Convention seeks "common good" platform for 2008 elections

Social Justice News
March 26, 2008

Convention seeks "common good" platform for 2008 elections
Washington, DC — In this election year, when political candidates are courting Catholics and other Americans of faith as key swing voters, representatives from more than 20 religious and social justice organizations will gather in Philadelphia this July for an unprecedented Convention for the Common Good. For the first time, Catholic and interfaith organizations will meet and ratify a Platform for the Common Good that will be sent to presidential candidates and both national political parties as a way to influence the debate over the defining moral and political issues of our time.

More than 600 delegates from faith communities and social justice organizations will attend the convention, July 11-13, at the Sheraton Philadelphia City Center Hotel. Religious leaders, social justice advocates, elected officials and the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates have been invited to attend. Leading up to the national gathering, participating organizations as well as individuals will be asked to convene local groups around the country to develop the platform on such diverse issues as health care, immigration, economic inequality and foreign policy. The platform will be ratified at the convention and submitted to the Republican and Democratic National Committees.

The convention is being convened by Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby that represents 100,000 members. (Below is a complete list of the convention’s sponsoring organizations.)

“Our goal is to reclaim the best of our country’s idealism and demand that elected leaders resolve the most pressing needs of our times in the light of Catholic Social Tradition. At the Convention we will adopt a Platform for the Common Good that we can use to ensure that politicians address our most pressing issues” said Sr. Simone Campbell, SSS, executive director, NETWORK.

“This convention will help forge a new vision for America that refocuses our values and policies on the common good and away from the politics of division,” said Alexia Kelley, executive director, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.

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