affect your immigration status,” he said. “You go with people you trust, and a lot of people trust their religious organizations.”

Pehanich added that if AB 2060 passes, community-based organizations such as Catholic Charities of California will be positioned to dramatically improve the cost-effectiveness of services to immigrants.

“There are unscrupulous providers who charge $1,500 to $2,000 for a service Catholic Charities provides for a few hundred dollars a person,” he said.

A third Lobby Day priority bill is AB 1835, which would raise the state minimum wage from $6.75 per hour to $7.75 per hour over two years and index wages after that to inflation.

California currently has more than 1.4 million workers who earn at or near the state’s current minimum wage, which with a full-time annual wage of $14,040 is below the federal poverty standard for a family of three or four.

Conrrada Valenzuela, a farm worker in the Coachella Valley and single mother of four, told Lobby Day participants that no matter how hard or long she works, it’s never enough to take care of the needs of her family. “We have the right to ask for justice,” she said.

Another participant, Jorge Aleman, is a member of St. Isidore Parish and attends Yuba City College while working at a part-time job to help support his family. He said that even working eight hours a day “you can’t survive” (on minimum wage.)

“What people fail to grasp is the struggle of families trying to live on the current minimum wage,” Dolejsi said in an interview. “Some erroneously feel it only impacts children.”

AB 2266, which places a moratorium on the death penalty in California, also received considerable Lobby Day support. The bill would halt executions until certain criteria are met and would become effective when approved by California voters.

Current state law provides the penalty for a defendant found guilty of murder in the first degree, where special circumstances exist, is death or imprisonment in state prison for life. Since the early 1970s, 119 people on death rows in the United States have been exonerated, six wrongfully convicted in California.

Among supporters of a moratorium on the death penalty is Micaela Treanor, a sophomore at Notre Dame High School in Riverside, one of a 29-member delegation led by religion teacher Jose Guzman.

Treanor views a moratorium on the death penalty as a critical first step in eliminating the death penalty in California. “That people would be executed who could possibly be innocent is just a horrible thought,” she said.

Treanor, whose 30-year-old brother was murdered when she was in seventh grade, said that incident helped to change her view on use of the death penalty.

“Being in such a tragedy… hit my family extremely hard,” she said. “However, my mother tells us all the time, ‘You know, it is in God’s hands. There is human fault.’(Healing) takes a lot of praying.”

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